What progressive leadership looks like.

That's Jeff Merkley and Darcy Burner in the photo. They're the Pacific Northwest's double punch of progressive leadership, ready to take on Washington D.C.

And while we're at it, Merkley shows the country what real progressive leadership is about in his Huffington Post interview during Netroots Nation. An excerpt:

Oregon senatorial candidate Jeff Merkley admits that his race against incumbent Gordon Smith will be one of, if not the, closest fought this cycle. But Oregon's Democratic House Speaker isn't venturing toward the political center in an effort to pick up votes or protect himself against potential criticism. Rather, he's sticking to definitively progressive positions, whether on FISA, Iraq, trade, or environmental policy. And on occasion he's digging his party's presumptive presidential nominee for venturing away from those battles.

"We disagreed on FISA," Merkley said when asked how he differed with Barack Obama. "And I think we have an emerging difference on NAFTA, where I am very concerned about jobs being swept out of the United States by these trade treaties combined with tax policies, and I gather we were closely aligned but as we go to the general election here, we find that Barack is changing a little bit."

Real leadership means forging a different path if others are taking us in the wrong direction. Merkley is showing that he's absolutely ready for that challenge.

And he's been so impressive at showing his readiness, that Merkley is receiving the Blue America endorsement this week. From Howie Klein:

In fact, Jeff is already showing why Blue America endorsed him: he's an independent-minded progressive who isn't going to stop doing what he's been doing for his entire career-- fighting for the interests of American working families. That's probably why he's pulled ahead of Bush's Oregonian rubber stamp in recent polling. And if it ruffles some Democratic feathers, that's not a problem for Jeff. He's sticking to his guns about warrantless wiretaps, retroactive immunity and NAFTA and he even called "to task the Democratic-controlled Senate for not showing the requisite backbone."

Jeff will be a guest this Saturday at 11AM Pacific Time at Firedoglake. He's also on the Blue America page at ActBlue. So dig deep, fellow progressives. Let's get this man to the U.S. Senate!