The Coding Congressman

I found this on CNET (via Slashdot) today:

In what appears to be a first, the US House of Representatives now has a Congressman who can code…in assembly. That’s right, a Congressman with geek skills.

Democratic Representative Bill Foster won a special election this past Saturday in the 14th Congressional District of Illinois. This was the district that former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert held from 1986-2007. Hastert stepped down in November of 2007.

- The tech world rejoices: A Congressman who can code.

Ok, this guy is officially my second favorite politician after Barack Obama. Even if he doesn’t represent our district (Melissa Bean is pretty good too).

Not only did he eat the republicans lunch, cast the deciding vote in a major ethics reform bill, but he knows the difference between ram, rom, dasd, and control structures.

Apparently he’s proficient in Assembly, Fortran, and VB (two out of three ain’t bad). Sadly, RPG is apparently not among his skills.