"Senator Surprise": Colorado Senate Choice Michael Bennet New to Politics but Has Smarts

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/AP: Colo. Senate Choice New to Politics but Has Smarts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 4, 2009

DENVER (AP) -- A whip-smart lawyer who has turned successively to the worlds of business and education, Denver Superintendent Michael Bennet won't have much trouble adjusting to the biggest promotion of his life: to U.S. senator.

That's what colleagues are saying about the Yale-educated lawyer, a quick study who won't need long to navigate Congress, even though Bennet has never held public office. Bennet was named Saturday by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter as his choice to fill the remaining two years of the Senate term of Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, who is awaiting confirmation as interior secretary for President-elect Barack Obama.

The Bennet choice, when more seasoned Democratic politicians including two members of the U.S. House expressed interest in the job, shocked political observers across Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Newspaper on Saturday announced the selection with a banner headline calling him ''Senator Surprise.''

But people who have worked with Bennet, a Democrat, who at 44 will become the Senate's youngest member pending Salazar's confirmation to the Cabinet, say he's up for the challenge.

Educators joked that the halls of the U.S. Senate should be a breeze for Bennet after walking into the struggling 73,000-student Denver school system in 2005 with no education degree and managing to court teachers to a business-style turnaround....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/04/us/AP-US-Senate-Bennet-Profile.html

[whistler162]

1. A inexperienced candidate with no proven track record in

campaigning AND has the name BENNET!

Oh NOES.

Whats his relationship to Bill Bennett?

Another dynasty!!!!


OH NOES!!!!!

:silly: :sarcasm:

[Demeter]

2. I Wish Him Luck, He's Gonna Need It

Maybe he can dethrone Harry Reid. That would be a REAL accomplishment.