Feingold Fox News Sunday Transcript, Part 2

As Corinne pointed out in the comments, Feingold is certainly deserving of another Howardly for this latest performance.

Wallace: Senator, you talk about other members of Congress. Let me ask you about other Democrats who you have accused of *cowering* before the president. In fact, when you held this hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday, let's put up some pictures if we can here. Among the Democrats who didn't show up for your hearing: Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin. Democratic Senator Mark Dayton said about you recently, "It's an overreaching step by someone who is grandstanding and running for president at the expense of his own party and his own country. Senator, are *all* of those other Democrats cowering?

Feingold: Look, you know, this was one of the best attended hearings I've seen on a Friday. You know as well as I do, Chris, that Senators take off after there are no more votes announced, and we had 7 or 8 senators at this meeting. I think you're forgetting to mention that Senator Patrick Leahy came and said that he is inclined to support censure. So support for this is growing, and--

Wallace: (interrupting) How do you explain all these other people? Kennedy, Durbin, Feinstein, Biden, all those people--

Feingold: Well, Chris, you know very well that people often don't show up for hearings even during the week, and a lot of them took off because the votes were over. Senator Specter knew exactly what he was doing when he scheduled on a Friday, but here's the main point. Chris, you know very well that I was the only Democratic senator to vote to hear the evidence in the Clinton impeachment trial. And I was the first Democratic senator to call for a special counsel when it came to campaign finance violation of President Clinton. I am one of the least partisan members of the United States Senate by all accounts. I call them as I see them, and if this were a Democratic president, I think you know and everybody else knows I'd be doing the very same thing. This has nothing to do with political amitions. Believe it or not, it's because I believe in my heart that this is a threat to our system of government, and I will say that on a Bible.

Wallace: And, now that you've had your hearing, are you going to give up on this idea of censure, or are you going to push for a vote?

Feingold: Of course I want a vote--the president has broken the law. He has misled the America people in advance, and has thumbed his nose at the law afterward. I'm not talking about impeachment, although this may be an impeachable offense, I'm talking about some accountability. We should have accountability, and if we don't get it right away in this Republican Congress, maybe we can pass a censure resolution in a Democratic Congress, which would be a little more balanced and better for our country. We have a terrible problem that we have a Republican president and two Republican houses of Congress who are intimidated by this White House even to the point of not standing up--

Wallace: (interrupting again) But Senator, and we're running out of time--you make that sound like it's a coup, I mean, that's the result of the election. Elections have implications.

Feingold: Well, there's nothing wrong with it in terms of it being inappropriate, it's just that maybe the country wants to turn this year to a little more balanced government, where you have one house of Congress saying, Mr. President, you can't just make up the law. You can't just create whatever laws you want, we have to go through the system of government we've always had. You know, the Bill of Rights and the Consitution were not repealed on 9/11, and we all are unified in fighting the terrorists, but we're not going to give the terrorists the victory of destroying our own system of government in order to satisfy a White House that has very grandiose views of the extent of their powers.

Wallace: Senator Feingold, I want to thank you so much for joining us today, please come back, sir.

Feingold: I enjoyed it. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Feingold!

Alternate link for comments