Ramesh on Russ

Ramesh Ponuru has an interesting take on Feingold:

Michael Crowley has an interesting profile of Feingold in the New Republic (subscription req'd, I think). Crowley wonders whether the party's left will, during the 2008 primaries, forgive him for voting for John Ashcroft as AG, John Roberts as chief, and the continuation of the Senate trial of Bill Clinton. My guesses: The Ashcroft vote will be ancient history since we won't be hearing much from Ashcroft. Feingold will be able to cast the impeachment vote as procedural and treat any attacks on it as a distortion (since he voted not to convict Clinton in the end). By the time of the primaries, Roberts won't have written anything acidic about liberals, won't have voted to overturn Roe, and will have voted "with the liberals" a few times. So while Crowley is surely more familiar with this world than I am, I think Feingold has his left flank covered. (He still won't win the nomination.)

I agree that he won't win the nomination, but there is a significant love affair between Feingold and the Deaniac wing of the Democratic Party. Given that Russ is a hell of a lot smarter than Dean, I think he'll make some hay in the primaries, and that's what has me concerned.