In her Op-Ed column in the New York Times, Gail Collins said that if Wisconsin goes ahead and re-elects Russ Feingold, she will be quite impressed.
...Wisconsinites, if you decide to re-elect this guy I will be so happy I will personally lead a movement to make the rest of the country stop calling you Cheeseheads.
I think I speak for all Cheeseheads, past and present, when I say that if Russ Feingold gets re-elected, you can pretty much call us anything you damn well please.
I haven't been a registered voter in Wisconsin since 1993, but most of my family is still back there, and I have a lot of nieces and a nephews - and one grand niece on the way - whose future depends on this election.
Which is why I will keep donating to and working for Russ Feingold's campaign until next Tuesday.
In her column, Collins reminds us why re-electing Russ Feingold's is so important. And it's not only because Ron Johnson, his opponent, is a douchebag who defends child molesters and has accepted over $2.7 million in campaign donations from outside groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce and the American Action Network.
If you haven't read Gail Collins' Op Ed, you should.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
First, unlike the majority of Democrats running for re-election in Middle America, he is not trying to pretend that he didn’t vote for the health care bill, or that he voted for it with his fingers crossed, planning to completely overhaul it in 2011. "You bet I voted for that bill! I’m proud I did it!" he hollered during a campaign stop with Michelle Obama. He keeps pointing out all the good and popular things the law contains. In debates, he asks Johnson — who’s promising to repeal Obamacare — if he really wants to reopen the hated "doughnut hole" in the Medicare prescription drug program or go back to allowing insurers to refuse to cover children with pre-existing medical conditions.
More importantly, Senator Feingold is one of the most un-corrupt, independent voices the Senate has ever had. And he will remain true to his principles, just like he always has, even if it costs him the election. Unlike his fellow campaign finance reform co-sponsor, John McCain.
This is not the first time Feingold has risked his seat to hang onto his convictions about the proper way to finance political campaigns. In 1998, in a race he ultimately won by a whisker, he told outside groups not to come into Wisconsin with unregulated "soft money" ads on his behalf. "No career, including mine, is as important as breaking the hold of this system of legalized bribery," he told R.W. Apple of The Times.
Then he and John McCain managed to push a bill through Congress to control soft money. But it was upended this year by the Supreme Court. In response, the House passed a bill requiring the liberated attack-ad machines to at least reveal the names of their major donors. It was killed by Republicans in the Senate, with McCain’s help.
"I think John will be back," said Feingold. "He had a tough primary."
Which is sort of the point. There is a law in Washington, followed by politicians great and small from both sides of the aisle, that principles are fine, but not something you’d want to lose your seat over.
Feingold disagrees.
McCain pretty much dumped all his principles by the wayside to get re-elected. Russ Feingold has not, and never will.
Russ Feingold is everything people say they want in Washington: honest, independent, principled. This Cheesehead believes he needs to stay there.
Donate and/or work for Russ Feingold here:
http://www.russfeingold.org/