Or at least, at The Washington Post.
I was struck by the above headline on the Post’s iPad app this morning. I immediately thought, “Longtime? Well, Pat Roberts wasn’t a U.S. senator when I was in Kansas, working as the news editor of the Wichita paper. The senators then were Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum. Or am I remembering it wrong.”
No, I was right. And while I admit my stint in Kansas was a “long time” ago, he wasn’t elected to the office until many years after I left there, in 1996.
Which means he has served three terms. LIndsey Graham is running for a third term, and by South Carolina standards, he just got there. He replaced a man who served in the office from 1954 to 2003 (with a brief respite in 1956 when he resigned and was immediately re-elected to the office). Fritz Hollings was still our “junior senator” when he had been in office for 37 years!
Kansas just seems terribly fickle by comparison. People come and go so quickly there…
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A funny coincidence: I went looking for the link of The Wichita Eagle for my reference to “the Wichita paper,” and this John Monk story was on the home page…
This has been a bizarre storyline. The Democratic candidate dropped out of the race and threw his support to the independent in an effort to defeat Roberts and prevent the Republicans from controlling the Senate. The Republicans sued to keep the Dem on the ballot, but lost in court. Politics make for strange bedfellows….
Why did the Democratic Party candidate drop out?
The beginning of this month. Here’s a story about it…
Oops, sorry. I read your question as “when,” not “why.” I should slow down…
Yes, that’s been an interesting story. And an encouraging one, from an UnParty perspective…
Doesn’t say anything about a scandal or anything. What it looks like (to me) is this:
1. Taylor wins the Democratic nomination.
2. Subsequently, Taylor realizes he does not have a chance to actually win. (maybe because Orman is splitting Democratic vote?)
3. Taylor decides to drop out of the race in a “discretion is the better part of valor” kind of way.
Weird, but whatevs.
No, no scandal that I’m aware of. Just a great political story. Man bites dog.