One man with courage is a majority.
—Thomas Jefferson
I’m pretty certain that when Jefferson came up with those words, he was hoping for some sort of righteousness in the majority-of-one’s endeavors. And then, sometimes, there’s the likes of Sen. Feingold and his one-man political assault on President Bush.
A U.S. senator has put forward a resolution to censure President George W. Bush for ordering the wiretapping of some American phone conversations without a court warrant.
Senator Russell Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, accused Bush on Monday of breaking the law and misleading the American public.
The resolution calls on the Senate to condemn Bush’s “unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans within the United States without obtaining the court orders required.”
[…]
The five-page resolution accuses the president of violating the U.S. Constitution and the country’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The only U.S. president ever censured by the Senate was Andrew Jackson in 1834.
[…]
Last December, Americans learned of a secret domestic surveillance program conducted by the U.S. National Security Agency.
The revelation caused an uproar and triggered questions about limiting Bush’s broad scope to govern.
Bush defended the program as a “vital tool” and said the spying was only on known operatives of al-Qaeda and its affiliates and only on communications going in and out of the U.S., not within the country.
“I re-authorized this program 30 times since 9/11 and I intend to do so as long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens, Bush said.
Feingold is considered a possible for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
Can this one man become the bedrock of a majority? Well, it seems highly unlikely as his fellow Democratic senators are rushing to not stand by his side.
- The Feingold Resolution and the Sound of Silence
- Democratic leaders shy away from censure plan
- Democrats Beat Quick Retreat on Call to Censure President
- Democrats Tepid on Censure, Say the Debt Is the Threat
Feingold has responded by expressing dismay at the response, accusing his fellow Dems of reacting out of fear.
Sen. Russell Feingold on Tuesday blamed fellow Democrats for inaction on his stalled resolution to censure President Bush for his authorizing the National Security Agency’s electronic terrorist surveillance program.
“I’m amazed at Democrats … cowering with this president’s numbers so low,” said Feingold, D-Wis. “The administration … just has to raise the specter of the War on Terror, and Democrats run and hide.”
Well, that should rally the troops.
It is my view that, rather than acting with righteousness, Feingold’s maneuver is one of erroneous self-righteous grandstanding. His own words make it clear — attack the president now, not for the sake of the nation or our security but rather because his numbers are low and it’s an opportunistic time.
That doth not a majority make, nor should it.