Posted on 03/06/2010 7:36:12 PM PST by Auntie Mame
New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Hoboken on Saturday, shortly following his 10-day hospital stay in which he underwent chemotherapy treatments.
~snip~
The 86-year-old Democrat went back to work in Washington, D.C. last week and told the Jersey Journal he is still focused on key issues like health care and jobs. Next week, Lautenberg said he is working on legislation regarding chemical safety for children.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
He should retire and spend his twilight years with his family.
He could do more for humanity as a cancer research ‘RAT.
Silly goose-—thy royal DemRat senators don’t retire-—the reaper escorts them out of the senate in horizontal mode.
Heh.
He’s dead Jim.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
Another problem is that Lautenberg is an odious hypocrite. Back when he was running in 1982 for his first term, he said 72-year old Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick, his GOP opponent, was “too old.” At the time, he was 59. Now he is 86 and justifying his remaining in the Senate (and if he lives to the end of the current term, he’ll be 3 weeks short of 91 in January 2015).
I remember that. I think he is just too old & too sick to really do his job. Living here in NJ I don’t like the man & wish he would just retire. If he starts going in & out of the hospital is there a way to force him to retire since he isn’t doing his job?
Silly goose-—thy royal DemRat senators don’t retire-—the reaper escorts them out of the senate in horizontal mode.
What a way to go out...screwing America till the end. Sad and dispicable.
Yeah, just doesn’t know it yet. Did you look at the picture at the link? Are his eyes that dark, or are his pupils dilated? They look strange, at any rate.
No, there’s no real way to force him out as long as he remains coherent. The last time there was an instance, this with a House member, was in 1981 with Gladys Spellman of Maryland. She went into an irreversible coma that year, and her seat was declared vacant (though she lingered 7 more years until she finally died, never having come out of the coma), and a special election was won (by none other than Steny Hoyer, the current Dem Majority Leader). Even when some Senators have had near-catastrophic health situations, they’ve often refused to step aside (such as Tim Johnson of SD, who remained hospitalized for a long time following a stroke, Ted Kennedy (of course), or even Charles Sumner of MA prior to the Civil War after his thrashing, when he was incapacitated for more than 3 1/2 years - and was actually reelected during the time he was absent).
One problem the Dems have is that if Lautenberg retires or dies, the GOP Governor chooses his replacement, and they can’t allow that to happen (well, aside from the dying part, they can’t stop that). The Dems have several geriatric Senators that are in potential jeopardy. Lautenberg, Robert Byrd (who turns 93 this year), and the Hawaiian Twins (Akaka & Inouye) who both turn 85 this September. If Byrd dies this year, a special election will have to be held, and the likelihood is his seat goes to a Republican (WV has gone the longest of any state in the country without having elected a Republican Senator — not since 1956). You can see why the Dems are panic stricken that if their oldest members die, we could capture potentially all of their seats.
St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 6?
I know the Chilean earthquake changed some time elements but this seems a bit extreme.
Thank you for the info. I think that needs to be changed then. Makes no sense to pay these people if they’re unable to do their jobs. I don’t think much of Lautenberg & while I don’t wish ill on him I do wish he would retire asap. I doubt that will happen sadly. I would hope his family would want to spend time with him....
He insists he is running for re-election too.
“Makes no sense to pay these people if they’re unable to do their jobs.”
We still pay them with their generous retirement benefits.
I don’t want to give them that either. There was a thread last night that I agreed with very much. Called How to Fix Congress.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2465311/posts
It doesn’t matter what he works on, he is still a slimeball.
How to change it is the question, I’m not sure that you could, because declaring one “unfit” is very subjective. Since ultimately each body decides on the qualifications and fitness to serve, it’s balanced out with political realities that sometimes removing even one member cannot be allowed to happen. You could look at Strom Thurmond during the last two years of his final term, when it was clear he was no longer competent, but two reasons prevented him from stepping down, the fact that it was too closely contested a body (and the SC Governor was a Democrat, who would’ve presumably appointed one, despite claims he’d appoint Thurmond’s estranged wife), and that he was coherent enough that it would’ve probably killed him early if he didn’t get to achieve his goal of reaching 100 while serving in the body. Plus, there was simply enough sympathy in SC that they were OK to allow him to serve out that short period he had left remaining. Lautenberg, conversely, still has 4 years left in his term, and is not a revered individual.
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