Washington (CNN) - Politics is serious business - but not all the time.
'Bring it'
The Wall Street Journal catches up with some congressmen who are trading in weight benches for a DVD workout described as the "most extreme home fitness training program."
"Every morning at 6:30, about a dozen lawmakers on the P90X A-list gather toward one end of the basketball court in the no-frills, slightly stinky House gym, located near the Capitol," writers Elizabeth Williamson and Patrick O'Connor note.
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Washington (CNN)–Amid the tragedy unfolding in the Gulf Coast region, two U.S. congressmen have teamed up to prevent future devastating oil spills.
Republican congressmen Aaron Schock from Illinois and Adam Putnam from Florida introduced legislation Friday that would incorporate new safety and preventative measures that countries such as Norway and Brazil have already implemented.
Their bill, titled the Offshore Safety and Response Improvement Act, would require offshore oil rigs to have acoustic remote control emergency shut off devices.
"The recent calamity in the Gulf Coast has clearly illustrated we must improve our disaster planning and prevention as we mine for fossil fuels in the future," said Schock, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
"We must correct this situation, and we must correct it now," Putnam said. "Until we can develop new sources of energy, our nation will continue to depend on fossil fuels for many years to come. We must be able to access these resources in a way that is safe and environmentally sound."
(CNN) - Rep. Aaron Schock fell victim to the six inches of snow that fell on Peoria, Illinois Thursday afternoon, getting into what his office is describing as a "minor fender-bender" on his way to an event.
According to spokesman David Natonski, Schock skidded on an icy road and collided with another vehicle. No injuries resulted and Schock even made his event on time.
News of the accident broke on the celebrity Web site TMZ, which noted the youngest member of Congress's abs "remained unscathed"
Schock himself made light of the TMZ coverage on his Twitter account Friday – while taking a dig at embattled golfer Tiger Woods.
"Glad tmz is reporting on a car accident that doesn't involve fire hydrants or golf clubs and I'm glad no one was hurt," tweeted Schock.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Rep. Aaron Schock said Friday that he was "grateful" to the FBI for thwarting a terrorist attack targeting his office in Springfield, Illinois.
"My office was notified today of the attempted terrorist attack on both the Federal Building and my Congressional Office in Springfield," Schock said in a statement. "I am incredibly grateful to the FBI for their fine work in preventing this terrorist attack."
The Illinois Republican's office was reportedly the "secondary target" of Michael C. Finton, also known as "Talib Islam."
Finton had been supplied with a van filled explosives, which were harmless, by an FBI officer posing as an al Qaeda operative. Finton reportedly then drove to the Paul Findley Federal Office Building and Courthouse, which is close to Schock's office, and attempted to detonate the explosives with a cell phone. Finton was arrested immediately.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock is hoping a recent magazine profile will help him in Washington's bustling social scene.
"'There's no line of young ladies at my door every morning,'" the 27-year-old congressman told Details in an interview for the magazine's May issue. But, "'[m]aybe when they read my Details profile . . .'" Schock added.
The young Republican has come from nowhere to become a rising star in the GOP in just a few months since becoming the youngest member of the 111th Congress.
Schock was voted "hottest freshman" by the readers of the liberal Huffington Post Web site. He was also showered with attention by President Obama, who was hoping to win the young congressman's vote for his $787 billion stimulus plan. (The freshman Republican hopped a ride on Air Force One with the commander-in-chief and attended a presidential town-hall-style event in Peoria, Illinois, but ultimately voted against the bill.)
And Meghan McCain, daughter of former Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, recently showered praise on Schock, suggesting that the young conservative might be the future of the GOP and calling him a "congressman-turned-TMZ hottie."
Related: TMZ focuses on Schock
With all that attention, the spotlight was inevitably bound to turn to his personal life – a subject he discussed with Details. "He's the only one of his siblings not married with children, and is similarly an outlier among friends," the profile says. "'I had a group of fix or six guys, and we hung and traveled – ski trips and stuff,'" Shock told the magazine. "'They slowly got picked off – married, married, married.'"
WASHINGTON (CNN) - At 27 years old, Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock is the youngest member of Congress. He's also possessed of washboard abs and has, as of late, become a favorite target of celebrity gossip outlet TMZ. And the daughter of the last Republican presidential candidate thinks he might just be the answer to the GOP's troubles.
Related: TMZ focuses on Illinois Republican
"The first time I ever heard of Congressman Aaron Schock, I was hanging out with some friends during a girls' night in, and one of my friends yelled to me from the other room: 'Meghan, there's a congressman on TMZ,'" Meghan McCain writes Tuesday in her latest blog post for the Daily Beast. "To which I answered: 'Twenty bucks he's a Democrat.' Well, I was wrong."
"...At the end of the day, Congressman Schock is only three years older than me. Which means he can relay a message in ways my father never could," she says.
The site - owned by Time Warner, CNN’s parent company - has started accosting members of Congress, including Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock, as they go about their work in Washington.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Schock said of his first encounter with TMZ. “I was on my way to the floor for a vote, I’m talking to a constituent literally on my cell phone and there’s some guy with a handycam in street clothes walking next to me. And, so, I didn’t know what to expect.”
The 27-year-old freshman congressman, whose congressional district includes Peoria, Illinois, told CNN’s Howard Kurtz how his paparazzi encounter played in his Midwestern city.
Watch: Schock dishes on TMZ
“I was actually surprised by how many text messages, e-mails, phone calls I got from stay-at-home mom’s that were watching the [TMZ] show,” Schock said on State of the Union on Sunday. “People that log onto their Web site I guess regularly and check out the news on TMZ. … People who watch TMZ or different mediums don’t expect to see their congressman on such a show. They’re used to seeing the Britney Spears or the movie star.”
(CNN) – It’s not often that a freshman member of Congress gets a ride on Air Force One and a personal shout-out from the President himself in front of the hometown crowd. Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock got both last week but still voted against President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill.
After joining Obama on the presidential plane to Peoria, which is part of Schock’s congressional district, the President made a specific appeal to Schock during an event at a Caterpillar plant.
“Aaron’s still trying to make up his mind about our recovery package,” the President said last Thursday. “He’s a very talented young man. I’ve got great confidence in him to do the right thing for the people of Peoria,” Obama added.
But the presidential spotlight was not enough to win over Schock.
“Ultimately, I listened to my constituents and I looked at what I knew about the bill and determined it was not in the best interests of my constituents,” the freshman Republican said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “It was not really a stimulus bill with the majority of the money going towards stimulating the economy.”
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Who says bipartisanship is dead?
Readers of the liberal Web site the Huffington Post have crossed ideological lines and voted Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock the “Hottest Freshman” in the 111th Congress.
At age 27, Schock also has the distinction of being the youngest member of Congress.
Although nearly 10,000 votes were cast in the site’s poll, Schock suggested that he might have gotten some help from some participants who weren’t exactly unbiased. “It’s flattering,” the congressman said in a statement Wednesday. “Apparently my friends and family have a lot of time on their hands.”
Schock hails from Peoria, Illinois and represents the state’s 18th District in the House of Representatives.
(TIME.com) - The new Congress that convened this week is the oldest in history, with the average Representative's age rising to a record 57. That's three decades older than Aaron Schock, the youngest member of Congress and the first to be born in the 1980s. The 27-year-old Illinois Republican is already a political veteran: he won a seat on Peoria's school board at 19, rose to school-board president at 23 and then won two terms in the Illinois state legislature. He spoke with TIME about his early success, reaching out to Gen Y voters and the odds of having any fun in Washington.
Most of your colleagues in Congress are old enough to be your parents. How do you see the job differently than they do?
It's a little lonely being the only one in my 20s here. But obviously, I do bring somewhat of a different perspective because I hope to be around as an American citizen for the next 50 years, Lord willing. The programs we're voting on and the policies we're implementing are things my generation will be paying for for the next 50 years. So I look at it in a different light than somebody who may be in their 60s or 70s.
Do you think of yourself as part of Generation Y? How would you describe people your age?
I hadn't until I became a candidate and I was informed that I'd be the first Gen Y Congressman, so I actually started a leadership PAC as a candidate that was titled GOP Generation Y Fund. So I've tried to play off that to my benefit and to the benefit of other young candidates who might be running in the future.
As far as this generation, I think we're a very involved and engaged demographic. I think you saw that in the last election.
Click here to read more on TIME.COM
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