Ray LaHood Retires...Is Gym Teach Denny Next???

[KharmaTrain]

Buried inside yesterday's Election Round-up:

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/

Illinois Republican Ray LaHood Retiring
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL) announced yesterday he will retire after 7 terms in Congress. LaHood represents the state's 18th District, which President Bush won by 16 percent in 2004, and was not facing any serious opposition.

Some of you may remember our good friend Rep Ray in his role as the "gavel guy" in the House Impeachment circus. Others may remember him from knowing about Mark Foley's antics with the House pages and just plain forgot about things. Either way...it must not be fun being a bit player after the DeLay "era"...another one bites the dust.

This now begs the question if his good buddy, Gym Teach Denny will also throw in the towel. There have been lots of rumblings that is the case and that we'll hear from him around Labor Day.

What other rats will be jumping ship? Anyone?

Discuss...

[seemslikeadream]

1. I think Denny's next

Some one's bet me on it, can hardly wait!

[gratuitous]

2. Off to spend more time with his family?

Any word from his family about whether they want to spend more time with him?

[EST]

3. Hastert has already made noises like he's uninterested in

pursuing his house career.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Yep...He Wants To Build His Highway To Nowhere...LOL

DC's gotta be a lonely place for Denny these days. Once he owned the place, now he's ignored.

More interesting is how invisible he became on the state level. As speaker he was a player...now there'll be a rush to pick at his corpse.

[EST]

7. He really has become the invisible man.

Although, here in Jefferson county, we hear little enough of him, even that has dried up.
Just as well; his bloviating and his automatic assumption of superior intellect simply because he managed to wrangle a seat in congress and he is a republican were wearing awfully thin.
There are so many examples of his kind-a very small, twisted man in an oversize body. I wonder how it feels to be he.

This all kind of demonstrates that the democrats in congress really are producing some powerful results. The really bad actors are being removed or marginalized even though it's like a metastasized cancer, with the operation long and difficult, the outcome unpredictable and a real question as to the nature of the patient when it's done.

[Old and In the Way]

5. It won't be a fun time for Republicans in the next Congress.

They will be reduced to their traditional role of bitching about Democratic policies that benefit the majority of Americans. Not only will they not be able to stymie the Democratic agenda, but that will also be when we finally get the full power of the federal government investigating the real abuses of the Republican Crime Syndicate in the 21st Century.

[KharmaTrain]

6. The Party Walls Are Crumbling

One reason, I'm sure, LaHood is calling it quits is the poor shape of the Repugnican party here in Illinois. The state party has disintegrated and now the national party is. I sense we'll see other "senior" GOOPers opt...or should I say cash out in the weeks ahead rather than face brutal re-election campaigns.

There's a "mild panic" I'm seeing within the GOOP right now...putting up a stiff front but underneath they see the sands shifting under their feet. Most look at their choices for President and hold their nose. They look at the baffoon they elected twice tumble into disgrace and now hold their nose, but they still can't break ranks or the real party schism begins. But schism it will.

Cheers...