Feingold, Levin dispute anti-war bona fides

Feingold, Levin dispute anti-war bona fides

By Elana Schor
June 22, 2007

In an internecine skirmish over control of Democrats’ anti-war message, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) yesterday accused Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) of misrepresenting his plan for withdrawal from Iraq.

Prominent voices in the liberal blogosphere echoed Feingold’s challenge to Levin, urging the powerful Armed Services Committee chairman to embrace limits on troop funds as a tactic to end the war. The two Democrats’ scuffle portends a tense summer for the majority as at least three Iraq plans vie for votes on the defense authorization bill.

Feingold’s rebuke came after Levin wrote in The Washington Post yesterday that Feingold’s proposal to block spending on certain deployments in Iraq would endanger troops “in harm’s way.”

Levin also unfavorably compared his war plan, co-authored by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), with Feingold’s plan, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) backs. While Levin won 51 votes in April for his approach, the chairman wrote, “only 29 senators so far — none of them Republican — have voted for a funding cutoff. That’s a long way from the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster.”

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“There are no pretty words to describe what Levin has done here — he has disingenuously and cravenly used Abraham Lincoln to defend his actions,” Big Tent Democrat wrote on the popular liberal blog TalkLeft.

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Anti-war activists began openly targeting Levin last month, when MoveOn.org ran radio ads criticizing him for voting against Feingold’s language.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chief author of the June 2006 war timetable that Feingold then cosponsored, moved to snuff the fires of disagreement among Senate Democrats in Reid’s war cabinet.

“Everybody’s working to move in the same direction,” Kerry said, adding that Levin’s plan probably is best positioned to win GOP votes at present. “I understand the strategy, and that is one of the things we should be voting on.”

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