Monday, May 30, 2011

Dogs, Not Barking

An occasional item about things not in the news, which is itself noteworthy. This time, only one that I've noticed, but two that were written up elsewhere...hope that doesn't break the theme of the item, but both pieces I link to below are definitely "dogs not barking" type articles.

1. It's still pretty early, but for what it's worth, the number of House retirements this cycle? None, so far. Ten Members will leave to seek other office, and three have resigned, but no one is just retiring, at least so far. Perhaps everyone is waiting on redistricting. By the way, I have to think that the 8/0 ratio of Senate/House retirements is historically strange for any point in the cycle, but I don't know that for a fact.

2. I've done a "Obama Administration scandals" in this item before, but I highly recommend Brendan Nyhan's column (and his research) about the lack of those scandals. Good stuff.

3. And a related item: Anna Palmer reports on the absent scandal-mongering oversight of Darrell Issa.

4. You know it: Fairness Doctrine, as always.


  1. Gotta wonder what the retirements were like in 2001.

  2. I think Phat is on to something, if I am interpreting his post correctly: Members of Congress are likely to wait and see how redistricting plays out before they retire.

    Even if they intend to retire, it's a chip for them to hold or cash in until the new lines are drawn.

  3. 5. Complete (or as close as possible), rapid troop withdrawal from the Middle East (not to mention all the other places we have residual troops from wars decades old) now that Bin Laden is dead and we're all supposedly very concerned about the national debt.

  4. I clicked through and read Nyhan's paper yesterday.

    And niggling today: he doesn't really account for presidential competency. A competent president would set a tone where there was relatively little scandal, or so I hope.



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