Very interesting evening with DFNYC, featuring Jim Dean of Democracy for America, Congressman Charles Rangel and freshman Congresswoman Carol-Shea Porter of New Hampshire. A small observation: Charlie Rangel doesn't need to show up at these things. He's the Chairman of Ways and Means, probably the most powerful Member of the House after the Speaker and the Majority Leader, and there's the living legend aspect of the man. That said, this is the second time in as many weeks that I've run into him at a Congressional fundraiser. If all Democrats worked as hard as Congressman Rangel does, we could keep the republicans to a double-digit caucus.

The beneficiary of tonight's event was Congresswoman Shea-Porter, the grassroots come-out-of-nowhere 2006 victor in the First District of New Hampshire. Well, no, rephrase that: she received the funds garnered; the beneficiaries of the event itself and of her re-election efforts are we, the American people. Carol is an outspoken Progressive in a libertarian state with strong, if fading, republican leanings. She's not a member of the Defeatocrat caucus, the members of which seem not to have grasped that the republicans are in the toilet, and that people want to vote for Democrats.

So if you're thusly inclined, send Carol some love.