ORIENTATION WEEK

I finished this just as Ken published his take on the same WAPO story. I was tempted to toss it but... well I have to run over to the Paraguayan consulate for a visa so I'll just post it as an "update" to Ken's take. (Maybe you can tell we went to elementary school and high school together.) And for an illustration, I don't think this one by Toles from yesterday can be stressed enough:


If you watch TV or listen even read the national newspapers you'd get the idea that the only newly elected members of Congress are two shills being pushed by down the media's throat by Rahm Emanuel, ex-football player Heath Shuler and ex-Republican Tim Mahoney, two of the only southern freshmen. Each represents the dual memes Emanuel is so desperate to brainwash the public into thinking: first and foremost that he was a competent successful DCCC chairman-- he wasn't-- and that we just elected a bunch of conservative congressmen, also false. The media appearances have been to push the Emanuel machine's battle against Nancy Pelosi, in this instance, to elect Steny Hoyer as Leader over Jack Murtha.

Emanuel very much recruited Shuler-- dragging him out of the clutches of the Tennessee GOP and setting him up as a North Carolina Democrat to battle corrupt Republican bank thief Charlie Taylor-- and he also recruited Mahoney, convincing him last summer to change party registration and become a Democrat so he could run against a near invulnerable Republican-- the only one Rahm took on-- because Rahm new a little secret and had a little plan. But first they had to knock a real Democrat who was in the race, Dave Lutrin, out. Rahm and Steny were already well practised at that and they achieved it with little fuss.

But today's Washington Post finally let's readers know that there is a more diverse crew of freshmen than Rahm's reactionary shills-- from Indiana sheriff Brad Ellsworth and Topeka chemist Nancy Boyda to Brooklyn's City Council member Yvette Clark to Congress- first-ever Muslim, Keith Ellison. No one, especially not DCCC head Emanuel, ever gave Dave Loebsack any shot at beating 15-term Republican incumbent Jim Leach. But Dave had made inroads in 2004 and closed the deal with voters a week ago.

"I grew up in poverty with a single mom who had mental illness," Loebsack said. "If anyone had told me I'd grow up to teach at Cornell College with a PhD, I would have thought they were crazy. If anyone had told me that I would get elected to Congress, I would have thought they were from another planet. I'm living proof of the American dream."