Rep

"Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan fired off a letter asking Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to investigate whether someone leaked the information to the media in an effort to damage Obama."

What does the "Rep" stand for? Representitive?
I'd often times see it preceding congress men/women on TV captions but never got around to figuring out the reasoning behind it.

Also, remember when Obama called McCain "erratic?"

Pundits and reporters were going all crazy leaping to the conclusion that Obama's "hard-to-miss suggestion" was a attempt at McCain's age.

Ever since, I have been perplexed as to what that had to do with McCain's 72 years of age.

Espeically that the meanings that the term "erratic" carries don't seem to have any connections with the aging process:

er·rat·ic /ɪˈrætɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[i-rat-ik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. deviating from the usual or proper course in conduct or opinion; eccentric; queer: erratic behavior.
2. having no certain or definite course; wandering; not fixed: erratic winds.
3. Geology. noting or pertaining to a boulder or the like carried by glacial ice and deposited some distance from its place of origin.
4. (of a lichen) having no attachment to the surface on which it grows.

<<What does the "Rep" stand for? Representitive?
I'd often times see it preceding congress men/women on TV captions but never got around to figuring out the reasoning behind it.>>

Yes. It means a member of the House of Representatives.

<<Ever since, I have been perplexed as to what that had to do with McCain's 72 years of age.>>

Maybe they say saw it as a reference to his senility.