Feingold is Right

I rank Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly as one of my favorite bloggers for various reasons, one being that unlike some other liberal bloggers he's usually very practical and pragmatic. But as far as Feingold's motion to censure President Bush goes, I think he's got it all wrong:

I'm sure someone can point to an exception somewhere, but so far every single column or news story I've read on the subject has been about (a) Feingold the maverick and whether this helps his presidential chances, (b) the disarray his motion has caused in the Democratic party, (c) whether the censure motion was politically smart, or (d) Republican glee that Feingold has shifted attention away from all the things that were hurting them.

Is this really helping convince the public that Bush deliberately and repeatedly violated the law when he approved the NSA program? I'm not seeing it. Political theater is only useful if it actually shines the spotlight into the dark corner where we want it shined, and Feingold's censure motion doesn't really seem to have done that. Instead of pinning our hopes on yet another bright and shiny silver bullet, maybe there's a place for all those boring hearings and investigations after all.

I think though that Drum fails to appreciate that this overall perception of Feingold's efforts is driven largely by media laziness and those in the Democratic party who'd like to short-circuit Feingold. After all, as he himself mentions in his post, public support for a censure motion-even among Republicans-is not inconsiderable. The problem among "establishment" Democrats appears to be a fear to confront Bush head-on when it comes to the NSA program, in line with their overal desire avoid confronting Bush on issues of national security for fear of playing to his "strength." If his motion has caused "disarray", it's for that reason. Feingold appears to be making an effort to change the tone of the debate and-whatever his political motivations-this is the sort of action that it takes to do so. I think Drum has higher hopes for those investigations than the rest of us do, but there's nothing to say that those investigations can't go hand in hand with a censure motion, and if anything such a motion might be a kick in the pants to those investigations. The fact is only bold action on the part of the Democrats will change the perception that Bush's strength is national security, and "boring" investigations aren't bold action. And only such action will overcome the general trend of those in the media to talk about the political process rather than the substance of the story. In other words, anybody who wants to get over this national security "hump" that the Democrats have should be supporting Feingold, not dismissing him. As counter-intuitive as it might seem, only actions such as his will begin to undo the free pass the Republicans and Bush get on national security issues.