A reader writes:
Hey – you may want to pass this on to John Cole & Co. to add to the Balloon Juice ActBlue page. As much as I may want to see divided government come out of this upcoming election, it would be an absolute tragedy for any person who gives a crap about civil liberties or the problems with the War on Terror if Rush Holt lost his job, almost to the point where I’d personally rather see the Dems hold on to the House than see Holt taken down. In fact, I’m thinking of convincing the wife that we should make a donation to his campaign myself, which would be only the second political donation I’ve ever made (Ron Paul 2008 was the other one).
Holt, in addition to being an extremely reliable liberal vote on domestic policy, is also a nuclear fucking physicist, who is one of the few true liberals on the intelligence committee and has aggressively spearheaded just about every single attempt to protect civil liberties in the War on Terror era. The fact that he’s on the Intelligence Committee is also essential because he gives civil libertarians a real voice of credibility on these issues – no one can claim that someone who sits on the Intelligence Committee (he also chairs the Intelligence Oversight Panel) is unaware of or cavalier about the extent of the threats we face.
I’m not very familiar with Holt, but this is a pretty strong endorsement. His congressional website is here. His homepage is here. If you’re in Jersey’s 12th district, you might even consider getting a bumper sticker:
Holt was also one of a few Congressmen who wrote a letter urging President Obama to advocate lifting the Gaza blockade. He also pushed hard to force the Pentagon to require the videotaping of military interrogations – and won. Indeed, the more I dig into Holt’s record on secrecy, domestic surveillance, and other matters of civil liberty vs. the security state, the more I agree with the reader: Holt looks like one of the few very strong voices in the House on civil liberties issues, and we should definitely work to keep him in his seat where he faces a pretty tight race against GOP challenger, Scott Sipprelle.