The cheese stands alone --Feingold in Wisconsin tradition

Joel McNally writes in the Shepherd-Express of Sen. Russ Feingold's willingness to stand alone on an issue. Right now it's setting a target date for the US to get out of Iraq, but Feingold was also the only vote against the Patriot Act and in a small minority with the courage to vote against the war in Iraq.

McNally's article is titled, "The Cheese Stands Alone."

The AP also notes, in a national wire story, that Feingold's willingness to be out front could stamp him as the antiwar presidential candidate in 2008.

Feingold is in good company in being willing to stand alone. He holds the Senate seat formerly occupied by Gaylord Nelson, another cheesehead who was not afraid to stand alone in the Senate. His vote against Vietnam war appropriations -- one of three in the Senate -- is well-known. But there were other times, too.

Quoting from one of favorite books, Gaylord Nelson's biography (I know the author intimately):

In May 1975, Nelson stood alone in the Senate to question U.S. military action to free a U.S. cargo ship, the Mayaguez, which had been captured by Cambodia's Khmer Rouge army. President Gerald Ford called it piracy and acted quickly, without consulting Congress, to order military action. The ship and its crew were freed, and reaction from the public and the Congress was nearly unanimous in support of Ford's action. Nelson strongly dissented from the prevailing view.

"What vital national interest was at stake to justify such a precipitate and violent response?" Nelson asked. "Did we need to sacrifice any of the lives of our soldiers, endanger the ship and its crew, and bomb a Cambodian airport in order to settle this dispute? The answer, I think, is no. We did not even bother to give the negotiation process a fair trial. The test of the strength and maturity of a superpower is better measured by its restraint in minor incidents rather than demonstration of the power the world already knows we have at our command. I dissent from the conventional wisdom that tells us we must prove our virility and maintain our credibility by responding with violence wherever and whenever we may be challenged, however minor the insult."

Almost the only other member of Congress to raise questions was Rep. Robert Kastenmeier, the liberal from Madison.

Nelson's stand won him praise from columnists and editorial writers. While the presidential field played it safe, Nelson had the courage to emulate Adlai Stevenson and "talk sense to the American public,"Tom Braden wrote in the Washington Post. Anthony Lewis of the New York Times called Nelson "the outstanding voice of reason and proportion." Braden quoted from some of Nelson's mail: "Go live in Cambodia." "Drop dead, you yellow-bellied traitor." "You are despicable and disgusting." "Let's give America back its pride." The mail was not all from Wisconsin, and it was not all negative or vicious. As time passed, more people wondered about the decision, especially upon learning more details of the operation. Marines who stormed aboard the container ship had found it empty, and Cambodia had sent a message indicating it would return the ship before the raid took place. The crew already had been released before the Marines landed on a nearby island. Forty-one American servicemen lost their lives in the operation, and fifty more were wounded in trying to rescue the thirty-nine crew members who already had been released.

As was often the case, Nelson was ahead of the curve -- which may have its political rewards in hindsight but is a dangerous place to be if running as a mainstream presidential candidate. But Nelson was not a presidential candidate; he was a U. S. Senator from Wisconsin with five years remaining in his term, free to speak his mind. Nor was his stand and statement a calculated effort to get national attention for himself. In fact, he simply responded to news media inquiries about the issue.

Nelson wasn't afraid of a fight, of taking an unpopular stand, of conflict and controversy. His early opposition to the Vietnam war and espousal of an environmental agenda that included banning the internal combustion engine were evidence of that. In 1971, he cast the only Senate vote against a new, widely promoted and heavily lobbied federal Conquest of Cancer agency, causing some cohad votedts to ask why he had voted "in favor of cancer."He was vindicated when his position -- that the cancer fight should remain in the National Institutes of Health, not be waged by an agency reporting directly to the president -- prevailed in the House and in the final bill. . .

He was among a handful of Senators voting against confirmation of Henry Kissinger, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, Clement Haynsworth, and other presidential appointees he felt did not measure up. But he wanted to pick his fights, and did not feel obligated to get into every one that came along.

Finally, Truthout lists myths about Iraq policy that Feingold has debunked.