A sad end to a LONG Career?  Rep. Skelton has resorted to hiring trackers to follow around his opponent Vicky Hartzler. Where do the Democrats find these freaks?

1.  He realizes that voting with Nancy Pelosi so often (over 90% of the time) means he can no longer run as a conservative Democrat forcing him to either reconfigure his image or hope that the district won’t notice. They have.

2.  He no longer has the ability to talk to farmers – a bad thing in a district dominated by the agricultural industry. He had to bring in the agriculture committee chairman just to help keep him from straying too far into the wilderness when discussing policy at the State Fair with the farmers he represents.

3.  As of 2010, he will have been in Washington for 34 years. His campaign has grown complacent after years of half-hearted challenges in a district which is no longer safe. He can no longer run hard enough to fend off a serious competitor.

4.  His district is changing but he is not. Jim Talent took 55.8% in the district when running for Senate and McCain took over 60% of the vote in the 2008 presidential election. Meanwhile, his desire to keep his precious committee chair has pushed him to embrace positions further to the left than his district supports.

5.  He has caught the Potomac Flu. Symptoms include: being out of touch with the district, holding untenable positions on almost every important issue, and eventual loss of an election.

Of course every politician will say they aren’t retiring so they can keep the money flowing through their committee, but we bet that Ike will ultimately decide to hang it up. He can’t explain his liberal votes on TARP, cap and trade, and raising the debt ceiling, but his district will expect him to. Ultimately, he either has to hang up his hat and go out voluntarily or risk losing an election in what has long been considered a “safe” district, tarnishing the reputation he has spent nearly 34 years building. A loss this far into his career would reduce him to another one of the has-been politicians whose careers were ended unceremoniously after they had spent too long on the inside to see that they had abandoned all that they had once stood for.

Related:

KMBC.com: Skelton Campaign Denies Retirement Story

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