Minnesota's New Representatives Getting Their Share of Media Attention

Rep. Tim Walz may not have office furniture or computers yet, but that doesn't hold back the national press. Wednesday he was featured on C-SPAN's Washington Journal. The clip is here. Also, a new political website called The Politico wrote this about him:

War Veteran Walz Finds New Battles to Wage on the Hill

By: Christian Lowe
January 24, 2007

In the Army, as the old-timers well know, the colonel may be in charge, but it's the command sergeant major who knows best.

It should come as no surprise then that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., turned to Rep. Timothy J. Walz, the freshman Democrat from Minnesota, to deliver the Democratic response to President Bush's radio address the other day. A 24-year veteran of the Minnesota National Guard, Walz is a retired command sergeant major.

The rest is here. Even the conservative Weekly Standard is getting in on the act. From "Freshmen for Peace: The newest House Democrats are as antiwar as the rest" by Duncan Currie:

Another significant group of Democratic critics includes those House freshmen who served in Iraq or other wise boast a military background. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a retired Army national guardsman who was stationed in Italy during part of the Iraq war, called the Bush speech "showmanship at its worst."

Meanwhile, Rep. Michele Bachmann has been receiving attention of a different sort, as has been covered on Minnesota Monitor and elsewhere here and here. Minnesota Public Radio offers its commentary here on Rep. Bachmann's friendly behavior.

And don't leave out Rep. Keith Ellison, who has even been interviewed on the Al Jazeera English Satellite Channel and on Voice of America. Apparently, some enlightened souls in the State Department want to show him off to the rest of the world as an example of America's multiculturalism.