During the late congressional campaign of 2006, we made the confident prediction that, if elected as U.S. representative from the 9th District, then state senator Steve Cohen would be an instant national figure.
Never doubt us. Flyer publisher Ken Neill, who has been in D.C. for the convening of Congress this week (and who may be coaxed into filing a report) passes along these snippets from the big-time media: The text is from MSNBC’s Tom Curry. The pic (of Cohen “sparring” with new Speaker Nancy Pelosi) is from Reuter’s.
(There will, you may be sure, be more to come.)
MSNBC–Republican Leader John Boehner said from the House rostrum right before
handing the gavel to Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “This is the people’s Congress, and
most people in America don’t care who controls it. What they want is a
government that is limited, honest, accountable, and responsive to their
needs. The moment a majority forgets this lesson, it begins writing itself a
ticket to minority status.”
Over on the House side, at 10:30 members new and old
began to file into the speaker’s lobby just off the House floor, to pick up
their official voting card and red enamel-and-metal member’s pin (each one
numbered on the back with that member’s rank in the House seniority).Freshman Steve Cohen, the Tennessee Democrat elect to
fill Harold Ford Jr.’s seat in Memphis, showed up to collect his pin and card
and fielded a few questions. “Being sworn in to the House of Representatives
is one of the highest honors a person in political life can have,” he said.
“And for me it is especially so, as it comes later in life.”How old are you? I asked.
“Fifty-seven” he replied. “But in a biological
phenomenon, my mother is only 39,” he joked, adding that his mother wasn’t at
all pleased when one newspaper printed her actual age.
