I heart Russ Feingold

<3

This morning I had the honor of attending the ANGLE (Access Now Gay and Lesbian Equality) breakfast at the Wyndham BelAge Hotel in West Hollywood, with none other than Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russ Feingold as the key note speaker! Being from Wisconsin and pretty liberal in my politics, Senator Feingold is something of a political hero to me. He also holds the distinction of casting the lone dissenting vote in the Senate against the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act back in 2001. I got to shake his hand and speak with him briefly, mostly we just chatted about Hudson, my home town, and Madison, seeing as we are both Badger alums and his own daughter just graduated from the UW a couple years ago. He comes across as a very genuine and kind person, not something you see often in politicians these days! He inspires and he gets things done. He’s also quite a bit shorter than I imagined.

He spoke of course about marriage equality, given the crowd in attendance and the fact that Wisconsin is in the position to be the first state ever to strike down a ballot measure this November banning civil unions and same sex marriage (read the full press release here). He also touched on alternative energy, campaign finance reform, terrorism and the national security crisis, Katrina, the situations in Lebanon, Iraq, and Africa. A man after my own heart he is. I would love to see him become president, I would vote for him. He has such strong leadership and really makes an effort to get down to the grassroots level and connect with his constituents and their needs and positions. He holds town hall type meetings in every one of Wisconsin’s 72 counties every year to listen to the people and address their concerns, he said that over his tenure he has conducted close to 1,000 of these meetings! I could gush on and on. If you haven’t taken the time to get to know Senator Feingold I would encourage you to do so, he’ll be one to watch for in 2008. It’s not that I don’t like Senator Clinton, I’ve just gotta side with my fellow Badger, you know?


Happy Friday all, I’m off to market to pick up some goodies and heading home early so I can take a nap before the Phix show tonight at the Knitting Factory. Yay!