First Murtha, now Fe…

First Murtha, now Feingold.

Democrats distanced themselves Monday from Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold’s effort to censure President Bush over domestic spying, preventing a floor vote that could alienate swing voters.

A day of tough, election-year talk between Feingold and Vice President Dick Cheney ended with Senate leaders sending the matter to the Judiciary Committee.

“I look forward to a full hearing, debate and vote in committee on this important matter,” Feingold said in a statement late Monday. “If the Committee fails to consider the resolution expeditiously, I will ask that there be a vote in the full Senate.”

Republicans dared Democrats to vote for the proposal.

“Some Democrats in Congress have decided the president is the enemy,” Vice President Dick Cheney told a Republican audience in Feingold’s home state.

Feingold, a potential presidential candidate, said on the Senate floor, “The president has violated the law and Congress must respond.”

Democrats talked up Murtha’s “cut and run” resolution, but ran away in droves when it came time to vote on a virtually identical bill. Now they’re talking up how the President “broke the law” (pre-declaring the results of the investigation into the NSA program) but they won’t put their votes where their mouths are, and Frist has called their bluff again.

Even as he spoke, Democratic leaders held off the immediate vote that Majority Leader Bill Frist requested. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he didn’t know if there ever would be one. Durbin said that Feingold had sought to use the censure resolution “as a catalyst” for thorough hearings and investigations.

The referral averted a debate and a vote that Democrats privately worried would alienate voters who could decide close elections.

Democrats are painfully aware that the American people are all for spying on terrorists. If it’s OK to shoot them, why not listen in on them? Now, I’m very aware that what is and is not constitutional is not up for a plebiscite, but the ConLaw types have come down on both sides of the issue, which is why there’s an investigation going on. Since Democrats don’t have a consensus there, they’ve been suggesting that the people won’t stand for this. Well, that’s what they’ve been saying, but apparently they don’t believe it themselves.

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