Russ Feingold chose ThisWeek to announce that he is about to introduce a resolution of censure against George Bush, specifically in reference to his having violated the Constitution in the matter of wiretapping without any legal basis. For this, sez Russ, he must be held accountable.

Russ noted that while Bush has claimed no less than three legal bases for the tapping—the FISA court, the resolution authorizing the Afghan war, and inherent authority as Commander in Chief—none of these has been upheld by any court, no impartial legal scholars find them plausible, and they all come down in the end to “because I’m the Preznit and I sed so.” [heavy paraphrasing here].

George S asked, why not just impeach him?

Russ—wisely just ignoring the point that this question is moronig; Feingold is in the Senate and impeachment resolutions must originate in the House, which Steph presumably knows as well— noted this was still an option if the Preznit did not mend his ways, but said that the censure offered an opportunity for a bipartisan statement, by members of Congress who also take oaths of their own to follow the Constitution, that the Preznit has violated it, and needs to stop doing so, and apologize.

(George S. is just about to fall down in a laughing fit at this point, just contemplating George Bush doing any of these things. Russ has just a little twinkle in the eye too at the prospect.)

Some dialogue is swapped over whether censure is itself in the Constitution, it was noted it has been used on presidents including Andrew Johnson and B. Clinton, so it has precedent and meaning. And would avoid putting the nation through a Constitutional crisis, while still allowing those Congresspersons who were tired of serving as the Preznit’s personal roll of toilet paper to register their desire to cease this function. And stand up for the Constitution and the Rule of Law too. “The Constitution and Bill of Rights were not repealed on 9-11” is perhaps our sound bite du jour here.

They then took on the political aspects of this, and here (IMHO) the true genius of Feingold’s move became clear. Democrats, he noted, must be tough on national security. We are, he noted, the party of the Rule of Law and civil liberties [yay Russ! That’s our framing right there.]

George S: Will this halt the fraying of the Republican party and force them to reunify back around Bush, who they have been trying to skooch away from as the poll numbers continue to drop?

Russ: Big grin, while noting the nonpartisan nature of this. It simply puts the Senate on record, he sez. Are they for the Constitution and Rule of Law, or are they going to cling to the lawbreaker? [You can just about hear the jaws of the trap snapping shut at this point.]

[More on the Censure issue can be found at Glen Greenwald’s place, considerably better written than my babble is as well as being a tad better informed on account of he is an expert in Constititional law and I am, er, not.]

[Minor babble about the Dubai ports deal, but very brief. On the “Are you running in ’08” question the answer was the usual “too busy to think about it right now, ask me in ’07” but what was nice was to hear him say he was “Too busy trying to reverse the disastrous course in Iraq, and reverse the Patriot Act.” More of that, Russ! More like that, other Democrats! Although if we can remember to phrase it as “the badly-misnamed “Patriot” Act” or at least the “so-called “Patriot” Act” this would be even better.]

So after barely 10 minutes with Sen. Feingold we go to Sen. Catkiller Frist. He seemed just a tad flustered by what he had just heard, both what Feingold was saying and the fact that Steph was having the temerity to ask him about it as if it was something he was supposed to take seriously.

He flat out babbled. We must Protect the American People at a time like this! Let’s just hope Our Enemies werent’ listening to the Sabbath Gasbag Shows, as this would encourage them, when we Should Be Encouraging Our Preznit! In a Time of War! 9-11, 9-11, 9-11!! Unprecedented! Iran! Wrong! Enemies!

George S: Do we need some shakeups on the white House staff?

CK Frist: Dodge, dodge, duck. Wiretapping IS legal! And Constitutional! And its perteckin the Murkin peepul. And stuff!

Chanting this mantra appeared to calm him somewhat, or else operators of lie detectors are right and it IS less stressful to tell the truth. Because the topic went to the Dubai ports, which he was against before he was for, which he denied even after George S. put some of his quotes, with dates, on the screen.

But he then went into a riff about reforming the FICUS committee was important, and getting Congressional oversight of the process was important, despite what he had just said earlier about Anything The Preznit Wants To Do Is Okay Because He’s The Preznit And He Sez So. He was at least speaking much slower and more calmly through this segment though; perhaps the meds had just kicked in. Good thing he’s got better insurance than TennCare because they completely quit paying for Valium and barbiturates for any disorder, including epilepsy, as of Jan. 1. But we digress….

Final questions were about the South Dakota abortion War on Women Act. They put up a chart of all the R’s at the Memphis Hootenanny with whether they would sign such a law if it were presented to them; all said “yes” except Romney [probably because he thought it was too lenient, with that “life of the woman” exception in it.] Frist said he was as anti-woman as anybody, by gum, but he would rather have life/rape/incest exceptions. Wuss.

Final subject was “Immigration Reform” which Fristy the Snowman is doing his best to be on both sides of as well. Snore. Did say “there will be a guest worker program” and did actualy mention the word “employer” but just once, with no details or mention of what punishment they would incurr or what country they would be deported to.

After that was the Round Table but due to the aformentioned water tank problem* being discovered around that time I didn’t see much of it. Donna Brazile was the “liberal” at the table so I kinda doubt I missed too much.

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Formerly the lead of this item, moved down here as my domestic troubles are not exactly the subject of this thread:

*Apologies for brevity this time but I am awaiting a callback from a plumber as to the matter of the pressure tank on my water well having sprung just a little teeny pinhole leak. He’s probably at church, and probably I should be too, as a little Miraculous Mechanical Healing is along the lines of what I can afford at the moment. Anybody have Robert Tilton’s prayer line number? Naw, never mind that, just kidding.