Another hero leaves the building...

Indiana Rep. Julia Carson, a six-term Democrat from the Indianapolis-based 7th District, has revealed that she is dying of lung cancer.

I know I have to give it a rest with all the depressing blog-posts here, but I can't let this one go without comment. Julia Carson is one of my favorite members. You know all that lip service Republicans like to give to the American Dream and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps to success? She is one of the very few people I know of who really did it, overcoming racism as well as poverty and working her way off welfare a couple of times in her life. Despite being elected from one of the more conservative big cities, Indianapolis, she has an unapologetically liberal record that has not stopped her from winning re-election five times. (Neither has the fact that she's black in a 63% white district.) We could definitely use a few more of those on the Democratic side of the aisle - but it looks like for now there will be one less.

My own stint working on Capitol Hill began with her first term, and I remember that she was struggling with health problems even back then. A decade later, that has never really changed, so this news doesn't come as too much of a surprise, I concede. Still an awful loss.