Virginia is one of the top priorities this election. This Thursday there will be a phone banking effort in Cobble Hill to get out the vote for Congressional candidate Tom Perriello and for Barack Obama.

Tom Perriello, running for Congress in the VA-5 district against Republican Virgil Goode, may be a particularly important person for us to get into Congress because of his excellent diplomatic record. After 8 years of Bush’s failed foreign policy, we need some people with excellent diplomatic skills in government to help clean up the mess. Goode is stuck in the Bush/McCain thinking. By contrast, Perriello has a record of diplomatic success in difficult regions. Back when Sierra Leone was one of the world’s most violent hot spots, Tom worked with child soldiers, amputees, and local pro-democracy groups, and played a significant role in the peace and reconciliation process that ended twelve years of violence there. He then became Special Advisor and spokesperson for the International Prosecutor during the showdown that forced Liberian dictator Charles Taylor (who was also responsible for the violence in Sierra Leone) from power without firing a shot. THAT is the kind of diplomatic skill America needs after years of Bush/McCain blunders. After this success, Tom served as a national security analyst for the Century Foundation. He has worked inside Darfur and twice in Afghanistan, so he knows about the hot spots of today. This is the kind of leadership we need in Congress! He is raising record amounts of money to defeat the incumbent Republican. For me, this is a critical pick up opportunity.