Congressional Freshmen Pick Their Class Presidents-- Ted Lieu (D-CA) And Ken Buck (R-CO)

Presidents: Ken and Ted

This year's House Republican freshman class is over twice the size as the Democratic freshman class-- 41 to 17. Both classes elected their respective class presidents this week (Freshman Orientation Week), after the new members had a chance to meet and feel each other out. The Republicans picked extremist Colorado crackpot Ken Buck. The Democrats were more discerning and strategic, electing one of California's most accomplished and up-and-coming political stars, Ted Lieu.

Blue America endorsed Ted Lieu and we've done a lot of writing about him here at DWT. A principled and effective progressive state legislature, he's always been about doing the nitty-gritty work it takes and building the coalitions to lead on difficult legislation and pass bills others shied away from. Ted led where others watched and waited. He wrote and passed bills to protect consumers from unscrupulous mortgage lenders, something that didn't endear him to the banksters and passed a bill to prevent the state of California from cooperating with constitutional domestic spying from the CIA and NSA, something that didn't endear him to the Military Industrrial Complex. He passed the first law in the nation to ban anti-gay conversion "therapy" and landmark environmental and Climate legislation that set California greenhouse gas limits way ahead of the rest of the country.

Another freshman Blue America candidate, Bonnie Watson Coleman, who was the assertive progressive Majority Leader of the New Jersey state Assembly was an early backer of making Ted the freshman class president. She understands political courage and ability better than most and saw both characteristics in Ted. After the vote she told me that the freshman class has many seasoned local and state elected members and that Ted stood out as a natural leader.

Ted's statement: "I am deeply honored to be elected by my colleagues as Class President, and look forward to working with this incredibly diverse and talented Democratic Freshman Class to tackle the important issues facing our nation. We will seek areas of cooperation with our colleagues across the aisle and also fight to protect and advance our core Democratic values."

A Stanford alum who graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law, Ted is a decorated Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserves-- and couldn't offer a greater contrast to the garbage the GOP freshmen elected. Buck, graduated from the University of Wyoming Law School and worked for Dick Cheney and then for the U.S. Attorney's Office where he was reprimanded for various ethics offenses. A radical right Weld County District Attorney, he spent his time pursuing an extremist ideological agenda and losing cases for unconstitutional violations of basic American rights. He was one of the 2010 cycle's pro-rape Republicans and he lost a race for the U.S. Senate. Obsessed with anti-Choice psychosis, much of his career has been spent vilifying and attacking women and pushing crackpot personhood amendments and anti-contraception schemes. Naturally, he's also an anti-LGBT fanatic, a science denier who doesn't believe in man's role in Climate Change, a gun-worshipper, opposes health insurance for working families and wants to privatize just about everything the government does... and-- big surprise-- abolish the Department of Education. He made a cynical deal with Cory Gardner this cycle to let Gardner run for Senate unopposed by the Tea Party in return for him running for Gardner's congressional seat in the reddest district of Colorado (R+11).

Here's a list of all the new Members. First the 17 Democrats:

• Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
• Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
• Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA)
• Ted Lieu (D-CA)
• Norma Torres (D-CA)
• Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL)
• Mark Takai (D-HI)
• Seth Moulton (D-MA)
• Debbie Dingell (D-MI)
• Brenda Lawrence (D-MI)
• Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE)
• Donald Norcross (D-NJ)
• Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
• Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)
• Alma Adams (D-NC)
• Brendan Boyle (D-PA)
• Don Beyer (New Dem-VA)

These are the 41 Republicans, many of them-- most of them-- borderline insane and dangerous to the the country:

• Gary Palmer (R-AL)
• French Hill (R-AR)
• Bruce Westerman (R-AR)
• Steve Knight (R-CA)
• Mimi Walters (R-CA)
• Ken Buck (R-CO)
• Carlos Curbelo (R-FL)
• Buddy Carter (R-GA)
• Jody Hice (R-GA)
• Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)
• Rick Allen (R-GA)
• Bob Dold (R-IL)
• Mike Bost (R-IL)
• Rod Blum (R-IA)
• David Young (R-IA)
• Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)
• John Moolenaar (R-MI)
• Mike Bishop (R-MI)
• David Trott (R-MI)
• Tom Emmer (R-MN)
• Ryan Zinke (R-MT)
• Cresent Hardy (R-NV)
• Frank Guinta (R-NH)
• Tom MacArthur (R-NJ)
• Lee Zeldin (R-NY)
• Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
• John Katko (R-NY)
• Mark Walker (R-NC)
• David Rouzer (R-NC)
• Steve Russell (R-OK)
• Ryan Costello (R-PA)
• John Ratcliffe (R-TX)
• Will Hurd (CIA-TX)
• Brain Babin (R-TX)
• Mia Love (R-UT)
• Dave Brat (R-VA)
• Barbara Comstock (R-VA)
• Dan Newhouse (R-WA)
• Alex Mooney (R-WV)
• Evan Jenkins (R-WV)
• Glenn Grothmann (R-WI)