UPDATED: Americans favor Feingold's proposal to censure Bush

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 11:45 AM on March 19, 2006.

A poll by the American Research Group last week reveals that 48% of American voters support Senator Feingold's call for a senate censure of President Bush (note: the articles of impeachment must come from the House of Representatives... As a senator, Feingold has no Constitutional power to propose impeachment). 43% of voters oppose the measure.

Amazingly, nearly a third of Republican respondents favored censure while nearly a fifth even favored impeachment. Three-fifths of Democratic respondents and nearly half of Independents favored impeachment.

Censure, many have argued, doesn't actually DO anything, and impeachment is very unlikely given the current make up of Congress -- so what's the use?

Well, when this many people favor a firm response to an outrageous transgression of the law -- illegal domestic spying -- it capitalizes on public anger, focuses it, keeps the lawbreakers on the defensive, and begins to revitalize the public image of an opposition party struggling to be perceived as having integrity and the guts to assert it.

UPDATE: And just show that strong stances don't always go unrewarded: "On Friday afternoon's The Situation Room, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider touted Senator Russ Feingold's motion to censure President Bush as his choice for this week's 'political play of the week,' heaping this praise upon him:

"Spines, backbones, they help you stand up for what you believe. Of course it's risky, that's what a play of the week is all about..."

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.