U.S. Sen. Mark  Udall on November 14, 2014.

WASHINGTON — In the end, Mark Udall didn't go it alone. Nor did he have to follow through on his threat to publicize Congress' investigation of the CIA by reading the so-called "torture" report aloud on the Senate floor.
But as he took a victory lap Tuesday, the Colorado Democrat warned that the "righteous cause" of government transparency shouldn't stop with the release of the Senate's report on CIA abuses.
"We are going to continue to work to find the right balance between privacy and security," he said.
Yet as Udall looked forward — both for the nation and his own future life outside the Senate — civil libertarians and fellow Democratic lawmakers were looking backward to applaud the veteran senator for the role he played in forcing the document into the light."Sen. Udall deserves a lot of credit," said Chris Anders, a senior legislative counsel with the ACLU."Throughout his tenure on (the) Senate intelligence (committee), he was one of the staunchest supporters of Sen. (Dianne) Feinstein in getting the report done" and making it available to average Americans.