With Pryce, Pickering and now Hastert announcing they will not be running for re-election next year, numbers that were already pretty bleak (232-202) are getting bleaker by the minute. The upside is there are a lot of shaky seats that Bush won in 04 that went D in 06. However, if our current members continue to announce their departure on a daily basis, we’re going to have a challenge holding the open seats and not as much support for challengers in those marginal districts.
Two things have become clear to me now. First, I should start a dead pool for people to place bets on who resigns next. Second, the relatively low disregard I had for the Congressional leadership that allowed the level of scandal we’ve seen in the past two years was nothing. The low regard I have for members who are ready to bail out rather than lead the fight for the majority is astounding.
Time to man-up guys! It’s going to be a hell of a fight next year. However, if you’re going to wuss out after 8 months in the minority, we’re better off without you.
