I'd never been to a fundraiser before - who knew they were so much like bar-mitzvahs? Wine and beer open bar, petit fours and coconut chicken on skewers, 4 piece combo playing standards in the background... the only thing missing was great-aunts coming along to ask me when I was going to get married. But there we were, a couple hundred dedicated Democrats at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in DC, meeting and greeting and eating, all in the name of "painting the nation blue." And of course, waiting for Howard Dean to come on stage to get us all worked up.
Terry Lierman, the chair of the Democratic party in Maryland, did the introducing. First up was Eleanor Holmes Norton, the "congresswoman" from DC, who of course spoke of voting rights for the District, and of how things are starting to move. "The Republicans are running", she kept saying as the refrain to her speech, and when she finally (rhetorically) asked, "What else do you expect them to do?" someone yelled out, "LIE!" The crowd was amused.
Then we heard from two state Attorneys General, Patsy Madrid and Patrick Lynch. (One from New Mexico and one from Rhode Island - I'll leave you to match up name to state.) They spoke of how many officeholders had started out as AG's. Clearly the party was pushing them as new people to watch.
Then came Joan Fitzgerald, the Senate President in Colorado, talking about the importance of state and local races (of course, Howard's main point) and then, Steny Hoyer, congressman from Maryland, who briefly introduced Gwen Moore, an African-American congresswoman from Wisconsin, another name I guess we're supposed to keep in mind. Hoyer comes off like an old-time pol - he's been around a long time. I have to admit that his style immediately makes me not want to trust him, whether or not I know about how he votes. He mentioned that the Democrats in the House were the most unified since Rayburn was in charge in 1960.
Dick Durbin was on next, looking cheerful and telling a funny story about Obama's speech at the Dem convention last summer, something to the effect of him coming across Obama before the big moment, and Obama being extremely nervous and unsure about how good his speech was going to be, and finally Durbin, to comfort him, said, "Here, take my speech" which cracked everyone up. He spoke very well, and seemed right on about many things. Too bad that he felt he needed to apologize for speaking the truth.
Finally, Dean was up, looking tough and clear-headed. He talked about local races, and working in places like Mississippi (900 people showed up to hear him there)and how tired he is of being lectured to by people like Tom Delay about moral values. Nothing we haven't heard before, but he always says it so well. He said the biggest mistake that Bush has made, worse even than Iraq and the national debt and destroying the environment, was not respecting people who don't agree with him - how that lack of respect has ruined our relationship with so many countries, and has led to the complete alienation of so many Americans and the extreme divisiveness we find in our country today, and how there is no balance in our policies at all. He also exhorted Democrats to stand up for our convictions, to stand up for what we believe in, which of course is what he does himself, and why the crowd was so in love with him.
Then, a few more drinks and we all trooped out to the metro. It would have been great if the crowd was more diverse - not so many African-Americans, and the only Hispanics were the people carrying the trays of food. The Dems really need to work on this. As for me, aside from the leering old guy who sidled up next to me and, after a brief political discussion, asked me if I was really a redhead, like his two ex-wives, or had I dyed my hair, I had a pretty good time.