Democrat of the Week: Patrick J. Murphy

This week's "Democrat of the Week" award goes to Patrick J. Murphy, a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania. Despite being a freshman congressman from a swing district, Rep. Murphy did not cave in to White House pressure on the FISA amendment - he voted against the bill, and even more than that, was passionately opposed. If only other moderate Democrats had shown the same degree of political courage, we could have fought off this blow to our civil liberties. Make no mistake - not a single Democrat actually thought that the White House version of the surveillance bill was better than the Democratic version. Everyone thought that the White House version gutted the FISA protection and gave too much authority to the Attorney General. Even so, many Democrats feared being called "weak on terror" should they vote against what the White House wanted. Rep. Murphy was not one of them, and has earned great esteem in the eyes of those of us who value our civil liberties.