Freshman Year

Have you been watching the latest reality TV series? CNN is following two freshman congressmen and posting their stories online.

What's it really like to be a new member of the world's most powerful legislature? Two new U.S. representatives are teaming up with CNN.com to report their "Freshman Year" experience through videos and commentaries.

Jason Chaffetz and Jared Polis are taking video cameras with them as they negotiate their way in the 111th Congress, both inside and outside Washington.

They both won convincing victories in November in neighboring states, yet they are world's apart. Utah's Chaffetz is a conservative Republican married father of three who is sleeping on a cot in his congressional office to save money. Democrat Polis from Colorado is a former Internet entrepreneur who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and the first openly gay male to be elected to the House of Representatives as a freshman.

You can follow their stories regularly on CNN.com.

• Jason Chaffetz

Rep. Jason Chaffetz is a freshman Republican congressman representing the 3rd District of Utah. He was elected in November, winning two-thirds of the vote against a Democratic challenger.>

• Jared Polis

Rep. Jared Polis is a freshman Democratic congressman representing the 2nd District of Colorado. He was elected in November to the seat held by Mark Udall, who ran and won for U.S. Senate. Polis defeated his Republican opponent, gaining 62 percent of the vote.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/freshman.year.bios/index.html

Episode One

Episode Two

Episode Three

Episode Four

By now you've probably seen the sound byte of RNC Chairman Michael Steele's appearance on D.L. Hugley Breaks The News. But have you seen the whole interview? Below is a clip from the second part of the discussion... what did I take away from it? You can disagree with someone and still have a civil conversation- plus even find a small bit of common ground if you try hard enough.

And Mr. Steele's comments about Frederick Douglass High didn't go over well either... at least not in Baltimore City.

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