Monday's convention wrap-up

(This was written late last night). Man, what a busy day. I got back to my room after midnight, traffic was insane, and I'm absolutely exhausted. The convention has so far been a hoot. I have to admit, it's fun hobnobbing with all the politicos. Even being from DC, where we see them all the time, something about being here at the convention adds an extra zest that you just don't feel when you see them back home.

Some of the highlights:

Interviewing Barbara Boxer (who right before was talking to former recording industry lobbyist and gay rights guru Hilary Rosen):



Going through the FleetCenter, seeing who you could pick out of the crowd. Saw Ted Koppel and Chris Bury of ABCNews (Koppel is SO short). Saw the OTHER Senator Kerrey, former Dem senator from Nebraska. Also saw congresspeople Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL) (forget my spelling, it's 1AM, I'm NOT looking up these names) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) hugging outside a restaurant (it was a good-natured hug, watch your minds).

But of course the BIG fun was going onto the convention floor this evening for Hillary's and Bill's speeches. Hill was good, she only spoke about 5 minutes, but the crowd loved her.



Then came Bill. Man, that guy can work a crowd. It was absolutely exhilirating standing there with tens of thousands of people all getting more and more worked up, as only Clinton knows how.



Standing literally next to us was a gaggle of local and national who's-whos, such as former Clinton cabinet Secretary Cisneros, who was definitely enjoying Bill's speech:



DC city councilmember Adrian Fenty:



And just to my left was someone who Mike Signorile, my cohort on the convention floor, swore to me WASN'T who I thought it was. Well, after seeing the "Speaker Pelosi" cord around her neck, I knew it had to be, none other than, openly-lesbian member of Congress Tammy Baldwin! And yep, it was her. She was really nice - I asked if I could get a picture (for you all), and she said, why not get one together?! She then took my camera, handed it to her lover (who she introduced me to), and her lover took this pic of the two of us (looking a bit oompa-loompa-ish, sorry, bad lighting):



After Bill finished speaking - well, ok, BEFORE he finished speaking because, guess what, he went on for a while - we had to leave because you only get floor access for about a half hour at a time (well, at least that was the way it worked for us). Anyway, on the way out we passed talk radio alley (or some such name), and who was broadcasting live, but our favorite Air America(n) Jeanine Garofolo (again, I'm not looking up her name to spell it right, you know who I mean).



Finally, by around 11:30, after we fought our way through the throngs exiting the convention center, we, quite accidentally, walked by the little cage set up for the protesters. I kid you not, they gave them a cage. (Where's Jack-Off Ryan when you need him?) These cage had double-walled fences, a meshed in top, and BARBED WIRE. As Mike Signorile exclaimed while looking at the set-up "Flying monkeys could get out of there!" It was quite the nasty looking spectacle.



I'm sure there's more to tell, but I've got to get up in 8.5 hours, so I'm signing off. Tomorrow, I'll try to find Kos and Atrios on blogger row - would be fun to finally see them in person. JOHN