Here in Las Vegas, attendees of the Netroots Nation conference are taking their seats for a question and answer session with Majority Leader Harry Reid. A live video feed is below, and I'll be blogging the session live.
Update 1: Things are about to get underway, but before they do, allow me to point out the latest Angle-ism, in which she claims that she already apologized for saying unemployment benefits coddle workers, but restating her opposition to them. She also says, and I quote:
"Creating jobs is never the job of government, and we've seen that through the stimulus."
I guess at least she's acknowledging the stimulus created jobs, even though she thinks that's a bad thing.
Update 2: Joan McCarter, the moderator of this afternoon's session, has just walked and stage and kicked off the program. Reid will be appearing shortly.
Update 3: A mostly standing ovation along with cheers and applause for Sen. Reid. Reid's first comment: asking the audience to recognize Lt. Dan Choi for his heroic leadership in the same week that he was "wrongfully" discharged from the military, in Reid's words. Reid said Choi illustrates the need to end DADT.
Update 4: Next, Reid compares the Netroots to the revolutionary pamphleteers who helped deliver independence to America, and casts it as an essential tool for democratizing the media, which he says has all to often become a tool of the "rich and the powerful" to expand their political influence and control. Now, he says, the Netroots gives citizens the power to "overpower the powerful." (Small update: the Netroots are a "megaphone for the masses."
Update 5: "I'm told, there are times I get on your nerves. (Laughter.) And there's also times when you get on my nerves. (More laughter.)"
Update 6: Reid says he's glad the blogosphere is expanding, noting that there are more than one-quarter million users registered at Daily Kos.
Update 7: Reid lists the accomplishments of this Congress, including health care reform, Wall Street reform, national service program, public land reforms, emergency unemployment benefits, and the Lily Ledbetter act. Reid thanks bloggers in general for helping to pass these laws, singling out Joan McCarter. Reid says he knows many progressives wanted more -- and he says he does too. Specifically, he says he wants a public option. And he says that we will eventually get one -- it's just a question of when.
Update 8: Reid blasts Republican obstruction, and says the biggest problem with the GOP is that there are only two moderate Republican Senators -- that every other Republican Senator is an extremist, far to the right a significant portion of the GOP base.
© Jed Lewison