Feingold still believes in bipartisanship
Podcast Episode
JANESVILLE — Bipartisanship has taken a beating in the last few years, but Sen. Russ Feingold still believes it’s necessary, he said.
“I believe in it so much that the Republican nominee’s biggest problem is that he’s got my name attached to him,” he joked Saturday morning at the Janesville Municipal Building.
About 25 Rock County residents turned out to speak to the Democratic senator and Janesville native.
Feingold has been visiting each of the state’s 72 counties once a year since he took office 15 years ago. Each resident was able to discuss one issue with the senator during Saturday’s session, ranging from gas mileage standards to loan forgiveness for veterinarians.
The audience’s concerns mirrored the major political issues of the country: Speakers mentioned health care, education, the economy and the war in Iraq.
There was Tia Johnson, 38, Beloit, who for the past four years has stayed home with her children but had to take a job this year as a substitute teacher to make ends meet. She urged Feingold to push for smaller class sizes.
Or Larry Harding, 57, Hanover, whose brother Floyd stepped on a land mine in Vietnam and now might lose some of his veterans benefits.
Feingold fiercely criticized the Bush administration, especially regarding the war in Iraq and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is up for renewal next week.
But he also emphasized his work with Republican presidential nominee John McCain, calling their campaign finance reform law “the most famous bipartisan bill in the last 25 years.”
He described five more initiatives he is working on with Republicans:
-- Health care. Feingold is working with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, on a pilot program that would set up universal health care in three to five states, he said.
-- No Child Left Behind.
“I think this bill is a real mess,” Feingold said. “This thing needs to be changed, or we’re just going to have people teaching to the test.”
-- Public campaign funding. The public finance laws are outdated, Feingold said. In the past, elections weren’t about which candidate could raise more money, he said.
-- Clean water.
“The Clean Water Act has been the key to cleaning up the waters of this country for all these years … but a couple of recent Supreme Court decisions have really weakened that authority,” Feingold said.
-- The “Janesville line-item veto.” In April, Feingold introduced a bill with Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, also a Janesville native, to curb so-called “pork-barrel” spending.
The legislation would allow the president to identify spending tucked into a bill that doesn’t relate to the main purpose of the bill. He would then send those sections of the bill back to Congress for a separate vote.
Feb 11, 2008 at 8:26 a.m.
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Billnewbie-Feingold called for censure, not impeachment. That would have sent the message that Bush/Cheney did something wrong, without having to go through the long, divisive process of impeachment.
Feb 10, 2008 at 4:35 p.m.
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Bi-partisanship isn't something that resides in on person. It's respect for another's opinion and the awareness that I don't know everything and may benefit from your point of view. To paraphrase Patrick Henry, I believe, I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. Compare that to the partisan efforts of some to shut up people they don't agree with.
Feb 10, 2008 at 4:33 p.m.
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bill......nice point! you are correct sir! feingold should practice what he preaches regarding bipartisanship. he has shown to be far, far from it. it seems to me he has attempted to enter the national scene and leave wisconsin behind. his little speech at the university of southern california was a doozie!!! very partisan. this guy's ideas really do scare me.
Feb 10, 2008 at 4:21 p.m.
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Freud aside (for he has been suffciently debunked), is it possible to be bipartisan?
Don't a person's politics indicate his or her character? Don't political differnces merely amount to personality clashes? Don't the posts below prove this point?
What are my politics?
Feb 10, 2008 at 4:07 p.m.
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NVgrf:
Your Poison Pen Proves my Point.
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:40 p.m.
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I guess a Cigar is just a cigar.
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:45 p.m.
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Nice effort Bill, but about what I would expect from a bitter Republican only a few feet from the end of the plank. But I do like the lack of capitalizing "President" when referring to Bush!! Appropriate, if not Freudian!
Feb 10, 2008 at 9:38 a.m.
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The political atmosphere in this country is poisonous. People on either side of the issues think that people of the opposite opinion are evil. The rich are characterized as greedy, the poor as lazy. Many expect politicians to solve their problems, and when people expect something to happen, they soon begin to believe they have a right to it. Then when the political realities deny the expected results, victimhood is claimed by the jilted, fanning the flames of partisanship. These phenomena are not limited to one side or the other. Senator Feingold has contributed to this political stalemate with his own call for impeaching the president for what he views as bad policy, which is not an impeachable offense. He may claim the president lied, a claim very much in despute, but we impeach politicians for lying in office by voting for someone else, which we had opportunity to do in 2004, yet the president was re-elected. His call to bi-partisanship has a ring of disingenuousness to it. Remember, the previous president was impeached for lying in office and that failed miserably. And he lied in court, under oath. What bi-partisan goal did the senator attempt to achieve with his call for impeacment? We need to flush out the established politicans who preach bi-partisaship but practice something very different.
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