Netroots Nation 1.0

My Political Junkie trajectory has converged. Yesterday, I met Brian Lamb's niece on the C-SPAN Bus and today, I got to fawn over John Dean. I shook his hand and asked a few questions--on camera no less. I have some pics of him that I'll post later.

I started watching political shenanigans the summer of the Watergate hearings when my mother fell in love with John Dean. Years later C-SPAN picked up where the Watergate hearings left off.

Mike shot this panel where I met Dean, Adam Bonin and Michael Waldman. We missed Cass Sunstein, who Dean said should be on Obama's short list for Supreme Court Justice. Sunstein convinced me. What a brilliant man! He spoke briefly, yet somehow in a kind of long form, starting with Brutus and Montesquieu and the uses of heterogeneity to the decimation of the rule of law in this administration. He ended with, "'It's the Constitution, stupid,' probably isn't the catchiest motto." I was rapt.

Paul Krugman is before me on the dais for the "How the Media Learned to Bend Over Backward..." along with Digby, Rick Perlstein, who is annoyingly reading from his book "Nixonland," and Duncan Black.

UPDATE: Krugman said when we invaded Iraq he and some fellow journalists wondered, "Who will be this war's Seymour Hersh? (beat) Turns out it's Seymour Hersh." Social editor moment--He looks appropriately cool and comfortable in a blue and white striped, button down collar, short sleeved shirt.

"Yes, there is a vast right-wing conspiracy, but it's not actually the Republican Party"

"Journalists...get really upset when they get negative mail. I must say the first 10,000 pieces of negative mail kind of rocked me back."