For those who aren't awayre, the DFL Party is the Minnesota Democratic party. The name was changed following the merger of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties. A further history can be found
here.
I was dumb enough not to bring my laptop (I didn't know there was wireless access), so I wasn't able to liveblog at all. Still, I watched Feingold's speech and part of the caucus from "bloggers' row" in the upper deck.
Highlights from Russ's speech are below.
Just after 9, he was introduced by the chairman of the DFL, who made an obligatory crack about the Green Bay Packers.
Russ took the stage, and after a few "Good Morning"s mentioned that he was told there was a crack about the Packers, but since he didn't hear it personally he didn't have to respond. He began that he was proud to live next door to a state with such a proud progressive/liberal tradition as Minnesota, and he looks forward to working to keep Minnesota liberal.
Then he made a fairly lame joke about Minnesota having "almost as many lakes" as Wisconsin. Not many laughs and a couple boos.
He pledged to help campaigns in 2006 and 2008, and will help raise money and awareness nation-wide.
He talked about how it doesn't matter if we're in the majority if we're not principled. He attacked the Beltway mentality that the Republicans will sink themselves and Democrats will win by default. He said Democrats cannot win by default or by running out the clock. We have and will continue to seem weak. We have ideas, but we need leaders and representatives who are able to express them boldly.
He mentioned how he visits all 72 counties in Wisconsin each year.
Russ said we need to bring the same passion and fire to our party that Paul Wellstone had (huuuuuuge applause). We shouldn't only talk about renewable energy when prices are increasing, only to let the issue slide when prices begin to go down. We must invest in renewable energy no matter what oil prices are doing.
He mentioned that he was one of ten senators to vote against No Child Left Behind.
Next he spent some time talking about gay marriage. He talked about a senator (I forget which one, perhaps someone can remind me in the comments) who, as part of the debate, displayed a picture of his family, and said proudly that in their entire family history there were no instances of divorce or homosexual tendencies. He said that he was working to make sure that Wisconsin became the first state in the country to defeat an anti-gay marriage ballot referendum.
He returned to the 'establishment' Democrats, and how we lost in 2002 and 2004 because the establishment consultants said that Democratic candidates couldn't talk about foreign policy. That lead him into his vote against the Iraq war, not authorizing the use of force and then hope that the President wouldn't use it. He said it is time to bring the troops home so that we don't keep making the same mistakes again and again. He will be introducing an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill next week that will bring our troops home by the end of the year.
He went on to one of the most recent Bush scandals, the illegal wiretapping. He said "The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were not repealed on 9/11." He mentioned how Bush was proud to have illegally wiretapped because he was protecting America. Rus would have preferred that he said he was proud to protect America under the law. He mentioned how Republicans and Democrats promplty responded to this scandal by introducing ground-breaking resolution to make all of this legal. He asked what kind of message that showed the children, that if you break the law, you can get your buddies to make whatever you did legal. He brought up his resolution to Censure President Bush. He said the goal was to make George to apologize publicly to the American people, something along the lines of: I was acting to protect America, and it appears I went to far. Because of this I was censured by Congress, and I apologize. Of course, he doesn't believe that would actually happen, but that was the goal.
He closed by saying that the threat of terrorism cannot be allowed to change our system of government to a dictatorship, and that 2006 must be a year of reversal. he reiterated that Democrats cannot be elected as Republican-lite.
That concluded Russ's appearance. If I can get a transcript I'll update with quotes.
Afterwards, I went to the display area to get free buttons, stickers, etc. I ran into Tim Walz, the fighting dem in MN-01. I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but he shook my hand and said thanks for wearing his button.
I learned from the bloggers present, as well as his campaign, that he is a huuuuuuuuge fan of bloggers. He's gone up to talk to blogger's row at least once a day each day of the convention so far. After that, I had to go buy a t-shirt. Especially since it's a glorious Daily-Kos orange (a little brighter than the State of the Nation background).
When I left, the candidates for Governor were as follows:
Mike Hatch - 41% Steve Kelley - 29.3% and Beckey Lowrey 29%