As conflicts around the world continue to escalate, it is becoming increasingly clear as to why Senator Russ Feingold and his campaign are so eager to run from his eighteen years in Washington and to rewrite his "bad bet on intelligence."
Despite attempting to distance himself from his own failed record, Senator Russ Feingold rushes to defend President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. The president who referred to ISIS as a ‘JV’ team and "contained" has consistently relied upon his former colleague Russ Feingold to be his cheerleader.
Feingold, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explains, "has broadly praised Obama’s domestic and international record."
FLASHBACK:
National security is set to become the key issue of Wisconsin’s Senate race as it reveals the "stark divide" between Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson and Russ Feingold, the former senator who voted against establishing the Department of Homeland Security.
In case you missed it, check out the Journal Sentinel’s deep dive on the national security contrast between Ron Johnson and Russ Feingold:
Johnson-Feingold race offers stark divide on national security
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Craig Gilbert
December 6, 2015
National security was a back-burner issue the first time Ron Johnson and Russ Feingold went head-to-head five years ago.
But their rematch could give us the sharpest, starkest debate over war, terrorism and America’s role in the world of any Senate race in the country in 2016.
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Feingold was the only senator to oppose the Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Johnson says the Patriot Act isn’t strong enough.
Feingold backs the Iran nuclear deal. Johnson calls it a disaster.
If the Paris and California attacks, chaos in Syria and the specter of the Islamic State end up thrusting national security to the fore in the next election, then Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race ought to be a marquee battlefront in that debate.
Asked to size up the differences on national security between him and Feingold, Johnson says, “I’m serious about it and I’m not sure he is. I mean you’ve got the one guy voting against the Patriot Act. This is right after 9/11.”
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It’s not just that the two men differ on so much. It’s also that both have had such loud voices and prominent platforms on these issues.
Johnson chairs the Senate’s homeland security panel and sits on the foreign relations committee.
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Combating the Islamic State. Johnson says ISIS won’t be defeated without committing significant ground forces from the U.S. and an international “coalition of the willing” to push the Islamic State out of both Iraq and Syria.
“We need to start denying them safe havens anywhere … yes, we need boots on the ground,” Johnson says.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we were back in position at the end of 2011 and we had 20-25,000 American troops in a largely peaceful Iraq and were just kind of dealing with the political intrigue between Kurds, Sunnis and Shia?” says Johnson. “We shouldn’t have withdrawn … now we’ve got to try to put that Humpty Dumpty back together again and it’s going to be enormously difficult.”
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Iran. Johnson was a fierce critic of the Iran nuclear deal, and tried and failed to get the GOP-controlled Senate to raise the threshold needed for passage to the very high bar required for treaties — two-thirds approval.
“Why in the world would you support an agreement that is going to funnel tens of billions of dollars, eventually hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy and military of your self-proclaimed enemy? Shouldn’t you be weakening your enemy?” Johnson says of the lifting of some economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Johnson suggests any agreement with Iran is problematic. “I don’t view them as a rational actor. They have an apocalyptic view of the world,” he says. He calls a nuclear Iran America’s biggest long-term security threat.
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The Patriot Act. Both men say better intelligence is vital, but they differ over the government’s surveillance powers. Feingold’s lone Senate vote against the 2001 Patriot Act was a defining one for him
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The Obama record. Feingold has broadly praised Obama’s domestic and international record.
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Johnson is categorical in his condemnation of the Obama national security record.
“He is going to go down in history as a historically bad president in terms of foreign policy,” says Johnson. “President Obama has made matters much, much worse.”