First off, let me state that I admire Russ Feingold's push for censure, and vainly hope that it will eventually succeed, hopefully with a Democratic Senate in January of 2007. The list of Senators put up today that supported the censure of Clinton and not the censure of Bush are a bunch of spineless jellyfish. However, comparing the political circumstances is a rather silly exercise that will only get us more pissed off than we really should be.
1.)Attacking the President is not a great game plan in and of itself
In 1998, the R's went after Clinton and people grew tired of it. In many ways, you can see by the opinion polling that a large majority of Americans realize that the R's, and Bush in particular, are incompetents. The Democrat's job is not merely to chastise Bush for his failure and lies, but to point out what he did wrong, and what we would do differently. Censure is a very symbolic action. Everyone, R's included, knows that this is a failed president, the trick is not passing a symbolic representation of failure, but using his failure to regain control.
2.)The 1998 Censure Resolution was the alternative to impeachment
In 1998, there was nary a person who would have said that Bill Clinton was right to do what he did. Wasn't a political matter? Of course not? Impeachable? Hell no! But we need to show our constituents that we don't approve of the action, even though he should remain President.
That's how the censure came about, like the impeachment itself, it was a political ploy. Only it worked for the Democrats. Democrats could claim they took a stand against Clinton's actions, even though it really didn't mean a damn thing
In short, I'm hesitant to grow too dissatisfied with those who haven't signed on to the censure resolution. At this point, it truly is symbolic. Does anyone here really think Dick Durbin is a Bushie? The energy must be at the ballot box during the next election. We should be following a path like Murtha, offer up new ideas and drop them in the hopper. Democrats know how to run a government, and have proven so in the past. Politics is fine and good, but until we regain control in 2006, we are pissing in the wind.