Browsing the web this afternoon, I came across a short article on the Drudge Report, excerpted from an article by, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, on a site called Big Government.
According to Mr. Shapiro, House Minority Leader and former Speaker, Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra, told him that her mother wants to leave Congress. In a phone interview the younger Pelosi said Nancy only remains in Washington at the behest of her campaign donors.
Her direct quote was "She would retire right now, if the donors she has didn’t want her to stay so badly. They know she wants to leave, though. They think she’s destined for the wilderness. She has very few days left. She’s 71, she wants to have a life, she’s done. It’s obligation, that’s all I’m saying."
The reason the item caught my eye was that it's right in line with a theme I've noticed recently and have mentioned several times before. Because there seem to be indications of unexpected retirement, or other types of withdrawal from office, by many well-known, and in some cases quite entrenched politicians.
The explanations for leaving vary all over the map and sound quite reasonable, except, I'm not so sure I should readily believe them. That's so because these same types of politicos have traditionally held their posts for eons, unless or until they either expire on the job or something unexpected befalls them leaving them no other choice.
However, today we have far more information available to the voting public, and similarly, incumbents get deluged with immediate feedback regarding their performance. So, what I think is really going on here is that these former life-long office holders no longer have guarantees of re-election as they had in the past, and for many of them they'd rather quit on a high than lose in a landslide when the tide turns against them.
But, when you sort it all out and look at the result, I don't think it really matters what the cause is so long as more and more formerly entrenched incumbents quit. Because the only important factor is, they're finally gone.
That's it for today folks,
Adios
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