March 22, 2006

RNC Ad Spanked

FactCheck.org slaps the RNC for its Sen. Russ Feingold-bashing ad. Emi Kolawole writes,

[Feingold's] resolution would censure Bush for the way in which he ordered wiretaps, not for the wiretaps themselves. It would condemn him for "unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans within the United States without obtaining the court orders required " (emphasis added), and also for "failure to inform the full congressional intelligence committees," and for "his efforts to mislead the American people" about the legalities of the program.

Feingold complains about an unlawful process. With reasoning like Rick Esenberg's [also here] that's not a clear-cut case. He writes,

President's interpretation of his constitutional authority is reasonable and certainly does not constitute the type of criminality and wholesale disregard of the law that would warrant censure.

A problem with FackCheck.org's analysis is it leaves out the political context. Feingold launched his censure crusade because he wants to run for President and rally the Left to his side. From reading Kolawole's piece one could easily think Feingold is just a Jimmy Stewart-type getting beat up by the big, bad, misleading Republicans.

"RNC Mischaracterizes Feingold's Censure Resolution"

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