You've just won control of the U.S. Congress for the first time in a decade. You're an up-and-comer in the fashionable 30-Something Working Group. And you get some airtime on the floor of the House on the opening day of the session. So what pressing national concern do you talk about if you are a Democrat from South Florida?
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Weston: We are all Gators today. It is a Gator Nation. And we were just thrilled that the fighting Gator football team came to play yesterday, dominated Mr. Ryan's team, although Mr. Ryan went to Youngstown; so he is not technically a Buckeye, but I guess anyone who hails from the State of Ohio is a Buckeye. And we enjoyed showing the Buckeyes that we belonged in that game, and we are just very proud of our Florida Gators.
Tim Ryan, D-Ohio: If the gentleman [Congressman Kendrick Meek, who had the floor] from Florida would yield, I am happy to take my whooping like a man, Mr. Speaker. And let me just say to you, Mr. Speaker, and any of the other Members who may be Buckeye fans, not only was the game horrible, a complete whooping, but then I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was I called Mr. Meek, and I said, "Mr. Meek, I had a terrible dream last night. It was awful. Let me tell you about it." And he reminded me that it actually happened.
Wasserman-Shultz: The Gators showed that they came to play last night when no one expected them to win, when for months people didn't give them any chance of coming out on top and winning the national championship. I think that our victory on November 7 is analogous to that because certainly at the beginning of my first term in Congress 2 years ago, no one gave the Democrats a chance. No one gave us a snowball's chance of reaching the point that we did on November 7 and being able to elect enough members to truly move this country in a new direction.
–Source: Congressional Record.
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2007.