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I never said how he ultimately voted.
Seriously, think about it.
Bill Clinton's approval rating currently stands at 88% among Democrats. 88%. That is amazing. 88% of Democrats wouldn't be able to agree on how many days are in a week. Yet Clinton stands with a huge 88% approval rating.
Couple that with Clinton's call for Lieberman to give it up today, and he's suddenly getting kudos from the blogosphere, too.
For the past 7 or 8 years, Democrats have contended that what Bill Clinton did did not rise to the level of impeachment. That is was the result of a "vast rightwing conspiracy." A Republican witch hunt.
Then there is Russ Feingold who was the most persistent and vocal critic of Clinton and the greatest Democratic proponent of continuing the GOP investigations throughout the period from 1997-1999. During the Lewinsky scandal in particular, Feingold was Clinton’s strongest and earliest Democratic critic.
When the scandal first broke, Feingold said, “If there is any proof that (Clinton) lied under oath, I will have no trouble voting on his impeachment,” making him the only Senate Democrat to openly consider that most extreme measure.
He later said that Clinton should seriously consider resigning. Even in the wake of the House impeachment vote, when Clinton was at his most politically vulnerable, Feingold refused to say Clinton shouldn’t resign - even as fellow Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl strongly insisted that Clinton should remain in office.
At the actual Senate trial, Feingold was the Democrats’ Critic-in-Chief, voting to continue the trial and keep the charges on the books right up to the final vote:
Feingold was the only Democrat to vote against Robert Byrd’s motion to dismiss the charges.
Feingold was the only Democrat to support the motion to subpoena witnesses to testify against Clinton.
Feingold was the only Democrat to vote against either of Daschle’s motions to proceed to closing arguments - and he voted against both of them (on January 28 and on February 4).
Feingold did ultimately vote against removal, but unlike every other Democrat, he did not announce his opposition to impeachment until the day of the final vote. Feingold even refused to sign onto Dianne Feinstein’s bipartisan resolution to “censure and move on”, a resolution pushed by the founders of MoveOn.org because it would have undermined the proceedings of the impeachment trial. He only supported censure after impeachment had failed, when censure was the strongest measure left on the table to use against Clinton.
After Clinton’s impeachment trial was finally over, Feingold summed up his feelings succintly: President Clinton has disgraced himself.
So it's 2007. Feingold is in the race. Will he and his supporters suddenly claim the Democratic party, the DNC, the DLC, all associated politicians and bloggers were wrong? That Clinton deserved what he got and more? Will they say Feingold was standing on "principle" when he aided an attempted coup against a sitting Democratic president? Will Feingold supporters, and Feingold himself, embrace his statement that Clinton disgraced himself?
Bill Clinton. 88% approval rating among Democrats. Credited with the largest economic expansion in our country's history. Eight years of peace and prosperity.
Feingold will be hit hard and hit often with this by his primary opponents and will be lucky to limp out of New Hampshire.
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