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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDid Russ Feingold Just End a War?
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/russ-feingold-congo-104535.html#.UyBKVD9dWBRDid Russ Feingold Just End a War?
The unlikely story of how the former Wisconsin senator made peace in Congo.
...
Feingold is 61 now, and his hair has grayed a touch since 2010, when, after 18 years in the Senate, he was beaten in his reelection campaign by Ron Johnson, a millionaire Tea Partier. Feingold had lost some weight on this trip, his seventh to the region since last June, when Secretary of State John Kerry named him U.S. special envoy to the Great Lakes region and the Democratic Republic of the Congoor SEGL as his staff call him, pronouncing it like Siegel. (Its perfecta Jewish name, Feingold said.) His mission: to end the civil war that has long engulfed the region.
...
And in taking on eastern Congo, one of the most violent places on Earth, Feingold could hardly have chosen a more dead-end assignment. The conflict there dates back to 1994, when Hutu génocidaires fleeing Rwanda set up camps across the border in what was then Zaire. Rwanda then led an invasion that ended Congolese President Mobutu Sese Sekos 31 years of dictatorial rule but also turned the newly renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo into a nightmarish battleground of foreign armies and militant groups. Although Congos civil war formally ended in 2003, armed rebellion has continued ever since, especially in the two eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country is the U.N.s largest and most expensive, employing 20,000 troops at a cost of $1.5 billion a year.One 2010 study estimated that 48 women were raped in Congo every hour, and a U.N. official called it the rape capital of the world. Estimates of the conflicts death toll range in the millions.
Feingolds assignment came just as a new group of rebels, trained and equipped by Rwanda, was gaining strength in the east and even threatening to take Kinshasa, the Congolese capital. Since last summer, Feingold has undertaken a dizzying round of talks in at least eight different African capitals, cajoling leaders face to face, negotiating with skittish rebels late into the night and strategizing with fellow diplomats, all in a very uphill effort to stop a long-running conflict in a region littered with failed peace deals. Without a doubt, he said over coffee a few hours after the gorilla trek, this is one of the favorite things Ive ever done in my life.
Javaman
(62,517 posts)I met him several years ago. He's the real deal.
He should run again.
WhaTHellsgoingonhere
(5,252 posts)Hard to know but I wonder if he'd run for president?
whathehell
(29,067 posts)Feingold/Warren....
WhaTHellsgoingonhere
(5,252 posts)Very serene and compassionate.
whathehell
(29,067 posts)winter is coming
(11,785 posts)DesertDiamond
(1,616 posts)Boxer if they were all to run.
quakerboy
(13,919 posts)If you were Russ and you had your choice between a)running a political campaign where the best possible outcome is being elected and having to deal with the Republicans(and Democrats) in the house and senate or b) going to a part of the world in the middle of a war, and potentially negotiating a peace that can save lives.. I can see the appeal in not coming back anytime soon.
The Wizard
(12,541 posts)WTF Wisconsin?
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)My best guess and a really disturbing possibility in other reply here.
mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)the comment at the end has a certain ring to it:
I'm not a numbers/math/statistics person so I couldn't follow the argument without some coaching up on a few of the definitions, assumptions and working principles, but if it's at all plausible I'm glad that at least Russ didn't go out like Paul W., next door.
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2011/06/feingold-won-re-election-by-51-true-vote-analysis-tells-us/
...I don't know. I live in Milwaukee and was following the election. The only other thing I can think of is it wasn't the best of economic climates and an empty suit with great marketing focused solely on his business experience (he actually married the boss's daughter to get it, at the same time that Snotty Wanker was promising to bring us 250,000 in his campaign ads for Governor) trumped all reason and common sense.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Kerry-Feingold, together again.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Russ Feingold meet with Ben Affleck, Founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 26, 2014.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Sorry he decided not to run.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Sigh. He was so much more representative of Wisconsin than the group of Koch-Clowns running around there now.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)ananda
(28,858 posts).. and wondering what became of him and his progressive institute.
Now I know.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)You know, after you finish making peace in the Congo.
I must say, if anyone can do this, it's Russ. Love this guy.
Julie
DesertDiamond
(1,616 posts)myrna minx
(22,772 posts)mountain grammy
(26,619 posts)He founded "Progressives United" in 2011, a PAC that supports progressive candidates. I've contributed often. If it has Feingold's name on it, I believe in it..
http://www.progressivesunited.org/
GoCubsGo
(32,079 posts)Glad to see he's still making a difference. Thanks for posting this.
hue
(4,949 posts)undeterred
(34,658 posts)cascadiance
(19,537 posts)If he were chief of staff or secretary of state, it would be a key component to getting a more progressive leadership in cabinet positions that was sorely missing from Obama's administration when he disappointed us so much when he started out with Rahm Emmanuel heading up his cabinet. By selecting him, we would also not lose any other progressive in other congressional offices as well, and get a decent progressive back to work again.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)cascadiance
(19,537 posts)... to put people with proper progressive perspectives on cabinet issues in place. Feingold currently is not in such a position to affect what is done at a larger scale of the administration's actions and policies.
Response to Scuba (Original post)
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karynnj
(59,501 posts)It is fantastic that Feingold's intelligence and character were respected enough for him to be given this job with the trust needed to really make a difference. I remember the years of SFRC hearings when he and Barbara Boxer would follow Kerry (interspersed by Republicans) at hearings. There were so many times that they picked up each others points and honed in on truth.
I loved the description of how he worked with Kerry on this - pulling Kerry in to make calls to leaders when needed. I remember in 2010, when Feingold was against PACs and other soft money, he did welcome Kerry sending a fund raising appeal for RF to his email list - praising Feingold for what he brought to the Senate.
It is great to see an example where the administration did pull away from a foreign leader that Susan Rice had long protected. It is great that when proof existed, Hillary approved putting it out - and Obama obviously okayed Feingold's and Kerry's actions to force Rwanda to stop supporting the M23. It is important to have the strength to reexamine support for people who prove very unworthy.
Response to Scuba (Original post)
2banon This message was self-deleted by its author.
Hulk
(6,699 posts)God, I still scratch my head and wonder just how fucked up this world can be when a guy like Russ Feingold can lose his race for the Senate against some corporate whore like rob johnson in a state where everyone doesn't inter-marry with their relatives and glue their faces to NASCAR nausea all weekend. What in the fook ever happened in Wisconsin??
merrily
(45,251 posts)Sigh.
certainot
(9,090 posts)there are numerous references to walker's use of right wing radio blowhards - a close relationship - and ron johnson was included in some of those emails- johnson was also getting all that free ALEC radio help while the dems were ignoring it, as usual, and losing.