I don't have front page abilities or my own blog which is read by thousands of people. But, I'll still post my rebuttal to Matt's attack  on Sen. Obama. And although criticism is not necessarily an attack, consistent criticism directed in the direction of one person is in fact an attack.

I'm unclear about why Matt is so obsessed with attacking the Junior Senator from Illinois. It is fair to call on him to support legislation or recolutions like Sen. Feingold's call for censure. It is fair to even ask him to take on a higher profile role given his public stature.

But, it is also fair to examine his record and see how he's done thus far.

A lot of words and emotions have been shed over the race in IL-06. I live in nearby Illinois 10 but was following this race quite a bit and stayed up quite late to see the results trickle in.

In the end (almost the end as only 98.6% are still reporting, Tammy Duckworth seems to have pulled out the victory.

   Duckworth , Tammy     Dem     14,019     43.81
    Cegelis , Christine     Dem     12,939     40.44
    Scott , Lindy             Dem     5,038     15.75

A lot of us in the "netroots" and local progressives are quite upset by what transpired here, Duckworth supporters claimed to be leading in the polls, that Cegilis had no support, and that only their candidate could win. Clearly, that wasn't the case, having been hugely outspent, Cegelis still nearly pulled it out

So what happens now? Please read below the fold.

Political analyst Larry Sabato commented on Senator Feingold's viability in the 2008 Presidential election in an article that came out today. (http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=66348&ntpid=1)

"Political watchers such as University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato point out that while Feingold's recent stands on civil liberties and the Iraq war may please liberal activists, they may well hurt his chances later on with moderate Democrats and conservatives. "

The Senator's response?

"I don't care,"... "Whatever political considerations I have are absolutely irrelevant to the decisions I make having to do with people's civil liberties and something as weighty as Americans risking their lives overseas. The day that I start think politically about those things is the day I should leave politics."

This is the embodiment of what we should demand from our political leaders. Decision making and real leadership sans politics. Just imagine if all our leaders acted like this rather than worrying non-stop about their political futures.

And, I still think that the Senator can be  President in 2008.

Senator Feingold of Wisconsin has been in the news a lot lately for his powerful leadership. A strong opponent of the war, Russ Feingold was the 1st Senator call for a timetable for withdrawal of US forces by Dec 31, 2006.

Senator Feingold was also the sole senator to oppose the USA Patriot Act and has been a leader in fighting for civil liberty protection in the Patriot Act renewal.

Now, we have a great opportunity to interact with this proud Democrat. You can submit questions to the Senator at
RussForPresident.com. The deadline is Tuesday at noon and we'll get as many answered as possible.

Please recommend this so that others get this opportunity as well.

 Ever since the race in OH-2 I've been mulling over the possibility of starting my own blog to follow my local race. During the special election Blog.oh2.com and SwingStateProject allowed me to see what was going on in the district and feel like part of the action.

So, today I took the leap and made my own blog. It's totally simple but functional - i think. As I'm currently out of the district and away at school I'm also going to try and get some other people to post from within the district.

http://illinois10.blogspot.com/

Tell me what you think. What should it have? A map of the district? What would you like to see?

And here's my challenge. Let's have a blog for EVERY single congressional race in 2006.

Recently, I've been looking more closely at the 50 state strategy and its implications for 2006. I've come to the realization that 2006/2008 are our only chances to try it out. Should we fail again, the pundits and DLC type politicians will come back and tell us we've wasted too much money on states we couldn't win. We're just idealists with no political skill. And, worst of all, we're contributing to Republican victories.

So, we need to put all we have into making Democrats competitive everywhere. This doesn't mean putting millions into every race like we did with Paul Hackett, but it DOES mean financial support for candidates we're interested in. In particular, it seems younger candidates deserve our support. Why? Because they represent the future of our party. If you're 20 , run for congress, and get no support you may be turned off from politics. If, however, you get a 1000 DailyKos members to give you 10 bucks each, you suddenly realize that someone out there believes in your campaign.

Everytime I think about the 2006 and 2008 elections, I wonder about what issues will really matter. I've come back to a fairly simple set of issues that just make sense to me.

Restoring Ethical and Accountable Government, Ensuring Fair Elections, providing Universal Health Care, Protecting Our Civil Liberties, and Fighting the War on Terror.

Senator Feingold has consistently been on top of all of these issues. However,it's not enough to simply rattle off some votes and positions to convice people who to vote for. People want to know more about the candidate, hear about how he's fought for the issues and whether he actually walks the walk. The people of Wisconsin already know this so 49% of them would like to see their Senator run for the presidency (http://www.angus-reid.com/...)

Now, RussForPresident.com is putting together a series of publications called "Forward" with original writings on Senator Feingold and his positions. These are designed to introduce Americans to Sen. Feingold. We're asking for you - Russ's supporters- to write about the Senator's positions and why you favor them.

 A lot has been diaried recently about Sen. Feingold and a prospective 2008 Presidential Campaign. I don't generally do this, but I ask that you recommend this diary so that others get a chance to help support the effort. Today, we have the opportunity to actually do something to help the good Senator. RussForPresident.com is set to put blog ads around the net to increase the Senator's visibility and name-recogntion but we need your help choosing the best of these grassroots created blogads.

But here's a quick refresher on Sen. Feingold

    * ONLY senator to vote NO on the USA PATRIOT ACT
    * voted NO on the War in Iraq
    * ONLY senator to call for withdrawal by 12/2006
    * Pro-choice
    * Pro 2nd Amendment
    * Co-Author of McCain-Feingold (Campaign Finance Reform Act)

Complete Issue Positions are available as well:

http://www.russfeingold.org/#Issues

So head on over to http://www.RussForPresident.com and support the blogads by voting and making a contribution for them to run.