Hooray for my guy!

I don't say near as much as I probably should about my own personal Congressman, Rep. Jim McDermott. It's not that I don't admire and appreciate him and his work on behalf of the 7th District and the nation. I do. It's just too easy to overlook him in an election year, because his re-election is such a given.

The local punditocracy, in fact, has a tendency to tag him "Congressman for life" with a sense of derision, but it's pretty much a fact. Jim McDermott is so popular with his constituency that there's simply no liklihood of a successful challenge on the horizon, whether inter- or intra-Party.

Why is that? Well, because of items like this one from Pacific Views:

"It would be nice if we could give each of the dead a minute of silence... But we can't. Because we would be standing here for sixteen and a half hours." Congressman McDermott proceeded to read the names, ages, and ranks of the dead from Washington State. He asked other members of the House to do the same for the fallen from their states.

Here's the list that Rep. McDermott shared with his colleagues.

"From Washington State we have lost Lance Corporal Cedric E. Burns, age 22; Specialist Justin W. Hebert, age 20; Private Duane E. Longstreth, age 19; Private Kerry D. Scott, age 21; Second Lieutenant Benjamin L. Colgan, age 30, distinguished soldier who made his picture on to the front page of Time magazine, very courageous and very good soldier; Specialist Robert T. Benson, age 20; Specialist John R. Sullivan, age 26; Captain James A. Shull, age 32; Specialist Nathan W. Nakis, 19; Sergeant Curt E. Jordan, Jr., age 25; Staff Sergeant Christopher Bunda, age 29; First Lieutenant Michael R. Adams, age 24; Sergeant Jacob R. Herring, age 21; Sergeant Jeffery R. Shaver, age 26; Private Cody S. Calavan, age 19; Lance Corporal Dustin L. Sides, age 22; Staff Sergeant Marvin Best, age 33; Specialist Jeremiah W. Schmunk, age 21; Sergeant Yadir G. Reynoso, age 27; Lance Corporal Kane M. Funke, age 20; Lance Corporal Caleb J. Powers, age 21; Sergeant Jason Cook, age 25."

R.I.P.

And speaking of Pacific Views, happy belated 2nd blogiversary to Natasha. I'm looking forward to many more.