You may notice, in the next few days, a few more buttondowned, blue-tied future politicos than usual hanging around campus–it’s the College Democrats of New York‘s annual conference, which this guy made a point of bringing to Columbia. They’ll be schmoozing, attending strategy sessions with titles like “Framing the Issues on Your Campus and Beating Campus Conservatives at Their Own Game,” and campaigning for elections, which go down Sunday morning.

Today, CDNY opened its conference by having a little sit-down with Congressman Charlie Rangel, whose staff called two days ago informing organizers that he would be having a little sit-down with them to open the conference. Students scrambled to find a venue, and firmed up Earl Hall last night–fortunately, enough conference attendees were coming in early from NYU and Fordham to make a healthy little audience. The Ways and Means committee chairman, in his barely-audible gravelly voice, touched on the familiar themes of education, health care, the Youth of America, and symbolic efforts to stop the war in Iraq.