On election day Wisconsin voters will fire a shot heard around the world.

Senator Russ Feingold is the leading champion in the Senate of the battle

against the corruptions of special interest money that pollute the politics

of the nation.

If the oceans of outside money invading Wisconsin defeat Senator Feingold,

it will be one more tragic proof that our country is becoming a land that

where the power is controlled by the money.

Russ Feingold is the conscience of the Senate.

He has spent a lifetime standing courageously against a corrupted system

that far too ofen has turned Washington into a house of ill repute run by

closed fundraisers, secret meetings, and sweetheart deals bought in backroom

auctions.

Workers lose their jobs. Neighbors lose their homes. Women lose a fair day's

pay for a fair day's work. The poor lose their dignity. This dirty dance

goes on because the people with the money run the show, while the people

suffering the pain are left out in the cold.

Russ Feingold is the conscience of the Senate because he battles against

this system. He is now under attack by outside money pouring into Wisconsin

from special interests galore who want to keep the dirty system in place.

Once there were two leaders who stood together in this epic battle to

cleanse our system: John McCain and Russ Feingold.

Now McCain seeks reelection in Arizona by courting the special interests he

once deplored, while Feingold battles on

without compromising his belief that our government should be for the

people, not only for the people with the money.

Now the Supreme Court has virtually legalized the buying of America in the

Citizens United case by permitting unlimited campaign spending by special

interests that now flow, largely from secret donations, like rivers of mud,

onto television every day, financing character attacks on leaders such as

Russ Feingold.

Polls reveal that this horrific decision is opposed by more than 80% of

independents and more than 50% of Republicans, as well as Democrats. Why do

so many politicians with less courage and integrity than Russ Feingold

surrender the battle for cleaner campaigns? The answer is simple: they want

the money, and they fear the money.

Not Russ Feingold, who sails into gale force winds against special interest

money pouring into Wisconsin to defeat him -- for the very reason that he is

the conscience of the Senate.

It took true courage and patriotism for Russ Feingold to fight against the

power of this ocean of special interest money, like Mr. Smith in Frank

Capra's movie about Washington, knowing all along that this money would be

pouring into Wisconsin to destroy him, as it is today.

Frank Rich wrote brilliantly in last Sunday's New York Times about how so

little has changed in Washington, despite so many promises for change. I

have long argued that we live in one of the historical epochs like the

Gilded Age, where greed runs rampant and good people are crushed. Our

democracy itself is threatened by a lobbyist industrial complex even more

dangerous than the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us

about, because it permeates every corner of our civic life.

This is why those who brought our economy to the brink of a new Depression

earn vast fortunes for their failures, protected by their campaign money and

defended by their high-priced lobbyists.

Russ Feingold is the conscience of the Senate because he is willing to risk

and lose his seat in the Senate, to fight for his vision of our Republic.

When the going got tough and the money was flowing John McCain became the hero

in war who took the coward's way out in politics, while Russ Feingold stands

taller than the tallest tree against the blizzard of bad money pouring into

Wisconsin to destroy him.

Who is attacking Russ Feingold today? Those who want to export jobs to slave

wage nations. Those who want to prevent women from getting fair pay for good

work. Those who want insurance premiums and credit card interest rates to

rise. Those who want students to pay more for loans, while small business

cannot get loans from bailed out bankers making multimillion dollar

fortunes. Those who want to foreclose homes without any respect for the rule

of law.

Russ Feingold is under attack by those who want the power of their money to

buy the special favors of our government.

I am not particularly proud of many Democrats today, but I am very proud to

call Russ Feingold the conscience of the Senate, the David of political

reform who must not be destroyed by the Goliath of dirty money.