La Crosse Tribune: Feingold disucsses "Scooter," Iraq & the Patriot Act

The following article was submitted by one of our readers. It was written by Reid Maghey of La Crosse Tribune. It appears in the Sunday, Oct. 30 edition.

Congress needs to “investigate the whole mess” related to “phony evidence to justify a war” in the wake of Friday’s indictment of the vice president’s chief of staff, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold said Friday in La Crosse. But that might not happen because Republicans control both houses of Congress, and any committee chairman who dares to call hearings won’t be a chairman for long, the Wisconsin Democrat told reporters.

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr., the top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, faces charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the investigation of who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name to the press in an effort to discredit her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson. Wilson, a critic of going to war with Iraq, had questioned Bush’s assertion Iraq had sought nuclear material from Niger.

Feingold said he remembers President Bush saying Iraq was trying to buy components of weapons of mass destruction from Niger and Feingold believed it didn’t make sense, based on what he knows about Africa.

Feingold was in La Crosse speaking at the Wisconsin Library Association convention, where he was welcomed as a hero for his opposition to the USA Patriot Act. Librarians oppose parts of the law that allow the FBI to view library patrons’ borrowing records and gags library staff from ever talking about it if it happens.

“You are warriors, warriors in the effort to protect our freedoms as we combat terrorism,” Feingold said.

Both the Senate and the House have passed bills that change parts of the Patriot Act, but Feingold said only the Senate version protects libraries and addresses civil liberties concerns.House and Senate leaders will reconcile the two bills in coming days, and Feingold said he’s told Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, “I’m going to be a difficult man” if the Senate version isn’t the final version of the bill. “I will use every option to block any bill that doesn’t fix problems with the Patriot Act,” he said.

Asked by a librarian about Supreme Court nominees, Feingold said Harriet Miers called to consult him before Judge John Roberts’ nomination, and before her own nomination. “There was no reason to believe she was ready to be on the Supreme Court,” said Feingold, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Feingold has been exploring a run for president in 2008, and was asked by a librarian whether he’d rather be president, a supreme court justice or both. “What I’ve always wanted was to be a senator from the state of Wisconsin,” Feingold said, getting a big laugh for dodging the question. After the speech, a librarian with whom Feingold attended school gave him a hug and reminded him that even in those days, he wanted to be president.

La Crosse Tribune