For those of you who are unfamiliar with Congresswoman Lowey, she has represented New York in Congress for the past 20 years.  As a legislator, she has been a solid advocate for just about every liberal and progressive policy from environmental protection, to protecting abortion rights, to gay rights, to church-state separation, to opposing the death penalty, to funding for public education, etc. From 2001-2002, she served as the first female chairperson of the DCCC.  But, most importantly for the purpose of this diary, Congresswoman Lowey was one of the earliest, most vocal, and staunchest supporters of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with me (all of you), as I said I'm just a regular guy who has enthusiastically supported Barack Obama for President since the day I heard that he was entertaining the idea of running.

The venue for these "office hours" is not at all what I expected.  Congresswoman Lowey was stationed outside on the sidewalk of a shopping center with a table covered with campaign literature accompanied by three or four staff members.  Also present was the town mayor, the supervisor, a few board members, and some other people who also were interested in speaking with their congressional representative.

When my turn came, I introduced myself and informed her that I am organizing a voter registration drive for the village of Ossining.  She responded politely; such things are hardly remarkable around election time.  I then continued and mentioned that we have recruited 50 volunteers over the past 3 weeks.  At this she was shocked and bid me to stop and repeat myself.  But before I resumed speaking, she beckoned everybody to come over and listen to what I was about to say.

So there I was, just some random dude, some regular guy. There were several town board members, the town supervisor, the town mayor, and a United States Congressional Representative all gathered around me, waiting for me to speak.

No pressure.

I explained that I was able to recruit 50 volunteers primarily through Barack Obama's Vote For Change voter registration website, and that we expect to have close to 60 by the time of the actual event.  To put this in perspective for those of you outside of NY, the village of Ossining is an average sized town.  A typical voter registration drive could do a fine job with only 10 people.  This interested the congresswoman greatly and she asked for precise details about how the whole thing worked.  

After I finished explaining the finer points and details, she praised Senator Obama and his campaign effusively.  She noted the excitement that he has generated, the campaign's remarkable ability to organize, and expressed every confidence that the party would be completely united behind Barack Obama for President by November.

Relating a conversation to others who were not present often results in a loss of the important particularities and nuances.  It is impossible for me to convey the genuine excitement I saw in Congresswoman Lowey, how truly interested she was in hearing about what the netroots is capable of, and over all how genuine she seemed in her praise of Senator Obama.

The significance of this last point cannot be stressed enough.  Congresswoman Lowey was Hillary's strongest supporter in Congress.  She helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hillary, putting her on the small and distinguished list of the Campaign's "Hillraisers."  She was instrumental in securing most of Hillary's early superdelegate endorsements in the House of Representatives.  She regularly went to bat for Hillary as a surrogate on television interviews and in print.  In short, she poured her heart and her soul into Hillary's presidential campaign.  Few people aside from Hillary and her family had invested more into this presidential bid than Congresswoman Lowey.

Despite all of that, just an hour before her candidate was scheduled to concede a hard fought 17-month primary, this remarkable woman genuinely and enthusiastically professed her support for her preferred candidate's opponent.  How many of us could have done that?  That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a true Democrat.

Despite the fact that I disagree with my Congresswoman's endorsement for President of the United States, I could not be more proud to have her as my Congressional Representative.  She is a brilliant example of how we as Democrats come together decisively no matter how vicious and intense our internecine battles become.

I think we'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Congress more deserving of our Support.