Sam Stein of the Huffington Post scored a very interesting interview with Senator Russ Feingold today. In it, Feingold takes issue with Senator Reid’s leadership and tactics on the FISA fight, going back to last year.

In an interview with the Huffington Post on Thursday morning, Sen. Russ Feingold, who opposes granting immunity to those companies, expressed disappointment that his party’s leader, Sen. Harry Reid, was not doing more to help strike the provision from a newly considered version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

“Of course I have great respect for the Majority Leader,” said Feingold. “He is a good friend of mine. But I really do disagree with his way of proceeding.”

…

“We should have a normal process were this is debated based on a majority vote in the senate,” said the Wisconsin Democrat. “That’s the way it should have been done and I regret that it’s not being done that way. Of course, I support Senator Dodd. He and I were principally involved in making sure this didn’t get jammed through before the holidays and I will be supporting him again. But this decision does make it harder.”

On a tactical level, there is a three sided fight going on between Dodd/Feingold, Harry Reid, and Jay Rockefeller. Reid keeps saying he’s personally opposed to retroactive immunity and I have little doubt that he will vote for the Leahy, Dodd/Feingold, and potentially other good Democratic amendment. But his tactics emphasizing collegiality and the wishes of Jay Rockefeller and Dick Cheney over the good of the nation helps assure that good Democrats will lose this fight.

Feingold went on to discuss the importance of the FISA issue in presidential politics, thanking Dodd for drawing the national spotlight to an issue that he has long worked on.

“I started this fight two years ago when they first announced the illegal program and I’ve been working on it every day,” he said. “And it has been a great help that Chris Dodd made it a part of his presidential campaign and now that he is back to work with me and others… It’s a big help. It’s very hard to do it alone.”

He was also happy to have the support of both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. The two Democratic frontrunners have said they oppose retroactive immunity. But, with the primary season heating up, it is unlikely they will offer anything more than rhetorical assurances.

“I’d love to have them back,” said Feingold. “But it is not my job to tell them what to do on their campaigns. My understanding is that both of them have indicated support for what Senator Dodd and I are doing. So that’s good. If we see real opportunity for a vote we can win, then yes. I would love to have them back.”

Feingold is giving Clinton and Obama a bit of a pass in that he only really expects them back if there votes can assure a win. I personally think there presence is far more important than that. They want to be our leaders, they should be expected to lead now. Leadership is not a campaign speech with soaring rhetoric – it’s doing the job the people of Illinois and New York elected you to do on the most critical issue facing America today: the health of our Constitution.

Sadly, it looks like Hillary Clinton will not be in Washington today to participate in the FISA debate or a filibuster. No final word yet on Senator Obama.