From the fourteenth floor of the Milwaukee Hilton, I bring you a few of the highlights of tonight's speakers, including Russ Feingold, Tammy Baldwin, Governor Doyle, and a Daily Kos poster from this morning, WI-8's Steve Kagen.
Some of the points speakers emphasized to day were the "+3" needed to turn the Assembly Democratic in '08, the recent vote for universal health care in Wisconsin, outrage at the reversal of Brown vs. the Board of Education and, repeatedly, the fact that the Congress would not be Democratic today were it not for the public's overwhelming will to end our occupation of Iraq.
Below the fold: Feingold vows to push Feingold-Reid again
Russ Feingold: "Get us out of there, now"
"It was a miracle to win both houses," Feingold said, "and we can not allow that victory to be empty." Feingold claimed that he was not trying to scold Congress on its equivocation over Iraq, but he really was, and it went over very well. "This congress is Democratic because the people want it to get us out of there now, bottom line," he said to roars of approval.
He cited a few of the Democratic accomplishments, such as raising the minimum wage and reinstating the pay-go rules abandoned by the previous session. He and the rest of the Wisconsin Democratic delegation to Congress saved SeniorCare and "set the stage for major progress when a Democratic president is elected in 2008." And Feingold said that he would "stake his career" on ending the constitutional abuses of the administration, pledging to undo the Military Commissions Act and restore habeas corpus, and making sure the president "never does this again." Of course the crowd leaped to its feet at that.
Apologizing for being a little immodest, he referred to himself as the most insistent critic of our actions in Iraq of the 535 in Congress (eliciting another frenzied standing ovation), but that the stance flowed from having listened to his constituents. "It came from listening to you." And he will not claim a free pass from his original "no" vote on Iraq, but pledges to work to "get us out of there now."
Before he wound up his speech, he vowed to offer the Feingold-Reid Amendment one more time and hope for more Republican help, and while he was thankful for the votes of 30 Democratic senators last time, he would much rather unify Democrats first, puting pressure on the Republicans. "They see us divided and they feel confident in continuing this awful war." And Feingold took those dissenting Democrats to task for repeating the old Dick Cheney* chestnut about leaving troops helpless in the field. "It's not as if we go up to soldiers in Iraq, take away their body armor and gun and say, `Stay here.'"
Wisconsinites have two senators who will be voting for Feingold-Reid, but, he said, "use whatever influence you have in other parts of the country" to persuade other Democrats to vote for Feingold-Reid. "That is the real test."
Moore, Kagen, Baldwin
Time is getting late, so let me just touch on a few highlights. Rep. Gwen Moore of Milwaukee drew laughs when she said that George Bush "hasn't just taken us down the wrong path, he's blazed dozens of new ones." She drew huge applause mentioning the recent vote to defund the Vice President's office, and touched on a number of important topics, including immigration policy.
Stat Senator Lena Taylor from Milwaukee led the group in cheers, and thanked everyone for their hard work in 2006. The State Senate is now free of its former "nonsense" now that Democrats control it. "I love Pat Kreitlow," she said, not least of all because he booted Dave Zien out of the 23rd District, leaving the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to Taylor.
Assembly Minority Leader Jim Cruiser and State Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson spoke about the sea changes in the legislature, Dawn Marie Sass talked about some of the innovations out of the Treasurer's office, and Secretary of State Doug LaFollette, to his great credit, struck the first note on the environment, calling the last 7 years under Republican rule "sad," as they rolled back so many of Gaylord Nelson's accomplishments. "President Bush has his head--I won't say where," LaFollette said.
WI-8's newly minted congressman, Steve Kagen, talked about health care this morning on Daily Kos, but touched on a lot of other subjects in a surprisingly moving speech. He started with a wry allusion to his own gaffe earlier in the year, saying, "No jokes--we're breaking new ground," but I think it blew over the majority of conventiongoers' heads. They're a forgiving bunch and thrilled to see a Democrat seated in McCarthyland.
Touching on health care reform, he recounted how someone once told him that doctors and nurses didn't decide who would live and who would die--the politicians did. And they still do, for as long as they do nothing about providing accessible health care for everyone.
Taking a page from Al Gore, perhaps, Kagen stated that "politics is not about reality but about perception. We have to change that." He said that Republicans can not be trusted with the truth or with our money any more, and that we must "end Iraq now."
Talking to the C-SPAN camera, Kagen addressed President Bush: "I know you're listening. Please bring our troops home." The crowd stood and roared.
Ordinarily who the leader is does not matter, but it did on 9/11, he said. That day we had the wrong president, "and we'll be paying for it for 25 years to come. Making war is our worst human error."
Ragged cries of "Impeach!" began to come from the audience.
About our recent resegregation, he quoted from Breyer's dissent about how we need to teach children from diverse backgrounds to play together, making ourselves one nation, and said, "Breyer got it right; Roberts got it wrong."
WI-2's Tammy Baldwin noted that her congressional district had the second-highest voter turnout in the nation, though the very highest turnout came in nearby WI-5, which sent Sensenbrenner back to the House. She exhorted Democrats to "out-organize Republicans every step of the way" next season. Update: A WI-5 party member told me that he doesn't think that Bryan Kennedy will necessarily sit out the next election, though two defeats by Sensenbrenner were punishing. A couple other candidates have indicated interest, but no one has declared, yet. Unfortunately, he said, it may take Sensenbrenner's retirement to crack WI-5. "Kennedy would take it easily, if so."
Barbara Lawton and Jim Doyle
Barbara Lawton went down a lengthy list of the Doyle administration's accomplishments and its wish list, including taking the opportunity to innovate in Wisconsin, finding ways to deal with climate change.
Lawton reeled off a list of presidential candidate's names, praising each one as a worthy choice, even Mike Gravel, whose filibuster ended the Viet Nam draft. Biden drew no applause, Richardson, Kucinich and Dodd drew scant applause, and Edwards, Obama and Hillary drew considerable aplause, the warmest of it reserved for Edwards, it seemed to my applause-meter ears. Elizabeth Edwards outdid them all, as Lawton mentioned her deft, kind takedown of Anne Coulter, whom Lawton called "mere rubble."
Lawton did go on about Hillary, speaking of the hypothetical day when she would take the oath of office, and so forth, and then gave her "unequivocal endorsement" of Clinton's candidacy. This delegate tried to suppress a yawn.
Incidentally, HRC's campaign was ubiquitous, aggressive, and seems to be loaded to the gills with cash. The others seem far more of a shoestring operation, wincing when we asked for lawn signs and such. HRC's forces, on the other hand, importuned us to wear Hillary stickers at every turn of the corridor.
Doyle spoke at length about his accomplishments in a style careful to appeal to the middle class, and drew a lot of warm applause. I definitely have to hit the hay, but I did want to say that Doyle's dismay over the recent segregation decision was touching and awful. Doyle, who has an African-American son, asked, "Can you believe what we woke up and read today?" and indeed, hearing that, I wanted to cry.
That's it for now. I think Joe Wineke got in a subtle dig at Kossack Ben Masel when he said about Kohl's re-election campaign, "it was a tough fight," to chuckles, but so it goes.
Good night, all! Will send word tomorrow.
- "He doesn't even know which branch of government he belongs to"