So Many Retirements... But Still No Clarity From Lynn Woolsey

About a week ago I got a fundraising letter from Lynn Woolsey. I didn't realize at the time that she might be concerned because one of her patrons, well-connected conservative Big Business shill Jane Harman, was getting ready to announce her retirement from Congress. And I was surprised because since Christmas Eve we've had reason to believe that Woolsey might be retiring herself. At the time, I wrote:

Bye-bye, Lynn Woolsey?

Lynn Woolsey has done more to retard the effective development of the Congressional Progressive Caucus than anyone else in Congress. As the caucus's co-chair, she sowed the kind of dissension and discord that have marked her entire political career. Long before she made herself famous by undermining the efforts of Raúl Grijalva to forge the CPC into an effective fighting force and long before she backed Blue Dog and warmonger Jane Harman against progressive activist Marcy Winograd-- and long before becoming addled by her addiction to painkillers-- Woolsey had become such a divisive figure in Sonoma County politics that the Petaluma City Council did everything it could to "kick her upstairs" into an open congressional seat and get her out of their hair. It looks like she may actually retire now and get out of the way of real progressive change at a time it is most needed. It won't happen fast enough! (Imagine Norman Solomon replacing her!)

Since then we've seen a spate of resignation announcements, even besides Harman's high-handed-- albeit long overdue-- departure to the Woodrow Wilson Center. Another GOP hypocrite and pervert, this time Family Values imbecile, Chris Lee from the suburbs between Buffalo and Rochester, got caught trying to lure young women on Craig's List and possibly other social networking sites. Boehner, who has his own problems with adulterous relationships (yes, plural), forced him to resign within hours. Zero Tolerance (for freshmen). Yesterday, Arizona right-wing fanatic Jon Kyle announced, as many expected, he wouldn't be running for reelection to the Senate on 2012. The vultures are circling-- in DC and AZ.

Before that, conservative Virginia Democrat Jim Webb also said he wouldn't be running again, probably handing the Senate seat to his former political party and ideological brethren and now there's Mubarak... maybe. Aside from offering Harold Ford a veritable buffet of relocation opportunities, all these resignations are potentially extremely healthy. But not necessarily. Omar Suleiman would mean an extension of the illegitimate tyrannical regime in Egypt with an even worse overlord than Mubarak. Yes, worse; much worse. Arizona's Neo-Nazi state Senate President Russell Pearce, could wind up as a U.S. Senator; even Dirk Diggler could in that screwed up, dysfunctional state. And the Democrats who might run are mostly anti-immigrant conservatives whose most endearing features are that they're not as bad as the Republicans. Blue Dog Gabby Giffords was planning on running against Kyl before she was gunned down by a teabag terrorist. (Exceptions-- in a good way-- are progressives Andrei Cherny and Kyrsten Sinema.) Nothing good will come of Webb's retirement.

The two brightest spots would be to replace the warmonger and conservative Harman with Marcy Winograd or Debra Bowen in southern California and replace Lynn Woolsey, speaking of dysfunctional, with Norman Solomon. Norman looks like a perfect Blue America candidate but he won't be the only Democrat running for that Marin/Sonoma County seat-- which went to Obama in 2008 with a staggering 76%. Conservative Democrat Joe Nation probably is salivating at the prospect and it looks like Assemblyman Jared Huffman will see this as a lovely career opportunity. Ditto for Assemblywoman Noreen Evans. She and Huffman are both decent Democrats-- but would either provide the strong progressive leadership the district could offer (and deserves)? Solomon sure could.