The White House Wordsmith

Since we seem to be on a theme of young people in government~~here is another one for you!

President-Elect Obama has appointed a 27-year old to be his director of speech writing. Jon Favreau, who will be the youngest person to be selected as chief speechwriter, has helped write almost every speech Barack Obama has given for the past 4 years. He began his writing career in 2004 when he worked for John Kerry. (he was 22...only 4 years older than you)

When writing a speech with Obama, the future president offer ideas and input, then Favreau turns them into a speech. He has said that being Obama's speechwriter is like being the batting coach for a home-run king. He says that when he sits down to write, he just channels Obama-his ideas his sentence, his phrases. "He looks like he's in college and everybody calls him Favs, so you're like, 'This guy can't be for real, right?'" said Ben Rhodes, another Obama speechwriter. "But it doesn't take long to realize that he's totally synced up with Obama. ... He has access to everything and everybody. There's a lot weighing on his shoulders."

Three months ago, Favreau lived in a house with six friends in Chicago, where he rarely shaved, never cooked and sometimes stayed up to play video games until early morning. Now, he has transformed into what one friend called a "Washington political force."

Youngest Congressman Aaron Schock Sworn In

At 27, Schock looks more like your typical congressional aide than a congressman, but he's taking the oath as a Republican member of the House of Representatives from the 18th district in central Illinois.

Schock is the first member of Congress born in the 1980s.

He started in politics when the school board in his hometown of Peoria refused to allow him to graduate high school early, even though he'd completed the work.

His mother, Jan Knapp, says Schock doesn't take rejection lightly and, "If you tell Aaron that he can't do something, well look out, because he will do it!"

So he ran for the very school board that held him back. When a technicality kept his name off the ballot, he kept going and, Schock recalls, "In less than two months, we put together a great grassroots campaign, knocked on 13,000 houses, and got 6,406 people to write my name on the ballot correctly."

While serving as the youngest school board member in the state, Schock finished college in just two years.

At 22, he won a seat in the Illinois state legislature, where he served two terms.

A career in Washington wasn't on his radar, Schock says, until seven-term republican Ray LaHood announced his retirement from Congress.

"The door was open," Schock reflected, "and, with in all things in life, opportunity and timing is everything."

Unlike other Republicans, Schock thought the timing was right to have President Bush campaign for him. And Schock carried the district with a whopping 69 percent of the vote.

Now, he faces a new challenge.

"I'm excited," Schock says. "The last couple of months have been literally like drinking out of a fire hose.

The man he succeeds says Schock is up to the job.

"He does have a big learning curve," LaHood says, "but he's smart enough to know that, if he listens to people ... he will be successful."

Will his age be a problem on Capitol Hill?

"I think I'll bring a much different perspective than somebody who's two-or-three times my age," Schock says. "I think our country would look different, and certainly our government and its programs would look different, if more people were here that were in their 20s and 30s."

Youngest Mayors in US

Sam Juhl of Roland, Iowa is among the youngest mayors in the US. He ran for mayor unopposed in 2005 and won-he was a high school senior at the time. He ran again in 2007 and won 57% of the vote.





Michael Sessions of Hillsdale, Michigan also won in 2005 while he was a senior in high school. He, however, did not run unopposed. Sessions defeated incumbent mayor Doug Ingles, age 51, as a WRITE-IN candidate.








Christopher Seeley was also elected mayor in 2005. Seeley was a high school senior when he won the election in Linesville, Pennsylvania. He ran against long-time Linesville Borough Council Member Kevin McGrath.

All three are still serving as mayor. How's that for Government in Action credit???

A Call for Coleman to Concede

Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson says Republican Norm Coleman should concede to Democrat Al Franken in the U.S. Senate race. Carlson says Coleman shouldn't sue over the results of the recount. Carlson predicts that Coleman would probably lose a legal challenge to the recount. He says delaying a finish to the race would damage Coleman's image with the public and says, "There's no disgrace in losing."

(Carlson was a Republican governor who now considers himself an independent. He endorsed Barack Obama for president but didn't support a candidate in the Senate race. He attended the 1996 press conference where Coleman switched from Democrat to Republican, and supported Coleman's 1998 bid for governor.)

What do you think?

Senator vows to stop Franken from being seated

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas and the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that no one should be seated in the contested MN Senate seat until a winner is made official by both Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Sen. John Cornyn says Republican senators will filibuster if the Democrats try to seat Al Franken.

Democratic challenger Al Franken holds a lead of about 50 votes over Republican incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, but this number does not reflect what could be more than a thousand improperly rejected absentee ballots still to be tallied.

No matter the results, officials have said there will almost certainly be court challenges.

The governor and secretary of state are barred by Minnesota law from making the election official until all legal proceedings have been completed.

The Coleman campaign is hoping the Minnesota Supreme Court will intervene over the issue of the improperly rejected absentee ballots because, it says, there is no uniform standard for local officials and the campaigns to review and count them.

On Friday, the court asked the Franken campaign, the secretary of state's office, and seven counties to supply any response to the Coleman campaign's petition by Saturday morning.

Earlier, the high court ruled that rejected absentee ballots could be counted only if the Canvassing Board and both campaigns agreed that a ballot had been improperly rejected. The court ordered the parties to come up with a plan to review those ballots.

It's also possible for a legal challenge to be filed after the secretary of state certifies the results. The Coleman campaign has hinted at the increasing likelihood that it would again go to the high court, which could mean a resolution would still be weeks away.

What are your thoughts?

Lots of Snow and Ice

A man,in New Bedford, Mass., used a blowtorch to melt ice on his back porch and ended up setting his house on fire, causing up to $30,000 in damage. Luckily no one was injured. The man used a torch hooked up to a 20-pound propane cylinder. He got too close to the building's wood frame and ignited the vinyl siding. The fire quickly spread into the building's second- and third-floor apartments. It took 25 firefighters to subdue the blaze that damaged bedrooms in the upstairs units, and caused damage to the structure and wiring. The homeowner will not be charged. He is lucky because not only could he have been charged with arson; he could be made to pay the firefighting costs. Also a bummer is that his insurance might not have to pay for fire damage.

Recount Update

Well, the results will be in January 5th. Congress convenes January 6. At this point Frankin is projected to beat Coleman by 78 votes. I guess we will know after Christmas break.

Some Minnesota election facts:

Minnesota has an automatic manual recount law that kicks in whenever the margin of victory is below 0.5 percent. This recount would have happened no matter what--whether Frankin or Coleman wanted it or not.

Minnesota law does not allow for a revote. The ballots will have to be counted and a decision made.

Our recount process and transparency in the process are being called a"model for the country." Yay Minnesota!