There's still time to pass a bill protecting the Mueller investigation. Why not go out on a big note?
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LoBo should've switched parties!
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Seems that whenever I find myself reading a Mark Leibovich column, it's always an enlightening and uplifting experience.
I'm particularly appreciative of Leibovich drawing our attention to LoBiondo. Neither ideologue or party hack, he apparently managed in his career to simultaneously listen and respond to the demos—certainly a primary responsibility of a representative—while nonetheless leading his constituents in matters of crucial importance when it was ultimately in the larger public interest.
Of course, LoBiondo has become persona non grata in the Trump era of Republican perfidy.
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Moderates are a rare breed in Congress. Identity politics, partisan ideologues, and demagoguery are increasing. It doesn't help that we have a divisive president and socialists in Congress. The civic tension is going to grow.
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@mainliner
Wait. We have socialists in Congress? Who the heck (other than, I guess Sanders)?
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Ah, yes, that old perennial--the the poignant loss of his Congressional seat by another "moderate" Republican.
As Frank LoBiondo himself notes, he was elected with the class of Newt Gingrich, a politician who as Spekaer of the House decided to re-invent the GOP as a parliamentary party, where all his causus would not only treat the Democratic president as a criminal but their Democrat counterparts as blood enemies to be vanquished by any means necessary.
If you even skim LoBiondo's record, that record makes clear he was an eager & willing accomplice of Gingrich, and he has been an eager & willing accomplice of Paul Ryan--which means he has been an eager & willing accomplice of Donald Trump.
I hope he enjoys his retirement, and may it be permanent.
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He can spend his days doing volunteer work or Board work for not for profits and see the havoc he and his fellow Republicans have laid in this country.
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Wishing Rep. LoBiondo was "Out there more" is way off base. I met the congressman in Afghanistan and saw him again in the Horn of Africa. He cares deeply about serving Americans, of whatever stripe or district and made the effort to visit those of us posted away from the European destinations of typical junkets. He was genuinely interested in hearing, learning and I think then incorporating that in his own role in Congress. He will be greatly missed, but I hope he enjoys his well earned rest.
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The article says, "He was elected in 1994, part of Newt Gingrich’s Republican insurgency, and his retirement coincides with the Trumpification of the G.O.P. "
Good riddance and this is just the beginning of WE THE PEOPLE purging Gingrich/Trump democracy destroyers OUT of OUR governments at every level.
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I have been a conservative Republican all my life and had hoped to enter Heaven as one, but now find my closest political allies among people with strong liberal beliefs I once had considerable contempt for.
Today’s Trump supporters are not reasoned conservatives or patriots. They lost the moral right to call themselves those things a long time ago.
Anyone looking for conservative values today had best seek it among this nation’s old liberals.
America’s best hope now for a decent future is to stand with them until the last galoot reaches shore.
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@A. Stanton
Thank you for this. I know it has been very, very painful for my formerly Republican relatives and friends to see what their party has come to.
Several defected during the second W. Bush administration (largely due to the disastrous Middle Eastern wars), but Trump and his sycophants turned the hangers-on completely.
It's a shame, because our system is pretty much set up to be a two party one. We need decent people on 'both sides.'
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I grew up in New Jersey in the '50s and '60s and we had real moderate Republicans like LoBiondo. Though my family was Democratic, I remember my father voting for Clifford Case, and I think I did two when I finally could vote. In 1979, I spent a year on the Hill as a subcommittee staffer, and remember how we could work with minority staff to draft legislation that actually attempted to solve problems, not take partisan sides.
As noted in the current Atlantic magazine, with Newt Gingrich, that changed, and for the worst. But these days, the are fewer and fewer moderate Republicans and they are being chased out of the party. And us Democrats should not gloat.
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