CHICAGO -- Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Democrat had to skip his planned remarks here at the Yearly Kos convention because he was stuck in Washington for votes. But he sent some video love -- complete with red meat -- to the crowd. "I wish I could be with you," he said. "You're really changing the Democratic party and you're changing America for the better.
He joked that Karl Rove's nickname for columnist Bob Novak is "speed dial No. 3."
Organizers said the convention, inspired by prominent liberal blog Daily Kos, boasts 1,400 attendees. Durbin lauded the "brave bloggers" in the crowd for helping force John Bolton to resign and exposing the White House's role in the Valerie Plame scandal.
"If it weren't for the progressive netroots I wouldn't be assistant majority leader," he added, and the crowd whooped. Air America host Sam Seder riled up the Kossacks by poking at Fox's Bill O'Reilly. "I'm going to have to disagree with Bill O'Reilly -- you don't look hateful or crazy and thank god you're not the Ku Klux Klan," he said, to big cheers, going on to ridicule the sexual harassment claims against O'Reilly. The big attraction tonight is DNC chairman Howard Dean, still a liberal favorite. Attendees waved "Howard Empowered" signs.
He got the best reaction promising that Congress will vote "again and again and again and again and again ... until our troops are home from Iraq" and saying the repeated votes will pressure endangered Republican senators like Susan Collins (Maine) and Norm Coleman (Minn.).
The cheers were so loud Dean's next words were drowned out. Check back in the morning for some video of the speech. Several Kossacks left the speech saying they would vote for Dean for president if he were to run again. Also of note, Gen. Wes Clark's name garnered louder applause than any 2008 hopeful when organizers rattled off the attendees on the schedule.
-- Christina Bellantoni, national political correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (3)
Bring them home. AND THEN WHAT?
Posted by Larry Stone | August 3, 2007 5:27 AM
You morbidly obese rightist rednecks should have thought about the geopolitics when you helped lie us into a war with the only country in the region which had NO terrorist threat, but obviously the words were too big for you.
Posted by gregrocker | August 4, 2007 5:29 PM
It will be great to see the libs lose the election in part due to the public becoming aware of the dems cow-towing to hateful groups such as the Kos klan. Many Americans may have problems with the war, but they definitely don't stand for hate.
Posted by Scott | August 5, 2007 7:07 PM