Posted on 05/24/2012 8:39:12 AM PDT by SmithL
When Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., lost the GOP primary to challenger Richard Mourdock this month, Beltway types saw the voters' verdict as a victory for the Tea Party and a defeat for the kind of Republican who could work across the aisle. I think Lugar, 80, lost because he was out of touch with Indiana. He started the primary registered to vote at an Indiana home he had sold in 1977. The Lugars have resided in Virginia ever since. Lugar had been working in Washington for so long that he didn't realize he needed to keep up at least the appearance of being a Hoosier.
No doubt Lugar's fate sent a chill through the spine of Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont. Like Lugar, Stark, 80, owns one home - in Maryland.
There are 12 octogenarians in the House of Representatives. I thought of Lugar when I saw a tweet by the Daily Kos Elections folks that announced that six of them - Reps. Ralph Hall, R-Texas; Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.; John Conyers, D-Mich.; Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.; Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Stark - "could lose." One, Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., is retiring.
Does age matter? By itself, I'd say no - although my 81-year-old father says that, all things being equal, he wouldn't vote for someone his age.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Time for the glue factory boys.
Thanks SmithL.
Careful there boy.. Mr Bender just turned 79 and I would run for a vacant house seat here on the north coast if it didn’t interfere with my retirement...
Instead of an “R” or a “D” after their names, all of the members of the 80+ crowd should have “DOC” (Demented Old Coot).
Can he still wear a saddle? LOL
Rangel maybe is still with it, at least as a gaffe factory. No Pubbie is ever going to carry that district.
Part of the wisdom that should come with age is knowing when it is time to turn over the work to younger people.
80 sounds to me like a eminently correct age limit for legislators ,judges, and other government employees.
It’s like the bookkeeper who never took a vacation because she is cooking the books while stealing the owner blind...
Take Hatch with you and leave.
They should indeed retire — to the Big House in orange jumpsuits.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
LOL!!
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