Washington ? Sen. Barbara Boxer has always spoken up, but the California Democrat seems to have become a lot louder lately.

Her opposition to Condoleezza Rice’s secretary of state nomination was so combative that it was parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” That came on the heels of her decision to sign onto a House member’s complaint about Ohio voting problems, forcing Congress to debate them before certifying President Bush’s re-election victory.

She’s being touted on liberal Internet blogs as the Democrats’ best hope for president in 2008. Conservatives are excoriating her as — in House Minority Leader Tom DeLay’s phrase — the leader of the “‘X-Files’ wing” of the Democratic Party.

But Boxer said she was just standing up for what she believed.

“I’ve always been this way,” she said, “and I’m trying to figure out exactly why people suddenly find this to be interesting, you know. Somehow I have touched something inside people, and I have not ever had this happen before. The only thing I can think, after reading what people said, is a feeling that I’m asking the kind of questions and saying the kind of things that they are feeling.”

Maybe she’s becoming a spokeswoman, or even a symbol, for voters who oppose the Iraq war or feel shut out by the Bush administration. Maybe, with the Democratic Party at sea after November’s election losses, some people sense a leadership void and are looking to her to fill it.

Maybe it’s not that Boxer’s become louder but that other Democrats can barely be heard at all. At least, that’s what some of her supporters are saying.

Whatever the explanation, Boxer, 64, has never been more in the spotlight. At a time when Republican dominance of Washington politics is nearly complete, the Marin County liberal has become a newly prominent face of the Democratic Party.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is attracting attention for her energetic and aggressive style. In winning her third Senate term in November, Boxer was the nation's third-highest vote-getter, behind only President Bush and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

“She seems to be assuming the position of being an outspoken voice for, as someone else said, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party,” said Los Angeles Democratic strategist Darry Sragow, echoing a phrase adopted by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

“In the wake of the losses in November … there is a vacuum, there’s handwringing, there’s self-reflection, and she seems to have pretty sure footing as a determined, committed spokesperson for the liberals in the party,” Sragow said. “Part of the handwringing will be over whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

But the combative qualities that turn some people off endear her to others.

“Democrats are so afraid of being criticized, or so afraid that they’ll be accused of being too liberal, that they don’t really act with the courage of their convictions. And then comes Barbara Boxer,” said Madeleine Begun Kane, a writer from Queens, N.Y., who created a “President Boxer” blog. “She’s been a shining light during an otherwise very depressing period.”