AND ANOTHER ONE BITES, AND ANOTHER ONE BITES, AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: DEBORAH PRYCE (R-OH)

Apparently this is take out the rubbish season at the Republican House caucus. And it isn't just LaHood (R-IL), Hastert (R-IL) and Hobson (R-OH). Ralph Regula (R-OH) is expected to announce he won't run again. Ditto for Arizona criminal Rick Renzi and California criminals John Doolittle and Jerry Lewis. But today a Republican who has neither a case pending before the ethics committee nor has had papers seized by the FBI or IRS, Deborah Pryce (R-OH), seems to have made the final decision. In 2006 she came within a few votes of being defeated by Mary Jo Kilroy (110,712 to 109,657). This year she certainly would have been trounced if she dared to run again.

This morning's Hill announced that she will bow out of her own volition, opening the door to a takeover by the Democrats. Kilroy has already been campaigning. "Pryce’s office announced it will hold a press conference in her Columbus office on Thursday at 11 a.m. concerning her plans for 2008."

I was under the impression that Ohio's ex-Attorney General James Petro was facing criminal charges for his escapades as part of the corrupt Taft Regime but I must have mixed him up with another crook. He claims he wants to run for 15th CD seat (basically, Columbus). Mary Jo could not ask for a better opponent than Petro, who is chin deep in the scandals of the Taft years.