Dispatch from the Desert 3: A few parting thoughts

Carla Axtman

I had hoped to get these thoughts posted yesterday, but I'm clearly not as young as I used to be. My physical recovery from pounding out five 16+ hour days doesn't have quite the bounce back that it once had. Let's hear it for getting old and worn out! Yay!

It's amazing what a few days of energizing panel discussions and wonky training sessions can do for a blogger's tired soul. Not to mention the fellowship and camaraderie among people who really understand the unique brand of crazy required to write about the nuts and bolts of politics. I really do love getting pruney in the wonk.

The first day or two of the Netroots Nation conference felt very much like a giant bitch session, complete with navel gazing and intense griping about the current state of affairs in the Democratic Party. But as those moments of catharsis passed, I felt the mood shift to a feeling of renewed energy and familial regrouping. Discussions were had not just about the problems before us, but real strategic plans were laid to begin tackling them.

Netroots Nation is also a place where elected officials and candidates show up for some face time with both local and national bloggers. I attended an AM coffee with US Senator Jeff Merkley, who took questions from a group of us that are local, but also included Daily Kos front-pager Joan McCarter.

Merkley also participated in a wonderful panel discussion on the foreclosure crisis (video on the jump) that included Elizabeth Warren who many progressives hope will be chosen by President Obama to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection created with the new Wall Street legislation recently signed into law.

Warren spoke with me briefly afterward, saying about Merkley, "I spend a lot of time talking with senators. I've seen the people that take to the cameras and the people that are willing to do the hard work, inch-by-inch, until it gets done. Jeff Merkley is one of the inch-by-inch guys who does the work. He is a good man".

Very nice indeed.

You can watch the video of the foreclosure crisis panel that includes Senator Merkley and Elizabeth Warren (along with Ryan Grim of Huffington Post and David Dayen of FireDogLake) below:

I missed the "Ask the Speaker" session with Speaker Pelosi as it happened at the same time as a state caucus event I needed to attend. I did hear some grumbling about her, mostly that it seemed she was filling up her time slot with videos and introductions, rather than saving the bulk of it for the actual questioning. On substance, there didn't seem to be a lot of complaints, at least not that I heard.

One of the more amazing moments of the convention came when Lt. Dan Choi, recently discharged under the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy gave his West Point ring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who pledged to return it on the day that the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy is repealed with the President's signature. View Leader Reid's session, which includes the Choi part, below:

I very much enjoyed the closing keynote address delivered by Minnesota Senator Al Franken (I do love typing that out, btw--MINNESOTA SENATOR AL FRANKEN). Franken not only acknowledged our discontent with much of what's happening federally, he gave us energy and encouragement--something that was sorely needed. He also gave us next year's Netroots Nation location: Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have hope that the Minnesota location will be a bit less smoky and dusty than Las Vegas. And it will be FUN to be in the bosom of some of the most progressive people in the nation.

Maybe Al will have me over for dinner, too. Don't laugh. It could happen. Not likely..but if I don't write it down here there's no chance someone from his staff will read it on the Google alert they have for him and pencil me in.

Just sayin.

By Carla Axtman July 26, 2010