Outgoing Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) received a heap of praise from a Senate colleague with whom he had an unlikely partnership. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) praised Feingold, who lost his election to Republican Ron Johnson: “I have to confess I think the Senate will be a much poorer place without Russ Feingold in it.”
“I know that in my next term I will experience fewer occasions of inspiration because of the departure of Russ Feingold, a man whose courage and dedication to the principles that guided his Senate service often inspired me,” McCain said.
McCain and Feingold became unlikely allies when they passed bipartisan campaign finance reform back in 2002, called the McCain-Feingold Act.
McCain acknowledged that since then things have not necessarily been as amiable:
We are of different parties and our political views are often opposed. We’ve had many debates on many issues. But where we agreed - on wasteful spending, ethics reform, campaign finance reform and other issues - it was a privilege to fight alongside and not against Russ Feingold.
Watch:
The full text of the speech is here.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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