It is easy to get upset and frustrated when we lose important fights in Congress, especially after working so hard in 2006 to win us a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate. We shouldn’t forget that some of the people we fought hard for and gave money for have our backs now. The lesson of 2007 is that we need to fight even harder to keep the Representatives who have done good by us get more good people in Congress who share our values who have courage, integrity and honor, who will step up and speak for the American people, our troops and take seriously their oath to defend the Constitution. As kos wrote, “This is it. This is the way to change our party.“
I had the great privilege to work for one such candidate in 2006, and in 2007 he has been one of the best voices against the war and for the constitution in the U.S. House. Congressman Patrick Murphy has been a strong, consistent voice for progressive values in the people’s House. Recently he has taken a series of courageous stands in voting for positions that are good policy, but may be bad politics in his very purple district, as Matt Stoller put it earlier today, “Here’s Patrick Murphy, the recognized Democratic freshman leader on Iraq.”
Two days ago when we were frustrated that the Senate and House has approved more money for Iraq, Congressman Murphy was too. He voted against that bill on the grounds that we should not be spending more money on Iraq without appropriate conditions. When the house first passed tax relief for the middle class in the form of freeing the middle class from the Alternative Minimum Tax Patrick Murphy was one of 216 votes in favor. When the Senate refused to pass taxes that would offset the cost of this tax, Patrick Murphy was one of only 64 congressional representatives who voted in favor of balancing our budget and agaist the bill; only Democrats voted against that bill and most of them were in very safe seats.
Last year Patrick Murphy’s victory party party kept us late into the night awaiting the results. There was an air of jubilation as the good news from all over the country came in, but we were awaiting the result of the race we had personally invested in. The celebration first started in the press rooms when a group of bloggers including DelewareDem, Booman, and myself saw the returns from the north east of Philadelphia and did the math. The race was so close that the new Congressman was not ready to declare victory for several more hours after that. It was so close that the former Congressman was not ready to concede until the next morning.
Lets prove to Congressman Murphy and the rest of the Democratic Caucus that doing the right thing is also good politics. If we want to ensure that good people like Congressman Patrick Murphy continue to represent us and continue take courageous stands we need to continue to support him and others like him. If you live near his district in Bucks County PA, north of Philadelphia please Volunteer, if you can afford to Contribute. He has our back, let him know that we have his.