I attended on the half-day plan, so missed Congressman Jay Inslee, who is running for Governor here in WA state, but I was able to get in on some really productive events. Drinking Liberally and NW Progressive Institute did a really good job with this.
http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/ is the website - if it isn't updated yet, it will be. The lunch at FX McRory's was almost worth what I paid to get in - beautiful place with Neiman paintings (I'll do a separate story on that.) I went to the Monsanto event and a media panel with Darcy Burner (who ran for Congress across the lake), Joel Connelly of the Seattle P-I and others, and also heard a fellow who used to be Health head for Canada.
Dennis Kucinich and Jim McDermott were both outstanding - they speak from and of the heart. Dennis can talk of peace and even love without sounding corny - he is obviously well-rounded and well read, as is evident when he is asked question where he needs to give a historical background. He is likely to drop an Emerson or Tennyson quote or to give historical context to our foreign policy blunders. He has something rare in American politics - philosophical underpinnings. His moral consistency makes a joke of the "religious" values of so many on the right and those who follow them or in our own party who sell out. I've seen him several times and this was the most profound, I think. I found myself hoping the rumor is true that he is moving to Washington State. Someone asked him an Obama-sellout question and he didn't even address it. He has an admirable balance between idealistic and pragmatic.
Congressman McDermott is someone that I try to make it a point to see when possible and as always, he was quite frank (as when he told us he'd had a 25 minute phone discussion with Nancy Pelosi about Social Security just recently or that he does not believe the economic downtown is over given that adjustable-rate mortgages have not all hit the fan.) He reminded us that he has introduced health care legislation many times and will just keep being a "bulldog" til something is done. He also took a pragmatic approach to critical questions about the Administration. Admittedly, both of these Congressman do not agree with the control Wall Street has over our government but they were more interested in practical suggestions.
For example, Kucinich believes the Federal Reserve should be under the Treasury Department again and McDermott suggests we have state banks like North Dakota, a state that actually has a surplus. It is encouraging to have progressives like this in our Congress who realize that (as Dennis said) the root of "courage" is "cour," which means "heart." They both embody this.
I always love the Total Experience Gospel Choir and sat in the front row.
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