Winter/Feingold: Part 1 of more than 1

Only a month ago, I wrote a piece on Square State worrying about whether Bill Winter would ever be able to get the name recognition he needed to pull out a win in CD6. But in the last few weeks, things have broken loose. Tom Tancredo has gone on the defensive, spending money, unleashing his surrogates, and even agreeing to a late October debate. The papers have reported Winter's calls for fiscal responsibility and veteran's care. And today, Senator Russ Feingold visited Denver for two issues-driven Winter events.

The first event took place at Denver's historic Oriental Theater, which has recently been revamped as one of the city's top concert venues. About 220 people came to meet Feingold and Winter and to voice their concerns. The questions ranged from insightful to, well, considerably less-than. But Feingold and Winter were masterful at identifying issues and addressing them fearlessly.

Feingold has been tagged as one of the most liberal Senators in the country. And he didn't back away when queried about the label. But he spoke hawkishly about defeating Islamofascism, eliminating the deficit, and defending our Constitution.

The latter topic gave him his best line, "People accuse me of having a pre-9/11 mindset. I think maybe they have a pre-1776 mindset."

People might expect Winter to be hosting free listening sessions. After all, he is locked in a race that is much, much tighter than conventional wisdom suspects. But the fact that he was able to convince a high-profile U.S. Senator to spend so much time with the voters in Colorado says a lot about the importance of CD6 and about the character of Russ Feingold.