The Political Environment: Feingold Reprimands McCain

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

jimspice said...: I would hope the comments of Sen. Feingold would resonate with Sen. McCain given their history and friendship.

I, for one, pay close attention to the opinions of the junior Wisconsin Senator, having seen him take strong stances and cast wise votes, even when they were politically unpopular (Patriot Act and Iraq war come to mind). And even though he was in line with public sentiment on the recent economic stabilization vote, he was one of the few Dems to vote against it, explaining

"It fails to offset the cost of the plan, leaving taxpayers to bear the burden of serious lapses of judgment by private financial institutions, their regulators, and the enablers in Washington who paved the way for this catastrophe by removing the safeguards that had protected consumers and the economy since the great depression. The bailout legislation also fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn't do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess."

To soon to know if he's correct (I probably would have held my nose and voted yes), but given his prescient tendencies, I wouldn't put it past him.

Too bad he didn't have the foresight to throw his hat in the ring 2 years ago. Can you imagine a Feingold Obama ticket?

spice; October 14, 2008 at 10:03 AM