Feingold Right To Call For Censure

by John Nichols The Capital Times July 30, 2007

There is every reason to be enthusiastic about U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold's decision to ask the Senate to consider a pair of censure resolutions condemning the president, vice president and other administration officials for misconduct relating to the war in Iraq and for their repeated assaults on the rule of law.

Indeed, as the movement to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney attracts more support with each passing day, Feingold's resolutions should be seen as evidence that the essential American principle of presidential accountability is finally being put back on the table by responsible members of Congress.

Feingold is renewing and extending a call for censure that the Wisconsin Democrat initially made in March 2006. The senator now proposes one resolution censuring the president, the vice president and their aides for overstating the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, and falsely implying a relationship with al-Qaida and links to 9/11; for failing to plan for the civil conflict and humanitarian problems that the intelligence community predicted; for overstretching the Army, Marine Corps and Guard with prolonged deployments; and for justifying U.S. military involvement in Iraq by repeatedly distorting the situation on the ground there.

A second resolution would censure the administration for approving the illegal warrantless wiretapping program; for promoting extreme policies on torture, the Geneva Conventions and detainees at Guantanamo; and for refusing to recognize legitimate congressional oversight into the improper firings of U.S. attorneys.

Feingold, a constitutional scholar, is well aware that these misdeeds of George Bush, Dick Cheney and their minions fall, as the senator has suggested, "right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors."

But, as a senator, Feingold cannot initiate an impeachment.

The Founders, wisely, rested that power with members of the House of Representatives, the more populist of the two houses of Congress.

Feingold is right to describe his censure motions as "a relatively modest response." But they are precisely the response that a senator can and should propose.

"Censure is about holding the administration accountable," says Feingold. "Congress needs to formally condemn the president and members of the administration for misconduct before and during the Iraq war and for undermining the rule of law at home.

"Censure is not a cure for the devastating toll this administration's actions have taken on this country. But when future generations look back at the terrible misconduct of this administration, they need to see that a co-equal branch of government stood up and held to account those who violated the principles on which this nation was founded."

Censure is not the cure for the constitutional crisis of the moment. Impeachment is. But it is a senatorial compliment to the burgeoning movement for impeachment -- a movement that last week delivered petitions with more than 1 million signatures to Congressman John Conyers appealing to him to begin impeachment proceedings and that locally proposes to have the Madison City Council and the Dane County Board endorse impeachment in coming weeks.

Supporting Feingold's censure resolutions ought to be seen as vital pieces of the broader struggle to hold this administration to account.



John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times, Wisconsin's progressive daily news source, where his column appears regularly.

Bush Administration Protest