But for any Democrats hoping Russ Feingold might jump back into politics, they better think again.

“I’m not even thinking about it,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “My thoughts are about what I’m doing now. I know people think politicians just say that, but it’s true.”

Feingold, who spent 18 years representing Wisconsin in the Senate before losing his seat in 2010, said he is not even keeping a foot in the door. He denied having anything to do with the endorsement by Progressives United, a group he set up, of Mary Burke, a Democratic challenger to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

“I had nothing to do with that,” he said. “In fact, I specifically am not allowed to be involved in those things. I was not involved. I’m proud to have founded that group, but I don’t even have my baby toe in right now. I’m not doing politics right now.”

Feingold is consumed instead, he said, with his new role as special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he has made notable progress since his appointment by President Obama in July. A formidable group of armed rebels called M23 in eastern Congo agreed a few weeks ago to surrender, and Feingold is heading back to the region in the coming weeks to help cement the cease-fire, among other objectives.

The Congo has been beset by violence for more than a decade, but Feingold, who worked on the Africa subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, believes peace is achievable.

“Americans shouldn’t regard it as something that can’t be solved, or ‘This is the way it’ll always be,'” he said. “It’s nothing like that at all. As difficult as it is, I think it can be unraveled in a way that could be positive for the people in the region.”

Feingold says unrest in the area initially grew out of the horrific genocide in neighboring Rwanda, where an estimated 800,000 people were massacred in 1994. It has manifested itself in a series of armed conflicts and rebellions that have now killed between five and six million people.

“It is possibly the greatest amount of deaths in any situation since World War II, not to mention other horrible things — sexual violence, conscription of child soldiers,” he said.

A series of peace agreements have unraveled over the years, but Feingold believes a regional pact signed by 11 countries including the Congo in February provides the basis for a lasting peace.

When he was appointed, he set two short-term goals — facilitating the surrender of M23 and helping to ensure other countries in the region did not provide support to the rebel group.

Both have been largely accomplished at this point, although talks temporarily broke down last week over the signing of an official agreement ending the M23 rebellion. Feingold believes the pact will be sealed at some point, but he said the larger goals of ensuring a lasting peace in the region and addressing the underlying causes of the conflicts are attainable regardless.

“That’s not just stopping the fighting, it’s also (creating) positive economic opportunities,” he said.

Feingold is working with other special envoys, including United Nations appointee former Irish president Mary Robinson, to push the process forward and says he would like all the countries in the region to engage in further talks.

He says life in the new job is much less predictable than when he was a senator — one day he may be in New York and the next he may be in Europe or Africa with little notice. He uses the skills he learned in the Senate, including the art of negotiation. But he has a much different perspective on Capitol Hill now.

When congressional gridlock forced a government shutdown in October, Feingold said a large international conference had to be canceled and rescheduled, and he called it “not the most entertaining moment.”

“It was interesting to see the actual impact that things that are done in Congress can cause on this side,” he said, adding that he had a different mindset in the Senate. “That’s not something frankly I thought about all the time. I was thinking more about the people of Wisconsin and the policies. But having said that, I would just note that I’ve observed it and I’m not going to hold forth about Congress. That’s not my job anymore.”

Source USAToday