Senator Boxer at YearlyKos

[Bob Geiger]

Blogging from YearlyKos

In a speech met with multiple standing ovations, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) delivered the lunch keynote on day two of the YearlyKos conference and told a crowd filled with liberal activists and bloggers "never, ever become silent about things that matter and we will get our country back."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who had been scheduled to appear with Boxer, canceled at the last minute due to Congressional business.

Speaking to a packed hotel ballroom, Boxer covered a variety of topics including the midterm elections, the domestic spying scandal, gay marriage and the war in Iraq.

"I voted no on going to war," said Boxer to thunderous applause. "It was one of the best votes I ever cast in so many years of public life. There are only 23 of us in the Senate who voted that way and it was a very hard thing to do."

Boxer acknowledged the presence of Ambassador Joe Wilson, whose wife, Valerie Plame, is the former CIA agent outed by the Bush White House.

"They went after your family. It's despicable and cowardly and you deserve our thanks," said Boxer directly to Wilson, who was sitting nearby in the audience. "He goes out, he went and found out the truth about Saddam's supposed efforts to get weapons of mass destruction. He comes back and tells the truth and instead of getting thanked, what happens? They go after his family. Can you think of anything more cowardly than that?"

Boxer railed against the Bush administration for its warrantless, domestic spying program saying "we cannot stand by quietly as our privacy is invaded."

"We are facing a White House that is dangerously incompetent and a Republican Congress that is far too eager to write a blank check or turn a blind eye."

Talking about the Iraq war, Boxer invoked a recent conversation with the mother of a soldier deployed to Baghdad who told Boxer that a recent letter from her son conveyed agreement with what the majority of the American people are feeling. "We've done all we can do -- it's time for us to come home," said Boxer, quoting from the soldier's letter.

But Boxer saved her most forceful comments for the disgraceful attempts by the Republican party to write discrimination against the gay community into the U.S. Constitution.

"If you really want to do something to help marriages, raise the minimum wage, help people raise their families. You wanna do something to save marriages, help people get health care so that pressure is off their families," said Boxer to massive applause. "How about saving marriages in the military where the divorce rate on those over in Iraq has doubled over the last few years? Bring home the troops to help save marriages.

"If gay marriage threatens your marriage then there's something wrong with your marriage. It's not the problem of other people who want to live together."

The California Senator had special praise for the blogging community and provided encouraging words when asked by an audience member about the negative way some in Congress may view bloggers.

"You shouldn’t worry about what other people think. Just keep doing what you're doing because it's working."

Update: Thanks to the folks at PoliticsTV.com, you can view Senator Boxer's speech in its entirety here.

You can reach Bob Geiger at [e-mail] and read more from him at Democrats.com.

[SharonRB]

1. I heard her speech -- this is a great recap.

Thanks for posting so those who didn't hear her will know what she said.

I think it's funny that they have a lot of the same problems on DK that we have here -- arguments, trolls, etc. I had to laugh when I heard the "meta" panel talking about that kind of stuff. So it's not just us, huh?

[Rose Siding]

2. Thank you for that, Bob

I wasn't able to listen. She's just wonderful.

[Pithy Cherub]

3. Senator Wonderful repeated several times that the

bush administration was dangerously incompetent. She covered the Q & A impeachment question by appealing to people's hopes and using the power after the mid-terms.


Bob, you have done a magnificent job in capturing the event. :yourock:

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Thanks Bob

I watched the part of the Plame panel with Joe Wilson and others on C-SPAN2 today. Very interesting indeed.

[Kahuna]

5. Boxer is the absolute best. I wish it would be realistic for her to

run for president. But sadly, I know she's not likely to be taken seriously.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

6. God Bless Senator Boxer

She has more intelligence in her little body, than King george has in his pinky finger.

[Turn CO Blue]

7. Thank you, thank you!