Meeting with the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Tuesday's (3-3-2009)meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi went well. Journalist from Magazines, Reporters from News-Talk Operations, and Bloggers all met for an early breakfast with the Speaker of the House on the coldest March day ever in the history of Washington DC. It was ten degrees that morning and one degree wind chill. Catching the metro/subway to DC had me out there walking in that brisk cold weather. It was freezing. What a day to re-start the breakfast sessions.

I was invited by Ellen Ratner of TalkRadioNews.com and Washington bureau chief of Talkers Magazine, to attend a rebirthing of the breakfast series that Maria Leavey started years ago. The renewed breakfast series is named after its' founder and Progressive Political advocate. The series is called the Maria Leavey Memorial Foundation breakfast at the United States Capitol. The series selects a high level official from Congress to speak, and answer questions from media.

Who was Maria Leavey? I was priviledged to know Maria Leavey, though it was just short of a year's time. Maria Leavey was a tireless Progressive Political activist. During here Political career, she worked for Senators Tom Harkins and Harry Reid, and consulted Govenor/former DNC chairman Howard Dean during his run for the Presidency. After working for Howie, Tom, and Harry, Maria began to promote Political issues htat she felt strongly about, and focused her efforts to market and promote the meetings and conventions via radio, blogging, television, etc... She pushed for more talk radio rows at these Political conventions.

During the first year of the Syndication One News-Talk Network in 2006, it was Maria Leavey that invited our News-Talk network to partake in her radio rows of mostly talk shows. Radio Row is a row of radio stations that are set up at events, and in Maria Leavey's case, Political events. While setting up the Syndication One News-Talk networks shows, I would have to communicate with Maria Leavey to make sure everything was in order. But once the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed, politics would take center stage and a one minute discussion would turn into a half-hour. Maria loved to talk politics and no matter what she was doing -- which was always ten things at once -- she would find time to speak about the issues of the day.

Maria brought in radio talk shows from around the country to add voice to the Progresive events. Michael Harrison of Talkers Magazine provided staff, and reported on these events in Talkers Magazine and talkradionews.com.

The annual Democratic Progressive Convention "Take Back America", and Consumer Health advocate Ron Pollacks' "Families USA" conference, are just two of the major Political events that Maria Leavey worked hard to promote. These two major conventions are held in the Washington DC area at two of the grandier hotels. I was blown away with the Political guests that we were able to interview from these two multi-day conventions. Keynote speakers we would record in the main ballrooms (auditoriums) and play their quotes or whole speeches on air.

Whether talk show guests or keynote speakers, the guest list was always impressive. Some of the guests and speakers from these two events, were Senator Ted Kennedy, President Barack Obama (then running for Senator), Secretary of State Hilary Clinton (then a Junior Senator), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (then not Speaker of the House), Senator John Edwards, and Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich ...to name a few. Once we saw the level of guests, the Syndication One News-Talk network intelligently continued our relationship to this date.

Maria Leavey poured her life into her work, and the committed people that she surrounded herself -- like Ellen Ratner and Kandy Stroud -- were and still are tireless political advocates and promotional wizards. I knew nothing of the monthly breakfast sessions back then that Maria Leavey spear-headed with Congress in 2006, as we just came on the scene. Unfortunately, our working relationship with Maria Leavey ended suddenly and tragically as she died from a family heart aliment, that could have been prevented if she had Health Insurance and regular check ups. I say "tragically" because one of her major causes was Health Care reform. The aforementioned Families USA Conference is the nation's largest Health conference. Leavey died one day before her 53rd birthday in December 31st, 2006.

I went to Maria Leavey's Memorial service at the DNC Headquarters and the iconic Political notables that Leavey worked for and consulted, were there to pay tribute to Maria Leavey -- Governor and former Presidential Candidate Howard Dean, and Senators Tom Harkin and Harry Reid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Leavey

Maria Leavey handed her Political advocate torch over to Ellen Ratner and Kandy Stoud, and through our continued great relations, we -- the Syndication One News-Talk network -- have benefited tremendously. We are thankful.

Ratner and Stroud have included Sydication One's talk shows on radio rows at the nations first 2008 Presidential Primary in New Hampshire; the Democratic Convention in Denver; the Inaugural Radio Row in Washington DC; front position on the Media Stand at the Inauguration -- just 20 yards from the Swearing-In ceremony podium; and this year will be our fourth consecutive year on Radio Row at the aformentioned Take Back America and FamiliesUSA conventions.

Fair to say that I did not just walk up to the US Capitol for the first renewed breakfast meeting on March third with the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as special guest, by asking the United States Capitol Guards and Secret Service: "Can you let me in so I have breakfast with the Speaker of the House."

The renewed first Breakfast session this past Tuesday was a major success, and should be sent out to all periodicals, as this is a historic time that needs to be accurately documented. The US Capitol conference room was available to us from 8a to 10a and the Speaker of the House arrived in a timely fashion at 9am (by the way, the Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi can down some donuts. I think she had about nine during the hour session).

The Speaker began speaking about the new Democratic policies being implemented and the President's agenda. Congresswoman Pelosi spoke uninterruptedly for about ten minutes. The question and answer session followed for the remaining fifty minutes from the "panel" of Talk-Radio News folks, Journalists, and bloggers.

Below is the link to the transcript and audio from the first and renewed Breakfast session with the Speaker of the House. I will have all of the transcripts and nuances from the meeting here on www.kirktanter.blogspot.com in future blogs. And will also continue the weekly White House addresses President Obama. Feel free to bookmark this blog site.

As promised, directly below is the transcript and audio link from the renewed breakfast session of the March 3rd. session with featured speaker, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi -- or you can click on the title above:

http://www.marialeaveymemorial.com/node/22