Painting Feingold in Golden Tones

By DANIEL BICE

Feingold: A New Democratic Party. by Sanford D. Horwitt. Simon & Schuster. 304 pages. $26.

We are told by the publisher of “Feingold: A New Democratic Party” that the author, Sanford D. Horwitt, “had the full cooperation of Senator Feingold, his family, and friends, but absolute freedom. This is not a campaign biography.”

Could have fooled me.

Over the past decade, Horwitt, a Milwaukee native who earlier wrote a biography of community organizer Saul Alinsky, had incredible access to Wisconsin’s junior senator, interviewing him more than a dozen times and attending nearly 50 of Feingold’s listening sessions around the state. But for all that, the author breaks little new ground regarding the Janesville native in this 273- page biography.

We find out that Feingold’s a Chicago White Sox fan and an avid golfer, he dreamt of being a U.S. senator from an early age, even eyeing a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while he was in his teens – something that is entirely believable – and he can have a wicked sense of humor, even if we see it only at election time.

That’s about it.

Horwitt even leads his reader astray on some key details.

Tommy Thompson was never a “tough-minded state senator,” or a state senator of any kind. No, former Republican Congressman Mark Neumann, Feingold’s opponent in 1998, did not benefit from independent spending by the National Abortion Rights Action League, a fierce foe of the pro-life candidate. And the 2004 presidential race in Wisconsin was not closer than the 2000 contest: Democrat John Kerry carried the state by twice the margin that Vice President Al Gore did.

But for Horwitt, the devil is not in the details. He is painting with broad strokes a clearly sympathetic account of Feingold’s life. And sections of “Feingold” are quite compelling. The story of the amazing 1992 U.S. Senate contest – the best chapter in the book – is exciting and well-told, even if we know how it will turn out.

At the same time, we read that life for a Jewish kid in Janesville in the ’50s and ’60s was “a positive experience,” without any qualifications. We’re told how committed Feingold is to living in Wisconsin with his family, while his two divorces are dispatched, respectively, in a short paragraph and one sentence.

There are hints here and there that Feingold has a temper and can be a micromanager. But that’s it. And there is no mention as to whether Wisconsin pays a price in the amount of federal funding it receives because of the senator’s independent streak and sometimes abrasive manner.

But Horwitt has loftier goals. He is aiming to use this biography to pummel the national Democratic Party, which he sees as being divided between the forces of good and evil, between those supporting bold ideas and those supporting the status quo. Can you guess which side Russ is on? That’s right – he represents “a serious, authentic alternative to his party’s Washington establishment.”

But even here it’s not clear that the Feingold model can work for anyone but Feingold.

He benefited from a unique set of circumstances in his first Senate contest. He narrowly won his re-election bid. And this third race was a walk but largely because Feingold used the power of incumbency to raise about $10 million, something not noted in the book.

The fact is, Feingold is a complex and interesting guy, a public official who fiercely guards his privacy, someone driven by principle but full of contradictions. He would be, in other words, the ideal subject for a well-researched, balanced biography. Unfortunately, this is not that book.

Daniel Bice is a Journal Sentinel columnist.

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