Birmingham Blues

Or maybe “breakfast”.  Dear Husband warned me not to expect too much for my $50 this morning.  He predicted coffee and muffins, and boy was he wrong.  It was coffee and croissants.  Anyway, I pointed out to him that had it been a Republican breakfast, the same meal would have cost $250, and it would have been invitation only.

Lame joke, but it points up a major problem with the Bush administration, which Gov. Dean addressed in his speech — the President’s belief that he only represents the people who voted for him.  Or actually just a subset of those people, the ones with beaucoup bucks.

Gov. Dean gave a good speech, noting some of the successes of the party’s 50-state strategy, even in states as red as Alabama, Utah, Oklahoma, and Mississippi.  He focused on the Iraq war and the need to bring our troops home with honor — and treat them well once they’re here.  And he sharply criticized the Republicans’ borrow-and-spend policy, reminding us that the only president in the last 40 years to balance the budget was Bill Clinton (and he did it without a single Republican vote).  If we don’t have a change in policy, he sees a future in which our grandchildren will still be paying Bush’s bills.

He lauded the grass roots work that helped elect so many Democratic candidates in 2006, and he stressed the importance of listening to voters.  So, voters, that means we need to keep talking, loudly, and make sure we’re heard.

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As always, it was fun to see fellow bloggers (Danny of Doc’s Political Parlor, Trent of Aladems and Sack Sessions, and Joe of Bessemer Opinions were on the job) and to meet readers face-to-face.  And pick up a little political buzz: Judge Pete Johnson is ready to challenge Jeff Sessions in the 2008 Senate race if Ron Sparks doesn’t.  Vivian Figures is definitely in, as is some guy I’ve never heard of named Roy Williams (I think).  Sparks has made the rounds in Washington, and he’s been assured of major financial support from the national party if he does run.  Good!  That means they think the race will be competitive.

* rubs hands together in glee * 

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Here’s the Birmingham News coverage.

UPDATE:  Joe and Trent have their posts up.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 10:50 am and is filed under Alabama Politics, National Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.