Steve Benen, at the Washington Monthly, points out that there are more Republicans leaving Congress than Democrats, though you’d never know it, given the press accounts of Demcrats heading for the hills. The latest, a Georgia Congressman named John Linder, is from a safe seat, so it’s not likely that it will create an opportunity for the Democrats. Benen observes:
But if you ask anyone at the NRCC or DCCC for an honest opinion, I think they’d agree that when a party is supposed to have the wind at its back, and when that party’s leadership is trying to keep retirements to a minimum, having more than 10% of the caucus walk away has to be discouraging.
There is, unfortunately, another way of looking at this. It is widely believed that people are so disgusted with the Democrats that they are willing to hold their collective noses, suspend disbelief yet again, and return the Republicans to majority status in the House, from where they will be able to pass legislation, enabled by a reduced Senate Democratic majority that will be too spineless to block Republican legislation, that Obama, in the spirit of bipartisanship, will sign.
In other words, it is not unreasonable to believe that the doors of the candy store, left ajar, but still partly closed, during the Democratic ascendancy, will be opened wide yet again to the army of Republican lobbyists who ritually decry big government while using that government to line the pockets of their corporate clients. Lots of that cash stays right on K Street, of course, so what better time could there be for an R from a safe district to pass the torch to a future lobbyist, and take up a new career when the money is about to start flowing yet again?
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