Go here to read about the newest Blue America beneficiary - and ask him a few questions while you're there - Rick Noriega. See why everyone who's met him is thrilled about his candidacy:

Rick wants to end Bush's wars because, among other things, he's fought in them on the ground, unlike Bush, Cornyn or Watts. He understands what border security is all about and why its important to all Americans and not just a racist cudgel to drum up xenophobic, nativist political support. He's run a FEMA-like effort to help offer shelter to New Orleans refugees. He's not just a guy who's read about these things or pulled out a checkbook to contribute. Rick has always walked the walk.

And like he told me, "We need more regular folks in the Senate; there are enough millionaires in there already."

Ask people who follow the Texas legislature and they'll tell you that Rick is the kind of guy who tries to bring people together and to work on issues from common ground. It doesn't make him less a man of strong convictions; it makes him a purposeful realistic who gets the peoples' business done. He's the diametric opposite of Cornyn, whose entire modus operandi is divisiveness and, like Rove and Bush, splitting the nation apart. (Speaking of Rove, by the way, Cornyn was his invention. Rove, who was recently the keynote speaker at a Cornyn fundraiser in Harlingen, first recruited Cornyn to run for office.)

I asked Rick about the tough, divisive issues Republicans always throw at progressives in Texas: choice, gays, stuff like that they use to demonize people. His voting record on choice is unblemished -- a 100% from NARAL -- and on personal issues like that and on gay issues, Rick embodies the best of Texas traditions: a libertarian scorn for government interference in peoples' private lives.

UPDATE: Pretty awesome comment thread. Looks like some 30 donors between Blue America and Netroots for Noriega, and about $800 raised. Not bad for two hours on a summer Saturday. The nice thing about doing it in this fashion is that anyone who was, say, out running errands at this time (as I was) can come by later, see what was said, and chip in then. And of course, I daresay this won't be the last you'll see Rick on those pages.