So where do you get a few more dozen politicians like Senator Russ Feingold.  How refreshing to listen to a politician who is not afraid to announce understandable positions on important issues. I listened critically. I wanted to be able to say that I found at least minor fault with him on at least some issues.  But it was not to be, at least not regarding this speech, which he made on June 14, 2006 as part of “Take Back America” conference.

Here are several of the major points made by Feingold:

[I]f you need a smoking gun on this — I hope you’ve seen this document.  The administration had, two months after 9/11, on the State Department website with the president’s name on there, a list of 45 countries where al Qaeda was operating. It included Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Ireland, the United States. Guess what country wasn’t even on their list? Iraq wasn’t even on their list . . .

Well, we must stand up to this. We must be clear that we care about fighting the terrorist network that attacked us. But we also have to be able to say when they got it wrong, and they got it wrong on Iraq. Iraq was a mistake . . .

We also have to show that we’re willing to stand up not only to these strategic mistakes and the seemingly endless misleading statements and the incompetence, we also have to stand up for our values, for our Constitution, for our Bill of Rights, and for the rule of law. That has to be part of this. The last time I checked, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were not repealed on 9/11.

And finally, on the issue of censuring the president:

Those who say how come your censure resolution isn’t moving — we’ve got two and a half years, and it is very important to remember that, because however this happens, if we don’t do it, our kids will look at that history book and they’ll say, “You know, they’re saying the president can do whatever he wants. Let’s look back what happened in 2006, what did they do?” And there will be a blank slate.

To read the transcript of Senator Feingold’s speech, click here.  To watch the 21-minute video, click here.