Nichols: Ed Thompson hails Feingold's courage
Capital Times
By John Nichols
January 6, 2004
Ed Thompson, who won more than 10 percent of the vote as the Libertarian Party candidate for governor in 2002, and who remains a key player in the state's largest third party, is still grumbling about the "Republicrats."
He is not at all impressed with Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle or the Republicans who control both houses of the Legislature. But the brother of former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson has found one major party politician he likes: U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold.
Appearing Monday on WTDY radio's "Sly in the Morning" program, Thompson criticized the Democratic senator's three major Republican challengers for failing to stand up for civil liberties and said he expects to vote for Feingold in November. The primary motivation for that vote, Thompson told talk radio host John "Sly" Sylvester, was his respect for Feingold's solo vote against the USA Patriot Act.
"I am going to vote for Russ Feingold," Thompson said when asked about the two-term senator's 2004 re-election bid. "He stood up on the Patriot Act. That puts him head and shoulders above everyone else in the Senate. And for that alone he gets my vote."
Promoted by Attorney General John Ashcroft in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Patriot Act dramatically expands the power of the federal government to pry into the lives of Americans. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups complained at the time the bill was being considered by Congress that it exploited fears about terrorism in order to undermine constitutional protections. Yet when the Senate considered the measure, only Feingold cast a dissenting vote.
That impressed Thompson. "The Patriot Act is so incredibly wrong," he says. "It is such an invasion of our freedom. It goes against everything we stand for in this country."
Thompson said he was disappointed that the three Republican Senate candidates - state Sen. Bob Welch of Redgranite and businessmen Russ Darrow and Tim Michaels - are trying to make an issue of Feingold's vote against the Patriot Act. "I think they should be praising Senator Feingold for what he did," the Tomah supper club owner said.
The affirmation from Thompson, who says he disagrees with Feingold on some other issues, recalls the supportive comments that Feingold says he has heard from many Republicans and independents over the past year at his listening sessions around the state.
When he met with The Capital Times editorial board last week, Feingold said he had been powerfully impressed by the breadth and depth of opposition to the Patriot Act in Wisconsin. "People are really angry about it, and that anger is not limited to one party or one ideology," Feingold said. "There is a lot of concern that this administration does not respect the constitutional protections that Wisconsinites take very seriously."
Thompson certainly shares that concern. Calling the Patriot Act "un-American" and "unpatriotic," he declared, "Whenever you give up freedom for security, you lose both."
Join Libertarians4Feingold