Bart Stupak Retiring

Bart Stupak, dem from Michigan, the same dem who fought Obama on health care to have stricter abortion rules, is retiring from the House. While many in the dem caucus are not upset to see him go he comes from a fairly conservative district in Michigan. Which opens up this seat to a possible repub takeover come november.

I am a person who thinks a big tent is good. I think having many members with different views can only make a party stronger. I don't want to see him go. I feel the dems cannot afford to go down the same road repubs did and get rid of all of the "unpopular" opinions/views within the party.

Troubling Retirements

Recently, 3 congressional dems have stated their intention to retire giving repubs possible easy pickups in the upcoming 2010 election. When the dems lost control of the house in 1994, they had 30 dems retiring.

Now, while we only have three, this does not mean it will continue to the point of 1994 levels. But it is troubling. The dems are meeting soon to discuss how to stop/slow the reps from retiring.

Reading Supreme Court Justice Stevens' Tea Leaves

Well, it seems that Stevens hasn't hired his alotted 4 clerks for the 2010 session. A lot of people read into this as his eventual retirement. From The Times:

Stevens "has so far hired just one law clerk for the Supreme Court term starting in October 2010, a court spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday. That may be an indication that Justice Stevens, 89, is considering retiring next year."

That would set up another nomination and another round of the right going crazy. Something we really don't need right now.