Russ Feingold, the former Wisconsin senator, once told me he got "the coldest stares" whenever he introduced legislation to block congressional pay hikes from kicking in automatically.

Just as all anti-Communism can't be reduced to coarse redbaiting, neither can all the period's fearmongering be laid at the feet of the Wisconsin senator.

Right; he was with that Wisconsin senator on theR.

By the time of the New Deal, for example, Democrats had appropriated some of the planks of Mr. LaFollette, the Wisconsin senator who got 16.6 percent of the vote as the Progressive nominee in 1924.

He maintained friendly relations with his fellow anti-communist, the controversial Wisconsin senator, Joseph McCarthy, but was careful to keep some distance between himself and McCarthy's allegations.

But the Wisconsin senator had his uses.

Born in Nice, France, to John L. Mitchell, a wealthy Wisconsin senator and his wife Harriet, Mitchell grew up on an estate in what is now the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin.

Liberals who applaud the Wisconsin senators' interstate flight have been accused of hypocrisy, given that these same liberals indignantly reject the undemocratic use of the filibuster in the Senate of the United States.

Among Washington's Democrats, the only one with a clue seems to be Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin senator who this month proposed setting a "target date" (as opposed to a deadline) for getting out.

He also said that the Democratic Wisconsin senators should be held accountable for leaving the state to delay the enactment of Walker's legislation.