PMQs...

Last Wednesday was a shining moment for my political career. Background: Wednesday was Budget Day in Britain. Once a year, the Chancellor goes before Parliament and announces all the details of the Government's budget, and then the leader of the opposition has to respond immediately without having seen the budget ahead of time. Millions tune in to tv sets and radios, not just around the UK, but around a lot of former imperial states as well.

Randomly in the lottery, my backbench Labour MP, Celia Barlow, got selected to ask the first question to Tony Blair during Prime Minister's Questions. It was her first time asking a question at PMQs, and she was pumped. So the other night, we were in a pub in the House of Commons celebrating the other intern getting a job as a researcher with bottles of champagne and pints of beer (the pub is called Strangers, and there's a cartoon picture on the wall of the "regulars" in 1995... 80% of them are dead now... liver problems I guess), and we had put a few away when Celia was thinking about the question. So I jokingly commented, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it tomorrow."

On Tuesday, I was told that I was in charge of preparing the question. So I spent an hour or so on the phone with a detective from her constituency talking about a program combining police enforcement and drug treatment that has lowered crime substantially. We also talked about the meth problem in Montana. Then I wrote the question with some political points in it. We started out by "cheer[ing]" up Blair as he has been caught in a scandal this last week ... giving out spots in the House of Lords in exchange for millions of pounds to the Labour Party. Then we acknowledged the Chancellor on Budget Day, as well as the Blair Government's committment to funding crime prevenetion.

For a full view of Celia's performance, watch the video (lower right hand side of the screen). Watch it for a little while longer to see the Tory leader (David Cameron) antigonize Tony Blair as to when he is going to step down from power.

I love the House of Commons... but where are all the Dems?

Why are you a Democrat?

I ran across this speech by former Governor Mark Warner. He's got some pretty inspiring motives for being a Dem:

Now as you might guess, a lot of Republicans and Independents supported us. And since then, a lot of them have asked me, Mark - Why exactly are you a Democrat?

And I just smile. Because if you have to ask, you wouldn't understand.

I am a Democrat because since Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence - and since Jackson spoke for the common man - our party has never been the party of the status quo.

Instead, we have been the ones to see a challenge - and do something about it. Let's be honest - it hasn't always worked perfectly. Sometimes it has gotten us in trouble. Sometimes it has split us apart. But sometimes, those are the wages of progress.

And yet, I am a Democrat because the greatest and most noble political experiments of our time had their birth in our party.

I am a Democrat because the New Deal literally saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

I am a Democrat because a generation after a Democratic president started the Peace Corps, you can still find faded photographs of John F. Kennedy on the walls of homes from South Africa to South America.

I am a Democrat because fighting for working men and women is always the right fight.

I am a Democrat because our party led the struggle for civil rights and because we recognize that discrimination and bigotry are not dead - and that we must continue to seek equal opportunity for all.

I am a Democrat because despite our failures, our missteps, and our excesses - we know that waging a war on poverty does not mean fighting the individuals who are poor.

I am a Democrat because we know that today's battle is about the future versus the past - and it's time to put aside yesterday's battles of us versus them.

I am a Democrat because we know that criticizing success won't create a single job.

And most of all, I am a Democrat because when my three daughters go out into the world to make their lives, I want them to find a world where there's less hopelessness - less selfishness - and less violence.

I want them to find a world where there is more opportunity - more understanding - and more hope.

That is the mission of this party.

That is what we work for.

That is why we get up every morning.