No guns drawn, no walking sticks brandished and no fisticuffs. Just some parliamentary maneuvering. Verry exciting, though, let me tell ya.

[Feingold and Soledad O'Brien doin' the nasty (CNN interview transcript) plus censure talking points below the fold]

Here's what happened Monday: Just before Feingold was set to introduce his Censure resolution, Frist stepped in to call for a vote on it that same day. Reid objected, saying that it is standard procedure for the Majority Leader to consult with the Minority Leader before calling for a vote. Frist, obviously excited, bouncing up and down, called for a vote the next day. Reid objected again.

At the time, I thought Frist wanted a vote on the resolution immediately so that Feingold would not have enough time to build support for censure. I felt like Reid had stepped in and saved the day.

Not so much, it turns out. Reid and the Senate Vichy Dems want to avoid at all costs having to stand up and be counted on this crucial issue that directly impacts our freedom by taking a vote on it in the full Senate. Now the censure resolution will languish and die in the Judiciary committe (unless the blogosphere rises up). Mission accomplished. Actually Feingold has said he will call for a vote in the full Senate if the measure fails in committee. Russ is the man.

It's standard Vichy Dem operating procedure: complain meekly about the Bushies' abuses of power, then strenuously avoid doing anything about it.

Feingold is absolutely right, there can be no other reason to not support censure other than fear and cowardice. The only reason to excuse Vichy Dems on this is to buy their poisonous meme: "sitting on our hands in the face of Bush's atrocities is the best, indeed the only, way to regain Democratic majority in Congress". Then there is the other canard: "Democrats can do nothing, as a minority party, we are utterly powerless". Um, no, they CAN support a censure resolution.

The Facts:

1. (via Vichy Democrats) The majority of the American people support impeaching (not just censuring) President Chimpy if he "wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge".

2. Censure is not that big of a deal, apparently, if the President is a Democrat. Dianne Feinstein introduced a resolution to censure Bill Clinton, even AFTER he was acquitted. 19 Dem Senators who are still in office co-sponsored that resolution.

3. Scolding sitting Presidents on the Senate floor is not that big of a deal, either, if the President is a Democrat. Or so says Holy Joementum Lieberman. (Via Digby)

4. The response from Vichy Dems has been that they want to wait until the investigation is complete. As Feingold told Soledad O'Brien [yes, she's fine, but she's a Right-Wing media poodle] the other day, there will be no investigation and there is no question that it is illegal:

S. O'BRIEN: But you know, you say, we listened and listened, but the truth is the issue is under investigation now. The jury is not back actually on whether this is a legal. Why not wait until...

FEINGOLD: Actually, Soledad, the jury has been dismantled. The only committee that was able to handle this was the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Senate Intelligence Committee, the whole committee, a majority of the committee, isn't even going to be allowed to hear about what this program is. And, frankly, in those hearings, we've heard enough to know that we don't know everything about the program.

But we also know that there is no basis and no argument that's credible that this program is legal. In other words, there's a lot more to find out about how the program works, but it's already very clear, and many Republican senators have said that there is no legal basis for it.

S. O'BRIEN: But by your on admission, there's a lot more to find out, so why not wait?

FEINGOLD: But now about the law.

S. O'BRIEN: So why not wait until all that is found out before you call for something quite serious, which is a censure of a sitting president.

FEINGOLD: Because as I said, we're not going to find it out. The administration has already said that they're not going to let the majority of the committee, or the majority of the members of the United States Senate ever find out about this program. They've shut the door. They haven't allowed an investigation. On a partisan basis, they've essentially ruined the role of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and that means, Soledad, we are never going to be able to know the specifics of the program.

But what we do know, and what the president has admitted, is that this is not within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, so the president broke the law. So it's entire appropriate to censure the president for breaking the law as we continue our efforts to try to figure out what exactly this program (INAUDIBLE).

There is no serious debate about whether the president was within the law here. He was not. He violated our...

More:

Glenn Greenwald documents the profiles in courage and the Corporate Media's factually challenged reporting on the issue.

Feingold's Fact Sheet on the Censure Resolution.

Call yer damn Senators! Just google them and give their staffers a piece of your mind. Tell them about your pets, whatever.