I had (what now looks like) the best of luck to avoid a complete shitstorm at Daily Kos today because I was at work. It seems that a lot of Kossacks have not taken kindly to Senator Russ Feingold's diary on impeachment because - surprise! - he doesn't support it and believes that he could spend his time more productively:
I fully respect the anger and frustration many Americans feel with this Administration. I share much of it. But on balance, I think Congress’s time is much better spent ending the war in Iraq, conducting the oversight that was absent for the last six years, and advancing progressive legislation.
Unfortunately, the respect that Senator Feingold accords all of us in his post has not been returned. In fact, it seems that quite a few Kossacks are doing their best imitation of the right-wing reactionaries that we supposedly despise.
I support impeachment. I said so in not so many kind words a couple of weeks ago. It probably is a more important issue than Senator Feingold makes it out to be. But that doesn't mean he is automatically equivalent to the Democratic leadership, the DLC, the establishment, or some other sinister conspiracy. On the contrary, Feingold is probably the most principled politician in the Democratic Party right now. He's been right about many things - he was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act. He voted against the Iraq war authorization in October 2002, even when it would have been politically convenient for him to do otherwise. He's fought for progressive legislation his entire career in the Senate.
Has he made mistakes? Sure he has - he voted for John Ashcroft as attorney general (although, in hindsight, he wasn't half as bad as his successor), he voted for John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court, and he doesn't believe in impeachment. His signature legislative achievement - the McCain-Feingold BCFA - is in shambles and is only going to become more ineffective as people find other loopholes in it.
But that doesn't mean he's a bad legislator. The late Paul Wellstone, arguably Feingold's equal, if not more, when it came to true progressive credentials, lost many a battle - often being the lone voice - in the halls of Congress. That didn't make him any worse of a legislator. It didn't make him any less of a liberal than he was. He voted for the Patriot Act; does that automatically disqualify him for the kind of admiration he deserves for a life that should be celebrated?
No. You judge people by their successes and their failures, but you also must judge their character. Senator Feingold may be wrong on the matter of impeachment, but at least have the courtesy to have an impassioned - yet civil - debate about the matter. He is being honest with us (not in the phony kind of way that Bush and his fellow Republicans are), and the least we can do is to be honest with him, within reason. Burning a hero of the netroots at the stake does nothing to serve us well, serve him well, or do anything much aside from showing that reactionary politics is alive and well at Daily Kos.
[Update]: If you do really want to be a part of the movement to make impeachment more prominent, I would suggest reading Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse's diary from a week ago. Then figure out how to make the points there to your representatives in a fashion where they'll actually listen to you.