Intro, and the First Few Days

Hey all, this is Max. I'm a junior at American University, and am just starting my internship in the DC office of Congressman Chris Murphy, a second term Democrat from Connecticut's Fifth District, in the northwest corner of the state.

Rep. Murphy is my congressman, and this was my third attempt at interning at his office. I have previously worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the fall of 2007, in the online marketing department, which involved answering emails from donors and processing donations. This was in the middle of the Democratic presidential primary, so many donors were on one side or the other, with us caught in between.

In the spring of 2008, I interned at the US House Democratic Caucus, which at the time was headed by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) until he left to serve as President Obama's Chief of Staff. Emanuel (or as everyone called him, Rahm) had led Democratic efforts to win back the majority in 2006, including the election of Rep. Murphy. At the Caucus, I worked with two other interns, first coordinating the annual House Democratic retreat, and then staffing weekly meetings of the Democratic Caucus, which were oftentimes quite interesting, giving me a close up view of the congressional leadership that only a few aides are able to see.

I started this internship on Wednesday, in the wake of Obama's inaugural, with two other interns. After becoming reaquainted with the ways of the Hill, I went with one staffer to a briefing of staff of the Energy and Commerce Committee about the energy portion of the new economic stimulus bill. In the Democratic briefing, after the speaker had been speaking of "the transition team" for a while, somebody had to correct him and say "its the White House now."

Shortly after that, the Congressman met with the interns for about twenty minutes, which I thought was very nice and welcoming.

Today, I worked a half day at the Capitol, arriving at around noon after a morning class. Our Intern coordinator/receptionist was not in today, so another intern and I managed the front of the office. Luckily, the House was out of session today, so it wasn't a very busy day.