Source: Jennifer Steinhauer, NY TIMES, 8/9/11

 

From her spot on a podium at a recent news conference on Capitol Hill, Representative Renee Ellmers, Republican of North Carolina, looked slightly nervous.

Mrs. Ellmers, 47, a nurse who was elected to Congress in 2010 with zero political experience, had been given the task of helping to sell the bill championed by Speaker John A. Boehner to raise the debt ceiling, a job usually left to the leaders of her party.

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