Feingold in 2012?

Well it seems that in the field of contenders for the '08 Presidential nomination we can cross off Russ Feingold. He was definitely my favorite candidate for the nomination and I am disappointed to see that he is going to be on the sidelines. I am a huge fan of Feingold for a number of reasons, but mostly because he possesses a quality that so many lack in Washington- integrity. And as the vanguard of true progressivism, in the mold of Paul Wellstone, he would have certainly kept the focus of the campaign on issues that matter.

As this excellent post by Glenn Greenwald demonstrates, having a person in Washington like Feingold drives the peddlers of conventional wisdom crazy:

It is hard to overstate how ignorant and wrong Beltway pundits are about everything, and how barren and corrupt inside-Washington conventional wisdom is.

Russ Feingold has spent his entire idiosyncratic political career espousing views because he believes them, even when those views are so plainly contrary to his political interests. He infuriated his entire party by being the only Democratic Senator to vote against dismissal of the Clinton impeachment charges prior to the Senate trial. He pursued campaign finance reform hated by incumbents in both parties.

Why does Feingold do these crazy things? Well, in his own words he sums it up rather nicely:

I love this country very much and am so lucky to be able to serve it in the United States Senate.

We really need more people like him.