I just got back from a moveon.org sponsored event at the Constitution Center. Russ Feingold was the featured speaker and he talked about his “Present Vision for Restoring Democracy.”

Before the event started I was granted a private audience with Senator Feingold. Chris Bowers of MyDD sent me an email at something like midnight last night and then followed up with a phone call this morning so that I would get my lazy ass out of bed. It was probably Chris’s short notice, rather than any Peter Daou syndrome, that resulted in a U.S. Senator sitting down with three white un or underemployed white bloggers to discuss American politics. After I got Susie Madrak to stop posing, thrusting out her boobs, and discussing the best bra bargains on E-Bay, we got to spend about ten minutes with Senator Feingold.

He is just as nice and down to earth in person as he appears on television. He started out by buttering us up a little. He told us that he loves blogging and that he loves the instant feedback. He said it helps him figure out what resonates and what doesn’t. He said blogging was one of the most exciting things he has seen in politics in the last 25 years. He loves how we wear down the liars and help correct the record.

We spent the majority of the rest of our time discussing the NSA and detainee bills that are being debated in DC this week. It’s fair to say that Feingold’s position on these bills is absolutely synonymous with the greater blogosphere’s position. That is to say, he sees them as horrible and dangerous bills. He plans to try a few procedural moves to stall the bills. He’d like to see them delayed until after the election. As far as the mood of his colleagues, he said he will know more shortly. He needs to discuss matters with a few key Senators. He noted that Arlen Specter wants to hold a hearing this week on habeus corpus and wondered whether the bills can actually be voted on by Friday. The GOP wants to adjourn on Friday and start the campaign.

They either want to pass these bills, or they want to campaign on Democratic obstruction. Obviously, the bills are horrid enough that we must try to stop them and take the consequences. Whether the Dems will do that remains to be seen. For now, they seem to be focusing on delay, not filibustering.

After our meeting, Feingold gave a good speech, touching on the integrity of our voting machines, further campaign finance reform, publicly funded elections, media deconsolidation, a timetable for Iraq, censuring the President, signing statements, high crimes and misdemeanors (NSA), investigating war profiteering, and a few other topics.

I’m glad I had an opportunity to meet and speak with Senator Feingold. I have more confidence in him now than before. But he’s just one Senator. We need many more like him. Thank you to his staff for extending the invitation. Thanks to Chris, too. And Susie? I apologize for the libel and character assassination in this diary.