All Intensive Purposes

Ryan Lizza wouldn't know a good wedge issue if it smacked him upside the head, though that might knock some sense into him. With most Democratic Senators still holding wet fingers up to see which way the breeze is blowing, half the country already thinks Bush should be censured for illegal domestic wiretapping. Few -- if any -- Democrats think Bush was right to flout FISA. Many Republicans -- if not in the Senate -- think Bush was wrong. There are times when it makes good political sense to stand on principle. This is one of those times.

This is not to say that Feingold picked the best way to build support for censure. He didn't, and perhaps had his own interests in '08 in mind. As Mark Felt recently reminded us, our system of checks and balances serves the common good even as individuals pursue their own self-interests. All the more reason not to let the President exempt himself from it. Censure is a good first step, though I'm not sure impeachment should be the end game.

Notwithstanding Franklin Foer's hand on the helm, the New Republic again plays the tedious game of asserting its moderate bona fides by bashing other Democrats. Boring and irritating, all at once.