Frank Lautenberg, the Last of the New Deal Liberals

Frank Lautenberg, the son of a Paterson, New Jersey, silk mill worker and the last World War II veteran serving in the US Senate, took his cues from another political time: a time when liberals were bold and unapologetic, a time when it was understood that government could and should do great things.

One of the few members of Congress who could remember listening to Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the radio and going to college on the initial GI Bill, Lautenberg served five terms in the US Senate as a champion of great big infrastructure investments—especially for Amtrak and urban public transportation—great big environmental regulations, great big consumer protections and great big investigations of wrongdoing by Wall Street.

Senator Lautenberg Takes On The Koch Brothers

WASHINGTON -- On Thursday, Koch Industries escalated what began as a quick jab by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) into a heated back-and-forth. The company lashed out at Lautenberg, who spoke on the Senate floor earlier this week about legislation he had cosponsored to increase transparency in campaign finance.

On Monday, Lautenberg had tough -- but mostly overlooked -- words for Charles and David Koch: With a visual display behind him declaring "The Koch Brothers: Subverting the Democratic Process," the Garden State senator demanded the conservative billionaires "have the courage" to make their political activities known to the American public.