Voinovich: Censure bill “irresponsible” waste of time

Sure, crowds of Republicans have lined up to blast Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., for his bill to censure President Bush for authorizing a warrantless wiretap surveillance program, which Feingold says is illegal.

But Sen. George Voinovich didn’t go on a tirade about it. In fact, the Ohio Republican seemed quite a bit annoyed by the whole issue.

“I have a great deal of respect for Russ Feingold … but I think on this one, he’s way off in the boonies someplace, ” Voinovich said. “I’m not going to challenge his motivation, but Russ wants to be the … most liberal candidate the Democrats have running for president. He wants to stake out the area that (former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis) Kucinich did. And that’s what he’s doing. And I think he’s wrong. ”

Asked if Republicans see an opportunity with the Feingold bill to score a few political points of their own by blasting it, Voinovich took a long pause.

“This place,” he said, glancing around at the Senate office building where he sat eating breakfast with eight reporters. “We’re wasting a hell of a lot of time on something that we shouldn’t even be around. We’ve got enough other problems besides this going here. These sideshows, they get in the way of the big 10.”

So does he want to see a floor vote on the censure proposal?

“Really? No. I think that our people would like to see a floor vote on this because they think that they’re right. I haven’t seen any polls, but I’m sure it doesn’t poll very well. So there we are. There’s the Democrats … talking about censuring the president. It’s irresponsible, especially when the prestige of our president has a great deal to do with his influence in the world.”

Really? So it’s “irresponsible” to censure the president during a war?

“Yeah, particularly if you can say that the reason for it has more to do with politics than substance. I haven’t talked to Russ about this. He may sincerely believe this and it’s got nothing to do with politics, but I think that most people think that it does.”

But if Republicans force a vote on the censure bill next week, aren’t they also playing politics?

“They want to play politics too. But, you know, someone gives you a scalpel and says cut my throat, and you want to keep the Senate, you’ll take advantage of it. He’d have been smart not to do it.”