Funny Scary Sad Maybe

Funny Scary

This link is to a very funny flash animation, sponsored by the ACLU. It's funny and it's scary; scary because it's true, and funny because it's scary (laughter being, after all, the shock of recognition). It wouldn't take much for this animation to move from satire to documentary.

Sad Maybe

Senator Russell Feingold on Monday introduced a resolution in the Senate, calling for the censure of President Bush over the NSA's illegal wiretapping. This drew the expected response from Republicans; but, sadly, it has also drawn no support whatsoever from Feingold's fellow Democrats. (Or rather, non-support support: a condescending indulgence, as if the other Senators are older and wiser, while Sen. Feingold is too naive to know any better.)

Me, I think it's a pretty good idea. I am already on record as opposing impeachment proceedings against the President, and that opinion hasn't changed; but censure is a good idea, a proportional response if you will, calling out the President on his illegal activities without the wrenching upset of impeachment. It has no practical value but it would have some political impact, and would (ideally) represent a clear statement that presidents must observe the rule of law.

(Of course you know how the argument will run: eventually, after years of court fights, the NSA's warrantless domestic wiretapping will in fact be ruled unconstitutional; but because the President ran the program through the White House counsel's office, he has his cover already in place: his lawyers may have been adjudged wrong, but proving they acted in bad faith is nearly impossible, and since the President acted on advice of counsel he cannot be held officially culpable. That, practically speaking, is why impeachment will never work; it also suggests that, with someone sufficiently pliable as White House counsel--and Harriet Myers is certainly that--a president can essentially break any law he wants and then he claims he did so in good faith, on advice of counsel. This is particularly pernicious, and I see no way of stopping it.)

The censure resolution will probably fail, which is sad; but it has made me sit up and take notice of Senator Feingold, and I find him to be, in the 2008 presidental sweepstakes, a serious Maybe. Republicans immediately suggested that his censure resolution was a stunt to improve his presidential aspirations; if it was, it worked. But his history suggests that all along he has been a maverick following his own conscience, frequently voting against the Democratic majority, making his censure resolution seem completely in keeping with the character of the man. Obviously it's a long, long way till the 2008 elections, and there are other Maybes to consider, Wesley Clark and Joe Biden in particular. (Even Al Gore, if he can be induced to try again.) But Sen. Feingold seems immune to the sort of pandering that has so infected Hillary Clinton of late, and in my book that stands as a huge plus in his column.