Washington Post columnist David Broder has an interesting column today focusing on new Idaho Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick. "Every new member has his own story. Walt Minnick's is more unusual than most," Broder writes. "For one thing, he is only the second Democrat to hold his House seat in the last 42 years, and the first in 14 years to come to Washington from the famously Republican state of Idaho. For another, he is, at 66, much older than most of the other freshmen, but ran and finished the Boston Marathon last year. Finally, he is the only former Nixon White House staff member to win election to this Congress." You can read Broder's column here. It also includes an interesting description of how Cecil Andrus helped push Minnick into becoming a Democrat, when Minnick was thinking of challenging GOP Sen. Larry Craig as an independent in 1996.

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