Senate Birthdays

Birthday wishes go out to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) who turns 67 today. Leahy has been in the Senate for 33 years, having become the first Democratic Senator ever elected from Vermont in 1974.

He suffered mightily over the last few years as the ranking, minority Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but has been kicking butt ever since assuming the chairmanship when the Democrats gained control of the Senate this year.

Senator Leahy was one of the Senators targeted in the 2001 anthrax attacks but the thing that will forever make him our hero is how he made Dick Cheney so angry by his dogged scrutiny of Halliburton, that Cheney approached him on the Senate floor and said "... go fuck yourself".

In addition to the oversight he is leading in the new Congress, that's another good reason to love Senator Leahy and wish him a happy birthday.