Feingold's Ally on Iraq

Longtime readers of this blog know that I am a big supporter of Sen. Russ Feingold and had hoped he had entered the Presidential race.

This story from a campaign memo emailed out by the Chris Dodd campaign caught my attention...

FEINGOLD'S ALLY ON IRAQ IS DODD

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has been a true hero in the struggle to bring an honorable end to the nightmare that is the American occupation of Iraq.

But he has not stood alone.

When the Senate has voted on questions of using the power of the purse to constrain President Bush's war of whim, Feingold has had the support of most of the Democratic senators who are seeking the presidency. But don't think that the front-runners, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, came willingly.

Clinton and Obama sent decidedly mixed signals early on.

Then Chris Dodd YouTubed them. Using new technologies to produce and distribute video messages that left no space for the leaders in the race to dance around the debate on forcing Bush to bring troops home from Iraq, Dodd forced Clinton and Obama to do the right thing.

Dodd, the Connecticut senator who is a long-shot contender for the party's nod in 2008, used a YouTube video early in May to highlight his support for Feingold's plan to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within 120 days. That video, and associated TV ads in early caucus and primary states, led Clinton and Obama, who had been wavering, to join 27 other Democrats who voted to advance Feingold's exit strategy.

After Clinton, Obama, and Edwards failed to say if all our troops would be out of Iraq by 2013, I started to look harder at other candidates. Like Feingold, Dodd's leadership on many important issues in the Senate has stood out.