By Matt Rooney | August 21, 2008

Constituent services are an important part of a congressman's job, but did your congressman ever rescue you from a war zone? That's because your representative in Congress isn't Chris Smith.



This week, Rep. Smith (R, NJ-4) went to war-torn Tbilisi, Georgia to rescue two Monmouth County sisters summering with relatives. The Courier-Post recounts the details:

This week, Smith, a New Jersey Republican who has been involved in human rights efforts around the world for decades, flew to Georgia to seek help getting them out. Fournier was willing to help. Traveling with members of an aid group, he reached them around 8 a.m. local time Thursday. The passage back to the capital included about 10 checkpoints and took six hours, Fournier said. At the checkpoint where they were stalled, the ambassador started working his phone. "We were calling military, diplomats, everybody," he said. Finally, he said, a Russian general called and gave them permission to pass.

As of this writing, the girls have been successfully reunited with their father. Some pundits have predictably adopted a cynical attitude towards Smith's mission. However, we at Save Jersey respect any public official willing to risk their lives for constituents. It would have been easy for Smith to send a strongly worded letter to the State Department, visit the family for a photo opportunity and call it a day. Smith instead decided to risk his life in a hot war zone. In a day and age when politicians do so much to forsake public trust, it's refreshing to see someone in the business for all the right reasons.