Russ Feingold (left) doesn't think Jeffrey Immelt is fit to lead on jobs. | AP Photos Feingold: GE CEO must go

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) launched a petition Wednesday calling on President Barack Obama to oust General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the head of the White House’s jobs panel, if the executive doesn’t step down voluntarily.

Feingold’s complaint stems from recent revelations that GE will pay no taxes this year, despite making more than $5 billion in the United States in 2010.


Feingold’s PAC, which sent the email, launched earlier this year and gained traction during the labor protests in Madison, has registered the web domain, ImmeltMustGo.com

“We cannot stand by and watch while we are led down this road. Mr. Immelt must step down from the president’s jobs panel — and if he won’t, President Obama needs to ask for his resignation,” Feingold wrote. “How can someone like Immelt be given the responsibility of heading a jobs creation task force when his company has been creating more jobs overseas while reducing its American workforce? And under Immelt’s direction, GE spends hundreds of millions of dollars hiring lawyers and lobbyists to evade taxes.”

In the email, Feingold painted the issue as a Main Street versus Wall Street affair — territory that is not unfamiliar for the former lawmaker defeated last November by tea party-backed Ron Johnson. Last summer, Feingold voted against the Democrats’ sweeping financial regulatory bill because he believed it did not go far enough in reining in big banking institutions.

In his post-Senate life, assisted by the labor tumult right in his backyard, Feingold has been able to keep his mantle as a progressive voice on national issues. In fact, Feingold launched his political organization a day before Wisconsin state Democratic senators fled their capital for Illinois to protest Republican Scott Walker’s controversial plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many public workers.

“It’s time for policymakers to stop coddling corporate interests, and get to work creating jobs and wealth for Main Street. We shouldn’t reward wealthy CEOs and Wall Street for behavior that undermines the nation’s economy,” Feingold wrote Wednesday.