Russ Feingold and Me

A couple weeks ago, surveying the poor press coverage greeting Pete Stark's new health care proposal, I realized I should probably stop bitching about such superficial wire stories and use my position at a political magazine to actually, y'know, do something about it. Today comes the first attempt. I spent fifteen minutes chatting with Sen. Russ Feingold this morning on his new health proposal, which would offer a big pot o' money for a small number of states to create universal health programs. Better yet, I recorded the call and got ace editor Alec Oveis to stick it online. You can listen to it here. We'll try to get a transcript of it shortly.

If you guys like it, I'll make this into a regular thing. So do let me know if it's informative. We in the blogosphere are always claiming that the press should do a better job allowing smart leaders to explain their plans for the country, but we all too rarely recognize that we can fill the void. If response is good, I'll schedule interviews with Pete Stark, Tom Vilsack, and John Kerry to talk about their new plans. I'll also expand the feature beyond health care and just bring on interesting thinkers, writers, and folks whose ideas deserve wider play. But first I need to know if you folks are down. So check it out and let me know.

Crossposted on Tapped