Sunday, May 16, 2010

May 16, 2010

       The Washington Post says a Congressman, Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, had the worst week in Washington.  Last week he lost his primary, getting only 44%  of the vote.  He won't be back next year.  It wasn't a rookie mistake.  Mollohan had held the seat since 1982;  his father held it for the fourteen years before that. Talk about a dynasty.      He isn't alone.  Bob Bennett, a conservative Republican senator from conservative Utah, lost his primary the other day.  This coming Tuesday two more well-known Senate veterans are at risk--Democrats Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas.      I'm not quite sure why.  Specter, as I noted recently, switched parties to improve his reelection chances.  Apparently that hasn't worked.  Lincoln just seems to be the most visible victim of the voters' dislike of Congress.  The president's approval rating isn't great but isn't awful either.  Congress' approval ratings are.  And yet, in Obama's first year-plus in office, they passed an economic stimulus bill which has helped the economy, though you can argue how much, and they've passed health care, surely a big deal.      So why are the voters mad at then?   I don't know.  It may be November before we finally find out how mad they are.  Even then we may not quite know why.  
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