Kentucky's Congressman Awesome

So Wire Hangar slithered his way back into Congress by 649 votes. Don't celebrate; he's a corporate-owned Blue Dog who'll stab Pelosi and Obama in the back every chance he gets.

Focus instead on the one politician who keeps Kentucky from being Mississippi.

Media Czech on the TIME profile:

John Yarmuth just can't help but be Congressman Awesome:

"One of the problems we had nationally was that we had a lot of members who had been in office a long time and had kind of been cruising," Yarmuth told TIME on late Tuesday over the still raucous cheers of relieved supporters in the background. "So when they found themselves in an environment where people were yelling in their faces, they lacked the skills and the confidence to defend the good things they had just accomplished." Instead, he said, too many congressional Democrats "pandered" to an angry and frustrated electorate, instead of selling them on the benefits of health care reform and the rest.

Yarmuth, easily the most liberal member of Congress from Kentucky in decades, never apologized for any of the legislation he has helped passed since Obama's Inauguration. "I've been outspoken on these issues for a long time," he told TIME. "And when I've been out talking to constituents, I have never wavered on my positions. They know I am someone who will say exactly what I feel."

It was a strategy that proved pivotal compared with those of his compatriots across Kentucky. Much more moderate Democrats fared far less well. Democrat Ben Chandler declared apparent victory but only after he squeaked ahead by a few hundred votes in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District. Paul's opponent in the Senate race, Democratic state attorney general Jack Conway, never seemed to show voters exactly where he stood or find his voice — at least not before giving a passionate and articulate concession speech on Tuesday.

Yarmuth was reluctant to criticize Conway, who is also from Louisville, but he agreed that the Democratic Senate candidate had failed to convince skeptical voters that he stood for something powerful. "I hate to talk about Jack's campaign, because I feel Jack did what he had to do," Yarmuth said, giving a nod to the fact that Kentucky voters as a whole are far more conservative than the ones he faced in Louisville. "But one of the problems Jack had was that he never — well, he tried to kind of guess where most Kentuckians were on the issues. And voters usually can see through that. He didn't stand up for particular values and say, 'This is my position, even if it's unpopular.' He may have believed in every position he took, but he never convinced voters."

Is it possible to overdose on Awesomeness? Yarmy may have to tone it down a bit, for his own health.

SNIP

And if you haven't seen Yarmuth's victory speech yet, please set aside 12 minutes of your time sometime today or this weekend and watch this thing from start to finish. We should all be really grateful to have someone like this in Washington DC representing our state.