Without question, Americans are living through the most dark and dangerous times in the history of our great country. Ever since September 11, the threat of another terrorist attack has permeated our hearts and minds.

As a result, the men and women of the government are trying their utmost to ensure that we will be safe from terrorism.

But what happens when individuals within the government that are duty bound to protect us are actually the ones undermining our legitimate efforts in the war on terror?

Perhaps we should ask Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin who is a prime offender, favoring virulent politicization and obfuscation over the protection of our nation.

A few days ago, Feingold proposed that congress censure President Bush as a possible first step toward impeachment for authorizing the wiretapping of terrorists hiding in America.

According to Mr. Feingold, “what the President did, by consciously and intentionally violating the Constitution and the laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping has to be answered.”

He went on to accuse the president of acting “as if the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were repealed on September 11.”

I find Feingold’s vociferous pontificating to be quite absurd because he knows full well that the President had every right to use wiretapping as a means of prevention by way of the executive power clause in the Constitution.

Harvard political philosopher Harvey Mansfield puts it best. In an article he wrote for the Weekly Standard, he repudiates the unfounded allegations and childish finger pointing of Russ Feingold.

According to Mansfield, “In the Constitution executive power represents necessity in the form of response to emergencies. It anticipates that events will occur or situations will arise that we cannot anticipate through our laws; it anticipates what we cannot anticipate.

The legislative and the judicial powers (and the executive insofar as it merely executes laws) represent our choices as they have been fixed in law, our foresight as far as it goes.

The Constitution mixes choice and necessity, reflecting our desire for self-government (which takes effect in our legislation) and our recognition of the limitations of human foresight and the imperfection of human laws.”

Even Democrats agree with these findings.

On Monday, senators from both aisles of the political spectrum voiced their disapproval of Feingold’s accusations.

Speaking on the floor of the senate, Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut argued that, “this [wiretapping] is a critically important program to the prevention of terrorist acts here in the United States, and I do not know a person here in the Senate who is against this program.”

Lieberman and the other Senators exposed Feingold for playing politics and as a result, the ostentatious Senator from Wisconsin ran off the floor of the Senate like a little coward while Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania contemptuously beckoned him to “Come on. Come on back and debate this. Let’s debate this and have a vote.”

However, regardless of the fact that he was mocked by his base and his censure proposal was thrown out the window, the lugubrious aspersions of Russ Feingold should not be taken lightly because this type of vicious, irresponsible commentary by any politician puts our country in danger.

Just imagine what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot.

Imagine if a bunch of Al-Qaeda leaders went on Al-Jazeera, stood on their camels, and proclaimed that Bin Laden was a failure, he is taking us down the wrong path, and somebody needs to find him and behead him.

What do you think the American people’s reaction would be? We would exuberantly exclaim “we are winning!”

Well thanks to Russ Feingold, that is exactly the message that we are giving the terrorists who want to blow up our buildings and kill us.

The terrorists think they are winning. They are in Iraq right now blowing up and beheading our brave men and women.

Every time we achieve a small victory, demoralize them, and make progress, men like Russ Feingold come right along and demagogue the President, give the terrorists the emotional ammunition they need, and essentially embolden them to continue their insurgency.

It is time for these disseminators of misinformation to be quiet, stop playing politics, and remember what the great Thomas Jefferson once said: “If the present congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?”

Hopefully Russ Feingold remembers those words next time he thinks about playing politics at the expense of our national security.

So should we, for if we do not, if we take our liberties for granted and give these politicians free reign, one of these days we may just lose the freedoms that we hold dear.

Send comments to Dan at [email protected].