Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI
04-30-06
Feingold visits Iowa to make some friends
Senator gets warm welcome as he flirts with run for president
By GREG J. BOROWSKI
Osceola, Iowa - With the auditorium stocked with political junkies, the sort who watch late-night speeches on C-SPAN and then comment about them on the Internet, Sen. Russ Feingold hardly needed an introduction Saturday in Iowa, where he spent the day speaking at local Democratic Party meetings.
After all, he arrived in the state - the key to any presidential ambitions - with a red-meat résumé: Lone vote against the Patriot Act. No to the war in Iraq. No to NAFTA and other trade agreements. No to President Bush's education reforms.
And, of course, yes to a censure of the president.
Indeed, the crowd of about 150 at the local high school stood to cheer as soon as it was clear Feingold was in the room.
Officially, this trip was the same as the one last fall to New Hampshire, the other presidential starting point. Just here to support other candidates. Just here to listen. To learn.
So, Feingold ducks the question of whether he will run - "I'll think about it later," he said at the University of Iowa - even as he positions himself to do so if he chooses.
The two-day trek to Iowa follows recent profile-raising visits to Texas, Vermont, Colorado and Minnesota.
"I absolutely love this kind of thing," Feingold said in an interview. "This is what it was like when I was running for the state Senate. I'm 100 percent comfortable in Iowa. When I was down in Alabama, I loved it, but it was a little different."
To be sure, Feingold is quick to note that even there, away from the farms of the Midwest, he found some common ground, made some friends.
For Feingold and the more than a dozen presidential would-bes and wannabes in both parties, that is what this period is about: making friends.
And in Iowa, some 21 months before the 2008 caucuses, you do that by hitting the circuit.
Feingold may trail the others when it comes to money (a mere $1.6 million combined in his Senate fund and the separate Progressive Patriots Fund), but he arrived in Iowa with an advantage over many on the Democratic side. A brand name.
"If you vote against giving Bush war powers, and you have been critical and skeptical about Iraq, and you're the guy identified with censure, you definitely are not like most of the pack," said Steffen Schmidt, a professor of political science at Iowa State University. "He has a separate stage, a different ring in the circus to stand in."
To critics, the circus metaphor is apt. Where Feingold says he is operating on principle, such as with his resolution to censure Bush on the issue of domestic spying, they say he is playing politics. That he is raising his profile in a reckless way.
As much as Feingold's message may sell in Iowa, and those who heard him this weekend loved him, critics say it will be a tougher fit around the country.
"I think Feingold is positioning himself so far to the left, that it will be hard for him to get back to the middle," said Rick Wiley, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.
"The battlefield is littered with great general election candidates," he said. "Feingold is the opposite of that. He's a great primary candidate."
At this point, the biggest factor in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses - at least on the Democratic side - will be if outgoing Gov. Tom Vilsack decides to run. If he does, analysts say, many Democrats might bypass Iowa. Others might enter, but mostly in hopes of using the state to build momentum.
So far, at least nine potential Democratic candidates have come though Iowa, not including Hillary Clinton - another key factor in how the Democratic race would shake out.
Among Iowa political observers, the most frequent comparison for Feingold is to 2004 contender Howard Dean. Feingold is tapping into the same anti-war sentiment, and is a hit among those who, in Feingold's words, "want us to stand up for something we believe in."
But, after an initial surge, Dean finished third in the state's 2004 caucuses, a result - some say - of a campaign organization that was lacking in a state where that can be as important as the message.
"The audience they're really trying to reach right now are the people they can entice to work for them on their campaign," said Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Iowa.
"Organization is critical," he said. "It's heightened this time because it looks like there will be a large field of candidates."
Thus, the candidate visits are the political equivalent of speed dating. On Saturday, Feingold spoke to three separate congressional district meetings, plus added a pancake breakfast to get more one-on-one time.
At each, he got 10 to 15 minutes at the podium. He used it to joke about the Badgers-Hawkeyes rivalry, push local candidates, touch on the right list of issues (health care, Medicare, alternative fuels, jobs) and to explain his move to censure Bush - always noting that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was one of the few to back the idea.
Feingold said it is a case of Bush violating the law. He called the actions "probably an impeachable offense," adding that from that point of view, a censure - not used for a president since 1834 - is a "moderate" approach.
Along the way, it was the lines about censuring Bush and pulling out of Iraq that drew the loudest cheers. Last week, Feingold offered an amendment that would require troops to be "redeployed" by Dec. 31.
After the speech in Osceola, party activist David Grimesey rushed to the hallway to be sure to get a chance to shake Feingold's hand.
"He's what we consider the Real McCoy," Grimesey said. "He doesn't have to say what he stands for. You can look at what he's done, and it actually matches what he's said."
Later, in Johnston, just outside Des Moines, Leonard Tinker shouted "yes," several times during Feingold's talk. He found Feingold afterward to tell him: "I'm sick and tired of the Democrats (who) when you proposed to censure Bush, ran from you like cockroaches when they turn the light on."
He added: "When we say what we believe, we win."
"I'm with you," Feingold said.
From there, it was on to Fort Dodge, for more of the same. But only after he huddled in a corner with Mark Smith, head of the state AFL-CIO.
According to Iowa Democratic Party officials, Feingold was the only one of the possible contenders in the state this weekend. The meetings are a precursor to the state convention June 17 - another spot to be seen, though it's not on Feingold's schedule.
The last time Feingold was on such a trip to Iowa, it was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when he made stops at universities in four states.
This time, former U.S. Rep. Dave Nagle, a Democrat who represented the Iowa City area from 1987 to 1993, urged him to come to the state to spread his message.
"I think Iowa, like New Hampshire, is an echo chamber and what is said here is heard in many places," Nagle said, after Feingold's speech Friday.
As for any higher ambitions, there is time for that. Indeed, according to Nagle, Feingold should have expected little more than a peck on the cheek.
"We're one of the two most popular girls in school, and we like to be courted," he said. "No one commits on the first offer."