Whoa! THREE of my Political Heroes all at Once!

And I'm sure the girls are great too! What a way to spend a day in DC!

Senator Henry Clay (on the wall), Senator Jeff Flake (R, AZ), and Matt Anselmo (World Famous Mo-Dem Blogger)
Photo credit: Kaija Flake Thompson

Senator Clay, the Great Compromiser and hero of Lincoln's, seems to be there by pure chance. And my Dem-Mormon-Blogger Friend, Matt Anselmo, seems to have some familial connections in DC. Matt is the one who invited me to write for MormonDems.com and I've been a little lax lately, politics taking a bit of a back seat to family history and Mo-Dems joining some kind of conglomerate I have yet to spend the time on to figure out.

Senator Flake is a hero because while definitely and solidly conservative, he is smart and wise enough not to join the gang of 47 in their attempts to undermine our President of the United States and provoke a war with the Ayatollahs of Iran.

Senator Flake was on NPR (probably a crime in itself to some right-wingers) and explained very diplomatically how he thought the letter to the dictators of Iran was "not appropriate." Hah! That's the understatement of the year! Especially compared with the inexplicable overstatement of Senator Lindsey (real name) Graham of South Carolaaihna who said if he were President and the Senate had done something like that to him, he would have called out the Army on them. (Sounding much more negative Lincolnesque than Calhounian, assuming it made any sense at all.)

And I've been watching Senator Flake who seems to be developing into a real statesman--a rarity in today's political climate. He is from an old Arizona family of Mormon Pioneers and reminds me a bit of one of the Udalls. I can't think which one right off as there are enough of them that they probably connect to the Flakes somehow anyway. So, yeah. He's one cool dude.

The other six Republican non-signers should get credit too. They are:

Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Daniel Coats (Ind.)
Susan Collins (Maine)
Thad Cochran (Miss.)
Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)
Bob Corker (Tenn.)

So, let's hope those young women learned some good things on their tour. We need them to lead the nation one day in the style of the Clays, Flakes, and Anselmos.