New Lawmakers Learn Congress Operations

Former Redskins quarterback and representative-elect Heath Shuler, D-N.C., talks on a cell phone prior to the first orientation meeting of newly-elected members of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington Monday, Nov. 13, 2006. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook) (Dennis Cook - AP)

WASHINGTON -- A former NFL quarterback, a seven-fingered farmer and a '70's rocker who posed half-naked on an old album cover began learning Monday how to be members of Congress.

More than 50 incoming House freshmen spent the day in meetings focused not on big legislative items or the Iraq war but rather on office logistics _ everything from budgets to security to ethics. In the Senate, a 10-person freshman class of eight Democrats, one Republican and Democratic-leaning Independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont also began orientation.

Sen.-elect Jon Tester of Montana looked a little overwhelmed on his first day.

"It hasn't soaked in yet," he said. "Maybe it will never soak in."

The Capitol police weren't quite ready for Tester, a farmer with a throwback flat top haircut and fingers missing on his left hand from an old accident with a meat grinder. They asked him to empty his pockets for inspection.

"Just like at the airport, you put it all through?" Tester asked.

The officer nodded, but quickly waved Tester through once he found out who the newcomer was.

Tester later appeared with his fellow Democratic freshmen _ minus Missouri's Claire McCaskill, who is on a post-election vacation with her husband. They met with incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who led the Senate Democrats' campaign effort and took some ribbing on how tough their individual races had been.

"They kept saying, 'You didn't tell us it would be this hard,'" Schumer quipped. "This is a great group _ some are liberal, some are conservative, some are moderate."

One new senator who campaigned strenuously on his opposition to the war, Jim Webb of Virginia, said he was rushing to keep up with the new demands on his schedule.

"I haven't been able to relax yet," said Webb.

Kevin McCarthy of California, one of 13 newly minted Republican House members, said freshmen from both parties were eager to show the new Congress will dispel any aroma of scandal. McCarthy said the ethics training was important for those like him who came from state legislatures with different rules.