SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
russ feingold
The Billionaire Class Is Terrified That Russ Feingold Will Return to the Senate
" Russ Feingold is backed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and opposed by billionaire defenders of oligarchy."
Like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren--both of whom are ardent Feingold backers--the Wisconsin Democrat understands that a campaign-finance system that allows "legalized bribery" is rigging the economy to benefit billionaires. And that scares the idle rich. So the very rich are opening their checkbooks once more, in hopes of keeping a very serious reformer out of the Senate.
It's not just about Feingold. The billionaires would happily fund campaigns against Sanders or Warren. But Sanders and Warren are not on the November 8 ballot. Feingold is. And if he wins, the progressive caucus in the Senate will be strengthened at precisely the point when Americans are demanding the sort of reforms Feingold has long proposed.
Russ Feingold is backed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and opposed by billionaire defenders of oligarchy.
That prospect is so scary that billionaire donors--and the political front groups they fund-are spending astronomical amounts to help reelect Feingold's hapless foe, US Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin. Arguably the most nondescript member of Senator majority leader Mitch McConnell's obstructionist caucus, Johnson was elected in 2010 on a Republican wave that is unlikely to hit again this year. It has been clear for months that the incumbent's only hope for winning reelection is a smear campaign against Feingold.
The negative television ads and mailings that deliver the smears cost money. And here it comes. Johnson, a millionaire whose primary mission in the US Senate has been to serve as an errand boy for economic elites, is getting a last-minute boost from the oligarchy.
Wisconsin billionaire Diane Hendricks, a political associate of the Koch brothers and close ally of anti-labor Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, gave $1.3 million to a pro-Johnson super PAC in September. "With her latest donation to Reform America, Hendricks is now up to $5.6 million that she had given to various PACs, super PACs, political parties and other entities helping out Johnson in his re-election bid," reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Hendricks is not alone. As the election approaches, Feingold aides say, the Republican senator is "turning to his handful of billionaire backers to bail him out again." Most of the money is going to supposedly independent groups. Those groups are spending heavily on negative ads that amplify themes associated with Johnson's fiercely negative campaign. Desperate and angry, the erratic incumbent is lashing out at his challenger in increasingly visceral language that is often at odds with reality.
While Feingold has long been known as an independent progressive who works across lines of partisanship and ideology to get things done--as he did during his Senate tenure, when he partnered with sincere conservatives on issues ranging from campaign finance reform to privacy rights, trade policy, and presidential accountability--Johnson is now trying to dismiss his opponent as a political charlatan.
While Feingold sticks to the high road--telling reporters who ask about the incumbent's startlingly-negative campaign that: "I respect Senator Johnson and his office, and I'm going to continue to talk about the issues and not get involved in that sort of thing"--Johnson rants about how his challenger is "lying about me, distorting my record and engaging in class warfare."
Feingold's foe is millionaire Trump backer Ron Johnson, who chirps about campaigning as "the Ronald and the Donald."
A Donald Trump backer who chirps about campaigning with the Republican presidential nominee as "the Ronald and the Donald," Johnson has brought Trump-style politics to the Senate race. Of Feingold, the senator says, "He's a complete phony and I'm actually genuine."
In particular, Johnson is attacking Feingold for his post-Senate service, during which the Democrat taught at two prestigious universities (Stanford and Marquette), wrote a book on foreign policy in general and fighting terror threats in particular that continues to be praised by Democrats and Republicans (Arizona Senator John McCain: "Russ illuminates some of the challenges our nation faces in the post-9/11 era with his trademark integrity and independence"), and served as special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Johnson's attacks have grown so bizarre that they have been a certain level of amusement among commentators in Wisconsin. But the incumbent's "hysterical scorched-earth strategy" cannot be casually neglected, as it is backed up by a billionaire class that fears genuine reformers like Russ Feingold.
The Long Arm of US Law: What Next for Edward Snowden?
On 21 June, his 30th birthday, the US indicted him on three charges, including two under the Espionage Act: theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorised person, with a possible combined sentence of up to 30 years in jail. Further charges could be added. The death penalty is also available under a section of the act but the US attorney general, Eric Holder, said in July that Snowden would not face execution.
America would "do everything in its power short of snatching him from Russia to try to have Edward Snowden put on trial in the US", said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Centre's liberty and national security programme at New York University law school. If he was to try to move somewhere other than Russia, the US would go to great lengths to intercept him, she said.
Goitein, who has worked on government secrecy and privacy rights while serving as counsel to the Democratic senator Russ Feingold, the chairman of the constitution subcommittee of the Senate judiciary committee, predicted that if Snowden were to go on trial in the US, conviction and a long sentence were likely: "I do not think they would settle for a few years in the case of Edward Snowden. [He] is likely to face some very significant jail time."
What are his chances in front of a jury? "Most Americans see him as a whistleblower but many do see him as a traitor. So he would be really rolling the dice," Goitein said.
In the past, whistleblowers have tended to be treated leniently. The most famous in recent American history, Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon papers that revealed the US government had misled Congress and the public about its activities in Vietnam, was also charged under the Espionage Act but had all charges dismissed.
In 2011, a former NSA executive, Thomas Drake, faced serious charges but they were dropped on the eve of the trial and he was sentenced to a year's probation and community service.
But the Obama administration is becoming tougher, with former soldier Chelsea Manning sentenced this year to 35 years over the WikiLeaks cables. Goitein said Manning's conviction changed the legal landscape. "The Espionage Act has been used only a handful of times to try to prosecute leaks to the media, and until recently, the effort hasn't been very successful. That's why the verdict and 35-year sentence in Manning's case was such a breakthrough for the government."
Under Obama, there have been seven prosecutions, some of which are still under way. Jennifer Elsea, a lawyer at the independent Congressional Research Service, wrote in a recent report: "A number of other cases involving charges under the Espionage Act, including efforts to extradite Edward Snowden, demonstrate the Obama administration's relatively hardline policy with respect to the prosecution of persons suspected of leaking classified information to the media."
There is almost no legal protection for whistleblowers disclosing misconduct or abuse.
Like Goitein, Dinah PoKempner, general counsel of Human Rights Watch, is pessimistic about Snowden's chances in a US court. "While there is little doubt that Edward Snowden would have highly credible claims under international human rights standards for protection as a whistleblower, US law offers no protection for those who reveal to the public wrongdoing in the areas of national security or intelligence," she said. "His rights would not be protected, and he would not be able to count on this as a defence to criminal charges."
Snowden has permission to live, work and travel in Russia until 31 July next year, although he is likely to be granted further extensions beyond that. His supporters in Germany, including prominent members of the Green party, are pushing for him to be granted asylum in the country, given the service they say he has done in revealing the scale of surveillance, particularly the secret US monitoring of Angela Merkel's mobile phone. But the German government has made it clear that this is an unlikely as it does not view him as a political refugee.
One of the worst-case scenarios for Snowden is if Russia, after a few years of exploiting his presence for propaganda purposes, decided to do a deal with the US, possibly exchanging him for a high-profile Russian in an American jail.
In Big Win for Defense Industry, Obama Rolls Back Limits on Arms Exports
Most Popular