Of all the senators who attempted Wednesday to rally support for the doomed Manchin-Toomey background check amendment, Connecticut's Democratic freshman representative, Chris Murphy, probably faced the greatest temptation to borrow the moral authority of the Newtown families.
But although warmly introduced as a Tea Party champion, the freshman senator was forced on the defensive by the Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, who asked him during a challenging question and answer session if he regretted proposing similar reforms as part of a comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013 but stalled in the House.
The US vice-president, Joseph Biden, said the letter, drafted by Tom Cotton, a freshman senator from Arkansas, was "expressly designed to undercut a sitting president in the midst of sensitive international negotiations".
The Roast and Ride is the new signature fundraising event run by Ernst, a freshman senator from the Hawkeye State, held in an open field at the Central Iowa Expo.
And the Romneys were seen parading around on the Fourth of July with long-shot New Hampshire freshman Senator Kelly Ayotte, whose bona fides include being the darling of the NRA and a woman of the people.
Yellen faced some mild freshman hazing from members of the committee, but nothing that affected her calm, methodical demeanor.
Undateable, the only returning sitcom which will now be shot live each week, kicks off the night followed by the only freshman comedy People are Talking, about two diverse couples who live next to each other and are best friends.
The freshman Iowa Republican came to fame last year in an attention-grabbing television ad, in which she boasted about her childhood chore of castrating pigs, saying "Washington's full of big spenders" and promising to "make 'em squeal".
Corporon and Underwood, a high school freshman, were at the JCC for the "KC Superstar" competition, an American Idol-like singing contest for high school students.
THREE days after the Arkansas House of Representatives passed the Human Heartbeat Protection Act, Jason Rapert, the freshman state senator who sponsored the bill, took to Twitter to boast that the new law "stands to save thousands of lives".
One tea-party official says her members are dissatisfied with freshman House members for agreeing to the short-term spending agreement that avoided a shutdown earlier in the year.
