freshmen

Now that the roll call votes are coming fast and furious, the freshmen are beginning to sort themselves out. The new Republicans in Congress are pretty much all cut from the same clothe-- a hopeless mess, barely worth mentioning or thinking about. But what we're seeing on the Democratic side of the aisle is that some freshmen are embracing Democratic values and principles and others are more comfortable slipping into the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Ruben Kihuen and Pramila Payapal passed the first congressional courageousness testOrange County right-wing nut Ed Royce offered a resolution Thursday objecting to the UN Security Council’s Resolution 2334, the one condemning Israeli expropriation of Palestinian land for settlements in the occupied territories.

Last month the voters elected 25 Democratic and 25 Republican freshmen. Presumably in a few hours, after Louisiana's two House run-offs, there will be 25 Democrats and 27 Republicans. You think I'm being pessimistic? I'm not.

Donald Norcross (D-NJ)-- there's already a worst new Democrat in CongressThis week the 58 freshmen elected in November will be sworn in as members of Congress. There are 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats. First the Democrats:

New Jersey voters are sending an African-American woman to Congress-- for the first timeYesterday, Limbaugh said that Republicans were elected "to stop the Democrats. Republicans were not elected to govern." Democrats, on the other hand, are elected to govern.

Time to grade the Democratic freshmen-- or at least to pick out the 10 best and the 10 worst. Which ones lived up to what Alan Grayson laid out in his little monologue above? And which served the interest of careerism and corporate special interests above the interests of their own constituents? Short version-- for people in a hurry-- here are two lists (alphabetized), the 10 best, followed b the 10 worst: