DEFOREST — John Bolton probably should not visit DeForest anytime soon.
Bolton, President Bush’s choice to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was the recipient of nearly unanimous scorn Friday from local residents attending Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s annual listening session in Dane County.
“Bolton is a stick in the eye to the world community,” session attendee Midge Miller said in echoing the concerns of many other local citizens. “Bush is so irresponsible to have [appointed him].”
Feingold did little to disagree with the DeForest denizens, saying he is “troubled” by the nomination of Bolton, who has been critical of the U.N. in the past.
“Why would you pick a guy who despises the U.N.?” Feingold asked. “I have serious reservations.”
The forum in DeForest, a village of 8,000 in northern Dane County, was Feingold’s 16th listening session this year and 880th overall since his election to the U.S. Senate in 1992. Feingold holds a listening session in each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties once per year.
Feingold brought a high profile with him to this session. Wisconsin’s junior senator has received significant buzz in the national media in recent weeks concerning a possible 2008 presidential run, fueled by his founding of the Progressive Patriots Fund political action committee and a recent trip to Alabama.
Feingold shied away from prognosticating his future Friday, however, simply saying, “I have no idea how I feel” about a possible presidential campaign.
On other subjects, Feingold was more forthcoming, blasting runaway budget spending by Republicans, criticizing the recently passed bankruptcy reform package and discussing his recent visits to Iraq and Afghanistan.
While saying he would wait until the confirmation hearing to decide Bolton’s fate, Feingold defended his custom of voting for the majority of the president’s Cabinet nominations, in contrast with some other Democrats.
“A lot of people just think if you don’t like the guy, don’t like George Bush, [then] just vote against all of his appointments,” Feingold said. “I tell you, someday we’re going to have a progressive president, and we’re not going to want that to be the standard.”
With renewal of the USA Patriot Act set to come before Congress this week, Feingold touted his Patriot Act alternative — the SAFE Act — that he said would fix the constitutional violations in the original law. Feingold was the only U.S. senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001.
“A lot of conservatives don’t want government to have this kind of power,” Feingold said of some Republicans who have lined up to support the SAFE Act.
Feingold also weighed in on the debate over Social Security, which has emerged as a top domestic issue in the last month. Bush has promoted letting workers put a portion of their payroll taxes into private accounts in an effort to save a program some estimate set to be bankrupt by 2041.
But Feingold said most people do not support privatization — and that Democrats do not need to immediately put an alternative to private accounts on the table.
“Everybody says Alabama is the opposite of Wisconsin. I listened to hundreds of people — not a single one was for privatization,” Feingold said.
