What should I ask Russ Feingold?

I'm going to one of Russ Feingold's listening sessions on Saturday. Hopefully I'll be attending the "media" portion as well as the listening session itself - I'm the editor of my school's newspaper, so I'm going as both a media representative and a concerned citizen.

What I'd like to know is: what do Kossacks want to know? Anything you'd like me to ask him on your behalf?

Consider this a Russ Feingold question-o-rama open thread.

More information on the listening sessions can be found here. (Hey, meta note: thank Gord for the new diary draft system! My browser was being weird and wouldn't let me type slashes, so I had to save the draft and restart my browser. Hooray for not having to start over.)

•  Tips for Russ!

  by PhantomFly on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:35:52 PM PDT

  •  He said don't impeach Bush

    and I want to understand his thinking on this - why would it be bad for the nation?

    From the La Crosse Tribune:

    One thing Feingold expressed no enthusiasm for is impeaching President Bush.

    "I don’t support impeachment, and I don’t support impeachment hearings, even though I think the president has probably committed an impeachable offense," Feingold said in response to a question from Al Schulz of La Crosse.

    "We are not required to impeach the president simply because he’s committed an impeachable offense, which I think he did with the illegal wiretapping. We have to decide whether it’s in the best interest of the country to go through that process."

    by zett on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:31:06 PM PDT

•  VP

  Will he say Yes if he's asked to be a running mate?

  by roubs on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:40:31 PM PDT

  •  Excellent!

    But please preface the question by saying we are BEGGING him to be Veep.  Begging.  Pleading.  Tell him he's got a few constituents in Madison that cried real tears, and lots of them, when he announced he wasn't running for Prez.

    by Miss Blue on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:51:41 PM PDT

    •  I'm not begging...

      ...even though Feingold was my first choice for President. However, given the choice between a position of seniority and influence (including, as noted downthread, chairmanship of the Constitution subcommittee of the Judiciary Comm.) in the Senate, vs. the largely ceremonial role of presidential understudy, I'd rather see him stay in the Senate.

      by GreenCA on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:41:16 PM PDT

    •  Miss Blue

      I certainly understand the tears when he said he was not running, I cried them too.  However, unless there was some way we could know that the pres. candidate was going to let Russ basically be "co president"- e.g. really tap him for policy ideas and be willing to implement them, I have to go with what GreenCA said below.  He's going to be excellent on the Judiciary Cmte...between him and Leahy, I expect some repubs are going to feel the heat.

      by zett on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:23:06 PM PDT

•  Ask Him

  Who isn't being considered as a candidate (including Gore), who we ought to think about for 2008.

  by NewDirection on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:41:14 PM PDT

  •  oh lord

    That Obama post is making me unusually 2008 focused :p

    by roubs on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:43:18 PM PDT

  •  He already mentioned obama and Gore

    when he withdrew from the race. It'll be interesing to know if he has some inside track about whether Gore is running.

    by NeuvoLiberal on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:43:51 PM PDT

    •  My assumption

      since that time, has been that Gore and Obama would both announce and since they would have eaten up big chunks of the anti-war vote, Feingold would have become the "Kucinich of 2008" rather than a serious contender.

      ps NL, I got your email today as I was swamped yesterday. I'll give a substantive answer tomorrow.

      by pHunbalanced on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:48:44 PM PDT

      •  thanks, look forward to your email

        by NeuvoLiberal on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:27:49 PM PDT

    •  There Are A Number Of Brain Cells

      In my head who are hopeful that Gore has already got him in mind to be veep. The others are all telling them to hush, on the one side out of annoyance at the naivette, on the other, concern they will cause the bud to wilt.

      by NewDirection on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:02:31 PM PDT

    •  If I can talk to him...

      sort of off the record, I'll definately ask him if he's heard anything about Al getting back into it.

      by blueyedace2 on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:40:22 PM PDT

•  Question for Russ

  Ask him how an American citizen can find out if they've had any phone calls or emails intercepted by the NSA.

  by ActivistGuy on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:42:36 PM PDT

  •  Preferably...

    ...a way that doesn't involve "extraordinary rendition."

    by wiscmass on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:54:31 PM PDT

  •  You can't.

    by ben masel on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:34:43 PM PDT

    •  My reason to ask the question

      I'm sneaky like that.

      by ActivistGuy on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 08:09:28 PM PDT

•  Thank you for doing this, PhantomFly!

  As for questions for Russ, where do we start?  Ask him how confident he is that Congress will now get more information about what's actually happening and what we plan to do about it.  Ask him if any of our Dems are whining about working full-time to turn this mess around, and names are necessary.  Ask him what we can do to help Dems further their agenda.  And tell him we're crazy about him..keep up the good work, Russ!

  by sherlyle on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:42:58 PM PDT

  •  No problem :)

    by PhantomFly on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:18:13 PM PDT

•  Senate = "club"

  1. Please ask him what's with the Senate--it seems like a white man millionaires club (with a few token 'others')....where they are more loyal to other Senators ("clubby") than to their constituents, the American people, or the truth.

  2.  Ask him what is the 'received wisdom' in the Senate. Also, what are the "Do's and Don'ts" (unwritten, unspoken) among Senators.

  3. Is there ever anything all Senators do together? (I would have liked them to have watched "an Inconvenient Truth" and "Fahrenheit 911" together as a group.

  4. Contingency Plan. I hope he has keys to several 'safe' houses/apartments of friends/colleagues near the Capitol in case of evacuation of the building. As for the rest of Congress, in case of a massive attack against them, is there a good contingency plan until they restore Congress? For example, in a big emergency I'd settle for interim rule by a group of regional governors with pre-authorization to take charge of certain key functions.

  by LNK on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:43:28 PM PDT

  •  boo on point 1

    In 2004 Feingold reported a net worth of $220,410. Try talking to the other Wisconsin Senator about the millionaire's club.

    http://www.jsonline.com/...

    by roubs on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:54:14 PM PDT

    •  This year

      his net worth is actually negative, something like $48000 in the red.

      by leftilicious on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:05:11 PM PDT

      •  Your comment made me curious

        So I went tooling around opensecrets.org.  Found that Russ was ranked 97th in the Senate in terms of net worth.  That then made me wonder, who are the 3 even "poorer" than Russ and I found:

        Ken Salazar
        Joe Biden (surprising to me)
        Byron Dorgan

        by zett on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:26:40 PM PDT

    •  I mean THEM, not Feingold

      If you look at the overall stats, the Senate is quite a millionaires club. Instead of being a place for wise people, it seems to be where people go when they've earned a bundle, got to the top of their career, and want to climb one more mountain.

      It's very, very bad for America when it takes mega-bucks to get elected, too!

      That's what I meant!!

      by LNK on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:44:15 PM PDT

•  Gossip?

  You can't ask this question, but I'm curious to know if he does or doesn't want to get married again. . . . .  .

  Personally, I don't think America is ready for someone Jewish for President just like that, plus Americans seem fixated on 1950s-syle families.

  Gossip. None of my business. Just curious........

  by LNK on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:45:32 PM PDT

  •  LOL

    Being a 21-year-old female, I don't think that'd come off too well from me :)

    You might be right - although I don't think Lieberman being Jewish hurt Gore that much.

    by PhantomFly on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:24:37 PM PDT

    •  Lieberman's "Jewish" more like

      WASP Jewish. Feingold looks ethnic Jewish and therefore, to many Americans, 'foreign'.......

      Some people say Liberman did hurt Gore and that if Gore had chosen what's his name senior security Congressman from Florida things would have been much different.

      by LNK on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:42:06 PM PDT

•  What is HIS 100 hours Agenda? n/t

  by edgery on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:45:42 PM PDT

•  Ask him what he plans to do about

  the MCA, torture, NSA spying, posse comitatus and the other infrastructure of despotism.

  by Captain Nimrod on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:46:41 PM PDT

  •  Just got an email from Russ' Progressive Patriots

    that lays out some of his plans:

    Thanks to everyone who has written in support of the Progressive Patriots Fund since the election.  Your support and ideas over the past two years led to a Democratic landslide this November - with progressive champions like Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, and Jim Webb headed to the U.S. Senate in January.  There are important elections in 2007, and the 2008 election will be critical to shore up the Democratic majorities and elect a progressive President.

    In the next few months, I'll be working in the Senate to hold the President accountable on Iraq and his illegal domestic spying program. I'll continue to travel around the country promoting our progressive reform agenda.  Today, I'm asking for your input on how we should go about promoting a progressive foreign policy, including focusing on the terrorists networks around the world that seek to attack us.

    Please take our six-question national priorities survey

    The Listening Sessions I hold every year in every one of Wisconsin's 72 counties help me to form my opinions on important issues.  Having a finger on the pulse of Wisconsin citizens helps me be a better Senator; it helped me foresee problems with the PATRIOT Act, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, and the Iraq war.  I value your input into how the Progressive Patriots should focus on foreign policy, and what I should focus on in the Senate.
    
    Please take our six-question national priorities survey

    Thank you for your support.  Next month, I plan on sending out another survey on domestic issues. I appreciate your taking the time to help us determine our direction for the coming year.

    Sincerely,

    Russ

    by everhopeful on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:12:06 PM PDT

    •  Survey

      I got the same e-mail and did the survey.  The opportunity to include your own ideas at the end worked for me.

      I like it - hope he keeps it up.

      by Ninepatch on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:17:01 PM PDT

•  ASHCROFT

  Ask Senator Feingold why he voted for John Ashcroft for Attorney General and if his vote made Republicans more willing to work with Democrats like he claimed it would at the time.

  by walja on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:51:04 PM PDT

  •  better idea

    Bring a copy of his entire voting record and raise hell about every vote you disagree with including and especially the ones surrounding Bill Clinton's impeachment. Definately the best use of everyone's time.

    by roubs on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:55:34 PM PDT

    •  FEINGOLD

      Elected officials deserve to be held accountable for their actions.  The Feingold sticker came off my car the day after he voted for Ashcroft.  I still have the two page letter he sent me defending the Ashcroft vote.  He was more into defending the "norms of the Senate" than he was in defending progressives from a vicious Theocon thug.  Not very useful ultimately.

      by walja on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:44:10 PM PDT

      •  Do you think things have improved w/o Ashcroft?

        I've read the letter defending the vote as well.  I suspect should PhantomFly or blueyedace2 ask why he voted for Ashcroft that he'd reiterate what he wrote in that letter.  If I recall correctly, he felt the president had a right to choose his cabinet and that ultimately policy would be up to Bush.  His cabinet wouldn't do anything that Bush wouldn't approve.  

        Part of me wishes he would have fought Ashcroft as well but then I do wonder if Feingold had a point.  Bush's horrible policies continue even though Ashcroft is gone. Or do you disagree? Do you think things are better with Gonzales as Attorney General?  

        by Irlandesa on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:07:35 PM PDT

        •  for the record, I don't plan on asking him that

          because I don't see why it's relevant. That's bordering a little on purity trolling if you ask me - Feingold's been one of our most faithful allies, let's not nitpick, please. You want to talk about sticking it to Bush? Hello, he's the one who called for censure! (That's aimed at walja, of course.)

          by PhantomFly on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:12:59 PM PDT

•  I just want to know

  what are his top legislative priorities in the next year. If he's not going to run for POTUS, he ought to at least give us some good action on the floor of the senate.

  by pHunbalanced on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:51:46 PM PDT

  •  Right after

    the election I heard (I think it was) Lawrence O'Donnell say on AirAmerica that one of the main reasons Russ took his name off the POTUS list was because he's TOTALLY EXCITED about the oversight and accountability responsibilities he's going to have in the new Congress.

    Apparently Russ is going to be chairing some big major subcommittee - I think it's the Constitutional Committee - and he's going to be one very very busy and happy Senator.

    And, I gotta say I'm gonna be one very happy American that he's there doing that!

    PhantomFly - maybe you could ask him about it? Thank you.

    by everhopeful on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:20:13 PM PDT

    •  Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sub-committee

      on Africa?

      by PhantomFly on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:25:56 PM PDT

    •  Yep...

      ...he is in line to chair the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. And I can't think of a single Senator I'd rather have in that position!

      by GreenCA on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:36:27 PM PDT

•  Ask him what he thinks is the

  most important reason to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

  by tr4nqued on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:54:18 PM PDT

•  I had the privelege

  of being a reporter at a listening session the day after the SCOTUS upheld McCain-Feingold. He was in a pretty good mood. It was a total blizzard, and I happened to be standing by the door (because it was the only place I could get a cell signal) when he came in. So I got to introduce myself and then just before the thing started, when he did a couple media things, I got to go first. I don't think he typically does a special "media" portion of these things except for a few minutes on the way in. If you just approach him with your steno pad out he'll give you time.

  As for what to ask ... ask what he thinks of Gates. Step in the right direction? What does he think about campaign finance reform on the state level? Barbara Lawton, Mike Huebsch and Mark Miller all spoke with Common Cause today (Tuesday). What should they do at the state level? What's on his agenda, now that he's in the majority? Stuff like that.

  by leftilicious on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:56:16 PM PDT

•  Would he support

  Energize America, the kossack generated energy plan?

  by Jerome a Paris on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:01:59 PM PDT

•  Ask him to reconsider his refusal to run in 08

  and to clarify why he believes it is more important to continue to serve the people of Wisconsin as Senator (a laudable goal), than to serve the public at large as the the only Presidential candidate with a clear conscience? Dammit Russ, we NEED you.

  by jlynne on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:15:09 PM PDT

  •  hear hear

    Read his floor speech from before the war and ask yourself if you think that kind of leadership would serve the nation well in the White House.

    I think I'm still in shock that he's not running.

    by dday on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:42:09 PM PDT

•  Ask him about restoring the fairness doctrine.

  by McGirk on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:23:47 PM PDT

•  Why are we confirming Gates?

  That's what I would ask him:

  http://www.dailykos.com/...

  by theyrereal on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:29:26 PM PDT

•  I'll be there too!

  I was thinking about asking him something about the impact that blogs had on the midterms, but after seeing Al on Oprah I think I'll ask him if he's seen An Inconvenient Truth and what his thoughts are on global warming.

  by blueyedace2 on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:30:38 PM PDT

  •  good idea!

    Maybe I'll see you there... I'll have to think of something to identify myself. Maybe I'll wear blaze orange. :)

    by PhantomFly on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:05:26 PM PDT

    •  I'm easy to spot...

      wearing this (mines actually orange) and my sky cammo field jacket.

      by blueyedace2 on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:31:59 PM PDT

  •  He's at least looked at the book

    He was asked about global warming at his second online listening session and he typed this:

    The first thing is to make Al Gore's movie and book required for every Member of Congress. Some of the pages only have 1 line and large pictures. This benefited me. Once you read it or see the movie, a person cannot help but be motivated to act on this critical matter.

    by zett on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:09:51 PM PDT

•  listenting session

  Please keep in mind that a listening session serves for Russ Feingold to listen to his constituents.  Please consider what you would want him to hear--knowing that if you speak directly to him he is hearing it.  His seeing a letter or an email are far less certainly  reaching his personal attention. He appears to ask his office staff to track comments at least by topic, so that there is some implication that more frequently mentioned topics are more important than less frequently mentioned topics.  Do you have a topic that others may not mention that you wish to bring to his attention? From the blogosphere, it would be nice for him to hear that there is support for net neutrality.

  by wind off the lake on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:24:00 PM PDT

  •  He's already on record

    for Net Neutrality.

    by ben masel on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:30:17 PM PDT

•  Russ will be on Olbermann tomorrow...

  For those of us who can't go to a listening session, at least we can see him on cable.  

  Good luck to the two of you when it comes to getting your time to speak.  I'm looking forward to reading any recaps.  

  by Irlandesa on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:01:54 PM PDT

  •  Thanks!

    I'm sort of a shy, stuttering geek, so encouragement is greatly appreciated!

    by blueyedace2 on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:46:59 PM PDT

    •  You won't be the only shy, stuttering one

      believe me. What a journalist I am.

      by PhantomFly on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:55:37 PM PDT

•  I'm going to Oshkosh.

  Already got my questions.

  1. As he's now on the Intel Committee, has he familiarised himself with US v Gravel, confirming that the Speech and Immunity clause preventsprosecution of a Member who consults staff or colleagues about classified information, threats from the Administration notwithstanding?

  2. In spring of 2003, Russ stated that he'd be moving in his current term in office to abolish Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Controlled Substance Offences. Is that this session?

  by ben masel on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:28:32 PM PDT