Yesterday, the Leisure World Democratic Club in Montgomery County held a forum for the US Senate candidates.
(For those not steeped in Maryland politics, Leisure World is an enormous retirement community in Silver Spring. I'm told that the three precincts in LW are among the highest turnout precincts in the country, so, it matters.)
One moment stood out. Each of the candidates had the opportunity to ask the others a 30-second question.
When it was Kweisi Mfume's turn to ask, he stood up and said (paraphrase): "I'm very concerned about the erosion of our privacy. I want the government out of our bank accounts, our medical records and our bedrooms. Last week, Sen. Feingold introduced a resolution to censure the President for his illegal wiretapping. If I was still in the House, I'd have introduced a companion resolution; if I was in the Senate, I'd co-sponsor this one. My question to my colleagues up here is, would you vote for Sen. Feingold's censure resolution?"
A couple of the candidates said yes (Rales and Lichtman, IIRC), one said no (van Susteren), the token Socialist ranted, and then came Cong. Ben Cardin's turn.
He wouldn't answer the question.
He said the President should be investigated, that if that led to some action or another, well, OK.
It was a pretty weak response to a pretty clear question.