Which new Democrat is COngress makes you the most proud.

[cyclezealot]

I vote Bernie Sanders in the Senate and in the House, it a toss up between Mazie Hirono or Carol Shea Porter. RUnners up in the Senate are Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Of course there are many who we have yet to discover. Your vote. Of course old favorites from previous COngress', Sen. BOxer and Reps Waxman and Kucinich.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Rep. Keith Ellison

who showed his class by going up and shaking the hand of Virgil Goode, the rwing anti-Muslim clown from VA. He also showed political savvy by having his photo taken being sworn in on Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an.

As for Senators--I'm waiting to see what they do. Was paying more attention (via DU) to what the House was doing yesterday. But I did like how Sen. Byrd was sworn in!

[lojasmo]

5. I second Keith EOM

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

8. Third vote for Ellison

He's quickly making me a fan.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

10. Sign me up for the Fan Club

For both of the reasons you cited -- he's smart and classy.

On Edit: Obama-mania is so 2006!

[hwmnbn]

2. Jim Webb......

and not only for already wanting to punch out the chimp. He has the credentials to oppose this war effectively, and he's a straight talker.

[kath]

12. Webb did an awesome, ass-kicking job in a Senate hearing on Friday:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/13/51651/6104


Webb And The Armed Services Committee
by BarbinMD
Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:08:58 AM PST
Jim Webb didn't waste any time with the tradition of Senate comity during his first hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.

During yesterday's hearing, Lindsey Graham's questions to Defense Secretary Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace, were straight out of the White House playbook. Question after question couched in such a way that any disagreement would be tantamount to saying, "I hate America." He finished with a question about high reenlistment rates and asked if the soldiers in Iraq:

...believe their mission is directly related to the security of their own children and grandchildren?
And after Pace compliantly answered, "Absolutely, sir," it was Webb's turn.

General Pace, I wasn't going to say this, but I want to say something, just my own little interjection here on the reenlistment rates and why people serve. You know, I come from a family that's spent a lot of time in the military generationally and I think it's fair to say that in my experience, people rarely enlist for political reasons. Rarely serve for political reasons. They serve because they love their country, they serve because they have a family tradition, they serve for camaraderie, and so I don't agree with the characterization that proceeded me on that, in toto. There are people who are serving because of the political mission, but there are people who, perhaps even in spite of the political mission, are serving.
It seems safe to say that when Lindsey Graham says, "My friend, the Senator from Virginia," he'll be lying through his teeth.

And Webb wasn't quite ready to get to his questions. He went on to say:

I also want to say something about my longtime friend, Senator McCain's comments when he was talking about the consequences of pulling out of Iraq and in your statement, Secretary Gates, you list some of these as an emboldened and strengthened Iran, a base of operations for jihadist networks in the heart of the Middle East, an undermining of the credibility of the United States. In many ways, quite frankly, those have been the results of the invasion and occupation. There's really nothing that's occurred since the invasion and occupation that was not predictable and in fact, most of it was predicted. It was predicted in many cases by people with long backgrounds in national security...and in many cases there were people who saw their military careers destroyed and who were personally demeaned by people who opposed them on the issues, including members of this administration. And they are people in my judgement, who will be remembered in history as having had a moral conscience.
Booyah!

*********

I'm not sure if there's video of this hearing available on the internets, but I'd love to see it...

[Leilani]

13. Jim Webb

He has put together a great bill for Vets.

[stevedeshazer]

15. Gimme some more Jim Webb

That guy is the best new member so far.

[cali]

3. I love Bernie. He's my Senator but he's not a dem

I agree with the poster about Ellison. He's shown nothing but class and great political instincts. My new rep. Peter Welch who is taking every opportunity to speak out against the the war will be a terrific addition, and it's clear that Pelosi thinks very highly of him, as she's put him on the all powerful Rules Committee. I'm thrilled about Brown and Tester.

From the told Congress: Pat Leahy is not only a real fighter, he's an effective one; Waxman and Frank are great. Really, there are more than I can mention, and that's a great feeling.

[JohnnyLib2]

4. One to watch -- Rep. Yarmuth from KY

A lib in the formerly honored sense--took out incumbent Ann Northup, an early and fervent Bushite.

[groovedaddy]

6. oddly enough,

Yarmuth is a former Republican, though clearly liberal in most of his positions.

[salin]

7. while he is a bit of a mixed bag... Murtha's statements challenging

the "surge" - promising tons of investigations relating to the war and vets... he gets some support and deserves watching.

I also look forward to the return of Baron Hill. I heard him speak weeks before the IWR and he promised that he would not vote for it unless he was presented with info that indicated that Iraq was an "imminent threat" - and that to date he had not read/heard/been briefed by anything to indicate it was an imminent threat.

Then he voted for it. Anger. However, he quickly and outspokenly became concerned by the lack of WMDs and the faulty intelligence - and was an early cosponsor calling for a taskforce to study the intell and misleading of congress. In his reelection campaign in 2004 he strongly asserted that Congress had been lied to and that he felt betrayed by the government... and he was leading. Until a last minute local media swiftboating effort tipped the election in the last week of the campaign. A stronger Hill emerged - sort of reminded me of the more emboldened and less likely to give into the (at the time) conventional wisdom that one shouldn't criticize too loud remergence of Al Gore in 2002+. We have yet to see whether Baron will be a new truthspeaker - or whether he will revert to his conservative (not political - but in terms of cautious) positions that he was known for prior to the war vote.

[DU9598]

9. Dave Loebsack of Iowa

He is a new congressman. He grew up in my hometown, Sioux City, in poverty. Through a little help and a lot of hardwork he put himself through college and became a professor. After years of mentoring students he ran a totally grass roots campaign against Jim Leach of Iowa's second district. He ran on issues of ending poverty and ending the occupation in Iraq. Dave had very little monetary support and little or no help from the DCCC until the last minute. My partner and I donated more to Dave than we could afford - still paying off the credit card debt. But, he worked hard, got U of I students actively involved in his campaign, and with almost no budget he took out an entrenched republican. That's what makes me so proud of him.

[geiger]

11. Sherrod Brown--Ohio

[Silence Dogood]

14. Undecided

This is my first post.

For me, it's too early.

I'm an Indy and have been so, like forever.


:toast:

[CTLawGuy]

16. Carol Shea-Porter

in the House, becuase she brought herself up with the power of the grassroots and beat the establishment Dem in the primary and then upset the entrenched incumbent in a "safe" repub district.

In the Senate, Jon Tester. He beat the establishment John Morrison, and won on the theme of attacking the Patriot Act. He wasn't afraid of Conrad Burns. I think he will be a wonderful Senator and a model Dem.