Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold has stated that he favors legalizing same-sex marriage. As far as I know, he now stands with Ted Kennedy as the only US Senators who have taken that position. And Feingold is certainly the only Senator possibly running for President, or even holding something other than an absolutely safe seat, to have backed gay marriage.
Pretty courageous, if you ask me. Censuring President Bush would make some people feel good, but it doesn’t actually accomplish anything directly. This, on the other hand, is taking a stand on a hugely controversial issue that has a direct effect on the lives of millions of Americans.
Go Russ.
Please share widely!
Does anyone notice a trend in Feingold’s tactics here? He’s basically taking everything that hurt Kerry during the ’04 campaign, and reversing it. Taking courageous and bold stands on issues that may, or may not, be politically sound. He’s leaving no doubt where he stands on issues…that doubt, let’s be reminded, was a large contributer to Kerry’s loss. He seems to be establishing some serious groundwork for a campaign founded on integrity, courage, and liberal values. As a liberal democrat, that seems like a pretty good campaign strategy to me.
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Since I’m about to head to bed and don’t feel like researching this myself, does anyone happen to know his voting record regarding the OIF?
Hear, hear! Indeed, Feingold is a man of strong conviction. He says what he believes, fights for what he believes, and people respect him — and vote for him — because of that. Sounds like you might be interested in joining us over at Mass for Feingold.
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What does OIF stand for? If its “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, then he’s been adamantly opposed to it from the beginning. He voted against the resolution to go to war, and he was the first Senator to proposed a deadling for withdrawal of our troops.
He did more than vote against it, he was one of the handful of Senators who tried to organize a filibuster. IIRC, Feingold and Kennedy were the leaders of the filibuster attempt. They got 25 votes, which wasn’t bad given that the Democratic Party leadership at the time was supporting it.
Didn’t his staff or supporters during his last campaign distribute t-shirts that had a backbone running up the back of the t-shirt?
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This man has certainly has one.
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It’s why people like him (IMHO)
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I thought the ‘Backbone Campaign’ evolved out of the Kucinich candidacy.
The official “Backbone campaign” of the post-Kucinich groups was launched at the first PDA national meeting, around the DNC in 2004. I bet several groups and individuals had made “backbone” shirts and other materials for candidates around the country before that.