1115.org

Only two Democratic senators have supported Russ Feingold’s censure motion—the co-sponsors, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California.

On the other hand, Republicans and their supporters have loudly and publicly welcomed the censure motion as a gift from the gods that will only serve to energize the Republican base. Democrats in Congress and Democratic pundits have evidently bought into this notion big time.

What I’m wondering is, if the Republicans were really thrilled to bits with Feingold’s censure emotion, and they wanted Democrats to press on with it, would it be smarter for them to be fervently thanking Feingold and God in public, or would it be smarter to pretend that they really don’t relish the prospect of the motion being brought to a vote?

Maybe that’s too cute an argument. And it certainly opens up the door to endlessly futile exercises, where you then start to second-guess the second-guess, and go: are they just saying X because they want me to believe not-X, so maybe I should really believe X? But I still feel that the Republican machine is too smart to so openly embrace the censure motion if they really see it as a boon. And, surely, the way they went about it – practically offering to vote before the motion was even introduced – was laying it on a bit too thick?

Maybe the censure motion will energize the Republican base, but it will also energize the Democratic base. In fact:

A Newsweek poll taken March 16-17 found that 50 percent of those surveyed opposed censuring Bush while 42 percent supported it, but among Democrats, 60 percent favored the effort.

And, surely, being forced to vote on the censure motion will severely discomfit the incumbent Republicans who want or need to distance themselves from the President? After all, what they want to distance themselves from most is the perceived failure of his Iraq policies, and the above-the-law high-handedness he has brought to the war on terror.

Also, can Republicans really want to make this an issue in the midterm elections?

“I welcome their attempt to make a campaign issue of the question of whether there will be accountability for the president’s breaking the law,” (Feingold) said. “They will remind people every minute that the president thumbed his nose at the law.”