House GOP faces sudden flood of retirements after holiday break

Axios ^

[Tench_Coxe]

In an election cycle marked by an unusually high number of congressional retirements, House Republicans are facing a burst of new retirement announcements as they return from the holiday recess.

Why it matters: Members have complained that the chaos of last year and the overarching decline in legislative productivity makes Congress a less fruitful place to work, especially for less publicity-hungry lawmakers.

[cp124]

The RINO gig is up and they are bailing. If they can’t support the Democrat agenda and kickbacks, they don’t want to be there.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Starts in the primary. Always has but never will. McCarthy didn’t have a challenger. You would think someone in Bakersfield knew just what a lousy speaker he would become. Now he’s soon to be history. So we need ‘retirements’. I see no competition over the direction of the party in the primaries. Perhaps we’ll get lucky.

Those that ‘resign’ should leave behind a district with no representation. Exception only for death. One missing out of 435 wouldn’t be show-stopping. Senate would be different. That’s why a temporary replacement is called for.

[chiller]

Clearing Deadwood ? Yes. check.

Losing the H of Reps ? In this environment of Bidens, I can’t imagine it.

Losing ability to scheme the market with priority information. Yes...time to quit.

[alternatives?]

The GOP establishment exists to give the illusion of choice.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

How to throw an election, 2024 edition.

[chiller]

Amen. The 5th Circuit yesterday offered some assistance by ruling that the administrative state (EPA and all the rest) can not make rules about how we live and function.

Best case is repeal repeal repeal, and pass almost nothing new.

[zeugma]

If you’ve been paying attention for as long as I have, you would know that any time it looks like the GOP may gain significantly, many ‘republicans’, bail out, so the party loses the power of incumbency in the election. This is as regular as clockwork.

[glaseatr]

Let them retire. That way we can get fresh blood in the House.

We ain't losing shit. We're not giving it away. We're going to take it back.

Ain't no sitting on the sidelines crying over a bunch of RINOs getting the hell out the way for new MAGA blood.

[Rockingham]

My impression is that the retirements are concentrated among late stage careerists and RINOs, the kind of people who have no grit when it comes to fighting the Dems. Although our lives are not at stake, our country's future is on the line, with a great and defining phase of political struggle before us. So I say let the cowards depart and get ready to fight.

As for such departures, I am inclined to take the view of Shakespeare's King Henry V in his St. Crispin's Day speech when some wanted to cut and run before his great victory at the Battle of Agincourt:

. . . proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

Let him depart; his passport shall be made

And crowns for convoy put into his purse:

We would not die in that man's company

That fears his fellowship to die with us.