I was at the Constitution Center today to hear Russ Feingold speak in Move On’s “Progressive Vision for America” series. (Al Gore’s remarkable speech at the Constitution Center in D.C. last winter was the first.)

Local bloggers - myself, Chris Bowers and Booman - got to meet briefly with the Senator before his speech.

I like Feingold; he seems like a nice guy, he certainly has the right positions on things. (I’d forgotten that he was the one who successfully pushed to get an inspector general for Iraq.) We talked about the NSA and detainee legislation. He said he “wasn’t sure” there was going to be any concerted Democratic action to stop it. (Not a good sign… Thanks again, Harry!)

He said he thought it was “intriguing” that Arlen Specter wanted to hold hearings on the writ of habeus corpus suspension; we all responded by laughing. He looked surprised.

“Arlen always does that,” I explained. “He always says he’s going to stand up to something and then he doesn’t. We don’t believe anything he says.”

He says he likes bloggers; he said it was good that politicians couldn’t hide from their own records anymore, and that the blogosphere really moves things out there quickly. (What can I say? We’re obsessive.)

The speech was supposed to be broadcast live on MoveOn’s site, but I can’t find it. The recap is, we need to win this election and the way we do that is to recognize the common concerns of voters: healthcare, dependence on foreign oil, and voting integrity.

He talked about how politics has become a 24/7 blood sport, and called media consolidation “one of the greatest threats to this democracy.” He was one of four votes against the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and said growing corporate ownership was squeezing out diversity and local voices. (He also plugged net neutrality.)

His best line? When people say his positions are “pre 9/11,” he responds by saying the Republicans have a “pre-1776 mindset.”

Bush has two obsessions, he said - justifying his intervention in Iraq, and expanding executive power. He called the terrorist surveillance program “a manifestly illegal program that thumbs his nost at the laws of the United States” and said it was “right in the strike zone of what the Founding Fathers meant by high crimes and misdemeanors.” (applause, applause, applause…)

“If the president doesn’t like this law, he can make up his own under Article 2,” Feingold said. He called the detainee bill “dangerous” and criticized the “lawlessness of this administration.”

“This bill will fundamentally attack our system of laws,” he said, asking everyone to work hard to get the vote out and win this election.