By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
While Congress returned to work Tuesday facing the looming "fiscal cliff" and a slew of other pressing legislative matters, the class of freshmen lawmakers who will be sworn in in January met at the Capitol to tackle more mundane matters — such as learning the location of the nearest restrooms.
When bearded Democratic maverick Rick Nolan dropped out of Congress 32 years ago to start a vegetable farm in rural Minnesota, the Reagan revolution was just beginning and his future Republican rival was a student at the U.S. Naval Academy.
"When members are expected to spend 30, 40 hours a week in [telephone] call-time raising money — that's time we used to spend in committee, getting to know one another and learning where the areas of opportunity for compromise existed and getting things done," he said. "That's got to change."
The "election [last week], if there was a message there, what it was was, 'We expect you all — liberal, conservative, Democrat and Republican — [to] start working together, solve some problems, get some things done," he said.
