Better Know A District-- Or, Better Yet, A Top Notch Congressman: Matt Cartwright (PA-17)

When Blue America first got behind Matt Cartwright's lonely and "impossible" challenge to Blue Dog Tim Holden last year, no one expected him to beat the very entrenched dean of the Pennsylvania delegation, and very well-funded one at that. Steny Hoyer called some of our biggest donors and told them we're insane and that we were wasting their money and that Holden would win by a landslide. Hoyer, in fact-- lobbyists in tow-- was all over PA-17 trying to make sure he was correct about that. Blue America, on the other hand, felt that Matt Cartwright had what it took to beat Holden and, more important, has what it takes to be a great congressman and represent northeastern Pennsylvania's working families in a way they haven't been represented in a very long time.

We expected Matt to go on to be one of the most outstanding Members of Congress. Right out of the gate, his freshman colleagues elected him freshman class president. OK, OK... I know what that means too. BUT, how about this? So far this session, only two Members of Congress have 100% vote scores on crucial roll calls from ProgressivePunch: Mark Pocan and... Matt Cartwright. "I have signed onto the Grayson-Takano No Cuts letter," Matt told us today, "because we are not going to balance the budget on our seniors and those who can least afford it. We must find a balanced approach, but let's start with the oil and gas companies making millions out of tax loopholes, not grandma and grandpa."

Now what we didn't expect when we were putting up all those Holden Is A Friend Of Fracking billboards everywhere in NEPA is that Matt Cartwright would ever be on the Stephen Colbert Show. But he was... Thursday night. And he taught Stephen how to... well watch it: