30 Something works to make House vibrant

WASHINGTON

Picture the stereotype of a congressman making a floor speech.

“You think of the silver-haired chairman sitting up there crusty, and he’s been in Congress 20, 30 years,” said Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, a former state trooper who is anything but old and crusty. “They’ve been around forever and ever and ever.”

“Stuffy and boring and old,” agreed Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, a mother of three young children who congressional newspaper The Hill listed as one of the Capitol’s 50 most beautiful people.

Stuffy and crusty isn’t exactly the image that makes you want to stop on CSPAN as you’re channel surfing. So what will? Interesting props, maybe. Or younger House members talking in plain language and actually having a discussion about important issues instead of reading from a script. And if you still can’t get voters to watch CSPAN, try an edgy (for Congress) video that will get the YouTube and Facebook generation to pay attention.

That’s the idea behind the 30 Something Working Group established by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who tapped Meek and Wasserman Schultz to help lead an effort to reach younger voters with a creative message.

That’s why you can find Meek walking around the Capitol with a video camera. And it explains why Wasserman Schultz took a Republican bobblehead to the House floor to make a point.

“They have spent countless hours making dynamic presentations on the House floor and have harnessed the power of new media, including blogs and extensive use of YouTube, in their efforts to keep young people informed about the work of the Congress,” Pelosi said. “They are two of our caucus’s rising stars.”

Meek was elected to Congress in 2002 as a 36-year-old; Wasserman Schultz was elected in 2004 when she was 38. Yes, it means they are no longer in their 30s. Both are 41, though Meek notes that when he programs a treadmill, he punches in 30 for his age.

In one video, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan bluntly points out to Meek, “You’re over 39.” Meek responds, with a boyish smile, “But I’m a good-looking over 39.” Instead of starting a Forty Something Working Group, Meek and Wasserman Schultz continued to lead their younger peers.

The 30 Something group takes over the House floor at night, usually once a week for an hour, to talk about issues before Congress. While the reverence that’s expected in the chamber is maintained, the conversation is a little looser, unlike the prepared speeches that usually mark floor debate.

“We throw it back and forth to each other and do it more extemporaneously,” Wasserman Schultz said.

While Republicans don’t have an equivalent group to the Democrats’ 30 Something, the House Republican Conference, which is led by 33-year-old Florida Rep. Adam Putnam, also is making use of YouTube to get its message across. As well as floor speeches, they post slickly produced attacks on Democrats on issues ranging from gas prices to homeland security.

“House Republicans aggressively use new media to get our message out to all Americans, including young Americans,” said Brian Schubert, a conference spokesman. “Americans of all ages are convinced that Washington is broken, and Democrats have failed to deliver the change they promised.”

Before Democrats took over the majority, the 30 Something discussions were even more frequent.

“Honestly, because we were in the minority and didn’t have much to do, we started going to the floor every night,” Wasserman Schultz said.

It was during one of those sessions that she brought a Republican elephant bobblehead to the floor and said House Republicans don’t know how to say no to big oil companies. Like the bobblehead, she said Republicans can’t move their heads side-to-side, only up and down.

“They only know how to say, ‘Yes Mr. Speaker, yes Mr. President, yes CEO of oil company, I’m happy to do your bidding and whatever it is that you like,'” she said, jostling the bobblehead and moving her own head in an exaggerated nod.

Meek’s most popular prop at the time was the “Republican Rubber Stamp” an oversized replica ink stamp that he would bring to the floor as he accused Republican members of blindly following their leadership.

“As people scroll through the channels, if they see me standing there with a bobblehead Republican and Kendrick with this humongous, giant-sized rubber stamp, they might stop on CSPAN for a couple of minutes,” Wasserman Schultz said. “We try to give it some life.”

The effort has been noticed. Wasserman Schultz recalled being stopped by a fan while in Minnesota.

“The sales person in the gift shop in the airport looked at me and said, ‘You’re on TV.’ And I said, ‘Well, no, I’m a member of Congress.’ And he said, ‘Yes! Thirty Something! I watch you all the time! You’re so great!'”

It’s also been noticed by Pelosi. Ryan, a 34-year-old who was elected the same year as Meek, said the speaker’s reward for the 30 Something work has been strong committee assignments for the Florida Democrats. Meek sits on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and Wasserman Schultz is a “cardinal” on the House Appropriations Committee. As such, she chairs the subcommittee that determines all spending for the legislative branch.

“They were able to parlay their positions in the 30 Something Working Group into major committee positions,” Ryan said. “Who benefits? It’s their congressional districts.”

When Democrats took over the majority in January 2007, Meek took to the streets near the Capitol with his giant rubber stamp and a video camera, stopping people and asking what he should do with the prop now that Democrats were in power. Most told him to keep it as a reminder, advice Meek took to heart.

“History has a way of repeating itself,” he said, pointing at a shelf where he keeps the prop. “Power is intoxicating and sometimes you don’t even realize when you become them when it comes down to not listening and feeling invincible.”

Meek is clearly having fun with projects, especially off the House floor. In videos, many appearing with Ryan, he often laughs and jokes.

In one, he and Ryan promote fuel efficiency by zipping through Washington in a hybrid.

A year after Democrats took over the House, Meek walked around with a camera interviewing other Democratic members, part of his ongoing effort to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Congress.

But he wants to be clear that the videos are serious. They are used to explain complicated issues or the Democratic position in an understandable way. Or, as Meek says, in “Kendrick Meek language. I use plain English.”

That means instead of using the common Capitol Hill acronym CDBG, he’ll say Community Development Block Grant and then go the extra step and explain what that means.

“It’s almost like ‘I’m just a bill on Capitol Hill,'” Meek said, referring to the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons from his childhood. “It breaks down exactly what takes place.”

When the word’s leave his mouth, Meek pauses and turns to an aide.

“That’s a great idea. You know what we should do? We should really do a Facebook/YouTube piece,” Meek says, going through the concept as he thinks about it bring a camera over to bill drafting, show a house clerk carrying it over to the Senate. “Just kind of let them know what’s happening. How does a bill become law? That would be good.”

Copyright 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel