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Three Jews, One Thong

Russ Feingold publishes book, joins Obama campaign

by
Marc Tracy
February 22, 2012
Russ Feingold in 2010.(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Russ Feingold in 2010.(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Russ Feingold has a new book out, mostly full of serious stories and a defense of civil liberties from the Wisconsin Democrat who, as a senator (he was unseated in the 2010 midterms), was the only member of the chamber to vote against the Patriot Act back in the fall of 2001. (His name is also affixed, along with Sen. John McCain’s, to the seminal 2002 campaign finance law.) But there are additionally some fun anecdotes:

Senator Carl Levin, the grandfatherly Michigan Democrat, approached Mr. Feingold and the late Paul Wellstone on the Senate floor during the 1999 impeachment trial. “I am a little embarrassed to ask you guys this,” Mr. Levin said sheepishly. “But what’s a thong?”

So, four Jews, actually, if you count the wearer of the underwear in question.

Feingold was just named a co-chair of President Obama’s re-election campaign.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.