An interesting article today from The Hill speculates that the new head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could be our own  senator, Russ Feingold. Sounds good to us.

Update: Former AG Lautenschlager: Van Hollen wants to suppress voters

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Vote Early Rally with Russ Feingold.
UW-Stout, Memorial Student Center
Crystal Ballroom C
302 10th Ave E
Menomonie, WI

Video of Russ Feingold introducing Barack Obama recently in Green Bay.

I can never resist an alliterative headline.

Russ is almost always right, and in this case he's right on the money.

This morning, the Senate starts debating legislation to expand the government's surveillance powers.

Unfortunately, the bill we are going to be considering is the one
reported out by the Senate Intelligence Committee in October, S. 2248.
It did not have to be this way. Thirteen Senators joined me last week
in asking the Majority Leader to instead bring up a bill that includes the changes approved by the Judiciary Committee
last month. That bill, while not perfect by any means, was the product
of an open process and heeded the advice of many experts and advocates
to provide greater protection for the international communications of
innocent Americans. And, unlike the Intelligence Committee bill, the
Judiciary bill does not provide automatic, retroactive immunity for
companies alleged to have cooperated with the administration's illegal
warrantless wiretapping program.

Read more at the TPM Cafe.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a fund-raiser for our senator Feingold. (disclosure note - I was also one of the sponsors of the fundraiser). It was a lovely evening, and I had a chance to talk to the Senator about Uppity Wisconsin.  There may be more news about that later, I hope.

The senator spoke on several topics, including the joy of having worked on passing an ethics reform bill that succeeded in having Trent Lott resign rather than be subject to the new rules.  Sadly, that means one more powerful congressperson making the trip though the revolving door to K street, but perhaps he'll be one of the last.

Much of his talk was spent discussing how the Democrats in Washington have not been as ineffective as many of us want to make out. This is true, but it's also certainly the case that we have not seen the kinds of massive changes that we had hoped for after the last election.  Certainly if more congress representatives had as much backbone as Senator Feingold, things would be progressing more quickly.

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Republican Senators made the Iraq war their own on Wednesday when they refused to pass a bill simply guaranteeing our troops a reasonable respite between repeated tours in Iraq.

We've been calling it Bush's war, but GOP Senators have made certain that their support of Bush's war will be the main issue in Senate races in 2008.

They are very nervous about that prospect, and with good reason. By huge margins, the voters want that war to end and our troops to come home.

Republicans had a chance Wednesday to show they support the troops, as they always claim. Instead, they supported the President.

Now, looking for cover, they have thrown a smoke grendade in the direction of MoveOn, the liberal group that dared to question whether Gen. David Patraeus was fudging the numbers in his report to the Congress last week.

MoveOn's choice of language in its full page NY Times ad, calling him "General Betray Us," set many teeth on edge. I was one who said I wished the attack had not been personal.  I also said that having stars on your shoulders doesn't make you infallible; it just makes you think you are.

But, as Bush and the Republicans like to remind us, this is war. People are dying every day. If it takes ruffling a general's feathers to get some attention, so be it. Service members are dying to protect our right to freely express ourselves, even in unpopular or distasteful ways.

Or is the First Amendment off the list of things they are defending?

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... and that's a good thing.

The maverick senator, subject of a new biography, is the latest embodiment of a long and unique Wisconsin tradition.

Salon has the story.