Thank you, Jim Oberstar

In 1988 I was a kid whose dad was the site manager for our family-owned junkyard, where we also lived. My dad was a libertarian, my mom a silent liberal, and our family name was both literally and figuratively the color of mud. That year I had an opportunity to go to Washington, D.C., as a contest winner and was toured around the capitol. My senators were fine, I guess, delivering perfunctory office visits (or ditching, in one case). Jim Oberstar, however, spent almost two hours with us, touring me behind the scenes in Congress and offering a cavalcade of history and stories about America, our government and his day-to-day job. It was an absolutely inspiring experience for me, probably changed my life as much as any other part of that trip. I was from a oily, junked-up, scrub brush swamp just off the iron formation, and after that I never once considered that my life had limitations. I had been shown the workings and there was no reason to believe I couldn't see all the workings of this great, strange world.

Thanks, Jim.

That is what I'm thinking of this morning. Nevertheless, congratulations to Chip Cravaack. When my day settles down just a bit I'm going to talk about his remarkable victory and what Democrats should be thinking about next.