Senator-designate Jean Carnahan has spent a week at “senator school” in Washington. Carnahan says she learned the basics of senate ethics, such as not letting lobbyists buy anything for you, anything, not even a meal. She also learned about how committees work. She’s given the leadership her committee wish list but won’t learn which ones she gets until next month. She does not yet know where her office will be, either. Right now she has five people on a transition staff working out of a bullpen set up for all of the freshmen. And Carnahan has a lot of homework. She says she reads a couple of briefing books a day.
