http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=1&date=3/20/2006&id=3830
MONDAY, March 20, 2006, 5:11 p.m.
By Craig Gilbert
RNC to launch ads against Feingold
Washington - The Republican National Committee says it will begin airing an ad on talk radio shows in Milwaukee and Madison this week criticizing Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold for his proposal to censure President Bush.
The ad describes Feingold as the "leader" of a group of Democrats "working against" the president's efforts to "secure our country" by monitoring terrorist communications and disrupting terrorist plots.
"Call Russ Feingold and ask him why he's more interested in censuring the president than protecting our freedom," says the ad, according to a transcript and audio provided by the RNC.
In a statement released late Monday, Feingold said: "The President has broken the law, and the censure resolution I introduced is intended to hold him accountable. Nobody says that we shouldn't be monitoring suspected terrorists. Of course we should, and we can under current law. We have yet to hear a reasonable argument from the president or anyone else why it was necessary to break the law. Congress must fulfill its obligation to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law and censuring the president is an appropriate place to start."
A Republican Party official would not say how much is being spent on the ad, or whether the party plans to run ads in other states on the subject. The spot will air on talk radio stations in the two Wisconsin markets, the official said.
Feingold last week introduced a resolution to censure the president over the National Security Agency wiretapping program begun after the 9-11 attacks. The surveillance program targets electronic communications that occur between parties in the U.S. and abroad and involve people suspected of ties to al-Qaida, administration officials say.
Feingold contends the program violates a 1978 law that requires judicial warrants for eavesdropping on Americans. His resolution also accuses Bush of misleading the public about the government's surveillance policies.
While there is much debate among scholars and lawmakers about the program's legality, Feingold's censure resolution has attracted few supporters in Congress. Two other Democratic senators have signed on as co-sponsors, but others have called it premature or politically unwise.
RNC spokesman Danny Diaz couched the ad as a statement about the two parties' approach to the war on terrorism going into the 2006 congressional elections. "Voters this fall face a choice between those that protect America at any cost versus those that play politics with our national security," Diaz said.
While Democratic lawmakers have shied away from censure, many Democratic voters support it, according to the first batch of polls on the issue.
In a nationwide Newsweek Poll of registered voters conducted last Thursday and Friday, 42% supported censure, and 50% opposed. Among Democrats, 60% supported censure and 30% opposed.
I also stumbled across this. The post itself seems like a pretty lame show of "bias", but then again, Media Matters often isn't much better. Some of the comments, though:
American Infidel Says:
March 20, 2006 - 18:10
At first I thought Bill Schneider had come to his senses. I thought the article was going to be about Schneider asking for an impeachment of Feingold for providing aid and comfort to the enemy. But then I find it's the same old far left wing kook fringe call for the Presidents impeachment.
bigtimer Says:
March 20, 2006 - 18:20
"Democrats have not forgotten what the Republican Congress did to President Clinton. Newflash Schneiderkins...Clinton did it all by himself. LIED all by his lonesome! Get a grip and quit trying to rewrite history as you looney leftists always do.
Btw...I heard the B.S. plus I tune him out if possible... he talks as if he is talking to a bunch of pre-school kids...oops he is basically talking to the CNN base for their audience...guess he has to in that case...heheheehaaaahahahaaabwahhhhahahaa
Hunter12 Says:
March 20, 2006 - 18:38
This war would not have been as long or as bloody and costly without the MSM and idiots like Trudeau inciting and thereby recruiting for the enemy. They also seem to forget that everything the current administration has done has been vetted through the Congress and their beloved Clinton used the same talking points on Iraq to divert attention from his lies and indiscretions. I wonder if Trudeau would look upon an intern hookup so light-heartedly , if it was about ten years in the future and the intern looked like a young Jane Pauley and was named Rachel. Gary, they're all somebody's daughter. I guess your hero can do no wrong.
semby Says:
March 20, 2006 - 18:44
Schneider - another senile liberal idiot duh!
can't stand the guy - when he talks he sounds like a freaking fool!
And does anybody understand the Jane Pauley/Rachel/daughter comment? Doesn't make any sense to me.
I found some more idocy, but it will have to wait.
