A win by Rand Paul in Kentucky's Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, a likely prospect according to most polling, would give the Tea Party movement its biggest triumph of the 2010 election season.
A win by Rand Paul in Kentucky's Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, a likely prospect according to most polling, would give the Tea Party movement its biggest triumph of the 2010 election season.
It is hard to believe that it has been an entire year since Jason Chaffetz and I undertook a project with CNN to chronicle, in video and in prose, our first year. Both of us have grown a lot along the way and learned many lessons, and I hope that our readers and viewers have a notion, as we now do, of what it is like to serve in Congress.
I recently attended the White House Christmas tree lighting and congressional holiday party. Christmas is traditionally a time of peace and love, quite a juxtaposition for a nation fighting three wars, one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and a global war on terror.
It is indeed appropriate that we finished writing the House version of health care reform around Halloween. Negotiating deals among members of Congress is an exercise in wearing masks, scaring up votes, and oftentimes, bluffing.
My communications director, Lara Cottingham, gets upset with me regularly about my blogging. (She says every time I "go rogue" it gives her ulcers.) What she fails to understand is that I am a child of the digital era.
One of my heroes growing up was Jackie Robinson. My mom, an ardent baseball fan from whom I got my love of the game, had an old baseball card of his from the 1950s and told us his amazing story of courage in integrating baseball.
After weeks of looking for the perfect puppy, my partner Marlon and I adopted Gia last month from the Colorado Humane Society and brought her back to Washington with us.
After a month of heated debate on health care reform, it's time to play some hardball. As we settle back in to Washington, I am glad to see President Obama step up to bat and reissue and re-energize his call for reform.
It's hard to believe that eight months have gone by and my first year in Congress is two-thirds complete.
This Fourth of July weekend, I traveled across my district and attended a wide array of events as diverse as our population itself in celebration of our great nation's birth. I held a town hall on health care reform and taught an adult English as a second language class at the University of Colorado.
Twelve-year-old Josh Garcia courageously took the stage. Fighting back tears, he told how he came home from school one day to find that his father had been taken into an immigration detention facility.
To be effective in Congress, you must focus. With so many issues and debates occurring at any given time, it is easy to spread yourself too thin and lose sight of your goal.
I often get asked what I do during my free time. The nature of this job is such that there really isn't much downtime. I usually work from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m., and spend a few hours catching up on e-mail when I get home.
April recess is often called Congress' spring break. Most members go home, visit their families, get some much-needed rest and escape from the hustle and bustle of Capitol Hill.
If becoming a member of Congress is like going to college, then crafting legislation is our homework.
America has a new national pastime, CEO hunting, that has driven the House floor into a frenzied free-for-all as members vie to one-up each other in placing blame and pointing fingers.
Technology improves our lives in so many ways -- from our toasters, ovens and refrigerators at home, to our computers, fax machines and BlackBerrys at work. Technology makes once burdensome tasks easy and fun.
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