( – promoted by buhdydharma )
cross-posted from Sum of Change
I was honored today to join folks from DC for Democracy, the local Democracy for America affiliate, to personally deliver over 23,000 thank you notes to Senator Russ Feingold. Shortly after the the 2010 election, Jim Dean asked DFA members from all across the country to send the Senator messages of appreciation. In an email to all members, he wrote:
We lost a lot of bold leaders on Tuesday, but Senator Russ Feingold is in a class all his own.
He is one of the great heroes of the progressive movement — standing up and fighting for the people of his state and Americans across the country time and again — often when no one else had the courage to lead.
When other Democrats in Washington capitulated to President Bush and supported the war in Iraq, Senator Feingold stood up and voted against war. Two years later, he became the first Senator to call a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
When the Bush administration pushed the Patriot Act on Congress, Senator Feingold was the only person is the Senate to recognize the bill as an attack on American civil liberties and vote “No.”
And when unlimited and unregulated “soft money” threatened to overwhelm our political system, Senator Feingold authored and passed into law the most powerful campaign finance reform in history.
Senator Feingold has always been there for us. Please, join me in writing Senator Feingold a short thank you message for all the work he’s done for us over the years.
We met up at Senator Feingold’s campaign office, a short walk from Union Station, and waited patiently for the Senator to get back from voting on the START Treaty. The staff asked me not to film the meeting so they could have a casual conversation, but I did get the opportunity to catch the DC4D folks at Senator Feingold’s office getting their first look at the tens of thousands of thank you messages:
Sumofchange – DFA Thanks Sen Feingold
In our meeting, the Senator told us he is looking forward to the coming fights and while his role will change we should expect him to continue to lead on any number of issues.
Thank you, Senator, for your years of service, courage, and integrity. To everyone who wrote a thank you message, I wish you could have seen the look on his face when we presented them to him. Know that he appreciates it.