Second Careers

As one who against his wishes entered into a second career, I am somewhat familiar with the concept. But in the political  realm, a second career is  a different concept entirely. A case in point is the developing senatorial race in  North Carolina. Republican incumbent  Richard Burr is up for re-election. Apparently, the Democrats must think he is vulnerable since they are lining up to challenge.

The leading candidate for the Democrats is Secretary of State Elaine Marshall with former state senator Cal Cunningham probably her chief rival.  Other candidates are Chapel Hill lawyer Ken Lewis and Lumberton lawyer Marcus Williams. There may be a lot of  interesting things about this contest later. For now, one thing caught my attention.

Ms Marshall, also  a former state senator, was elected Secretary of State in  1996 . She is starting her Senate campaign at the age of 64, which is fine. But what intrigues me is that at an age when many, if not most, people are looking to retire, already have retired or face a forced retirement, she is  launching( potentially) a new and challenging career.

In politics age seems to be no barrier. There is no mandatory retirement age etc. I know , the voters decide, blah,blah. But when one looks at the hallowed roster of Congress, one sees many that have long passed the barrier that exists for most workers. And, once they are there for a bit, they usually stay as long as  they wish.

I reiterate, should Congress have  a maximum age. The Constitution provides a minimum age you know.

Confidence, Hubris or What?

Senator Harry Reid, D, NV has been the majority leader of the Senate since 2007. Among those who preceded him in this position are Lyndon Johnson, Bob Dole, Robert Byrd( yep, that guy) Robert Taft and the very first majority leader. That would be Senator Charles Curtis , R, KS who served from 1925-1929.With the exception of Alben Barkley who served from 1937-1947, the tenures have normally been around 4 years.

As we know, Senator Reid is locked in a tight re-election campaign as he tries to win his 5th term in office. His Republican opponent has yet to be determined .In 2004, he easily won re-election with 61% of the vote. However in 1998, he won an extremely narrow contest, 47.88% to 47.78% over current senator John Ensign; a 328 vote margin.

So, contrary to what on might think, Senator Reid is not invincible. But to hear some of his recent comments, one might wonder if he agrees with that statement. Let us backtrack a bit. Abut 6 months ago at a Chamber of Commerce dinner in Las Vegas, Reid allegedly made this statement to Bob Brown, director of  advertising for the Las  Vegas Review-Journal, which incidentally is not a  big fan of the senator. ‘” I hope you go out of business.” That would contribute to the unemployment rate in Nevada would it not and damage the struggling newspaper business? Maybe he was kidding, right?

More recently, Sen Reid had this to say about unemployed males in America. This was on the floor of the U S Senate in debate about a jobs bill and it occurred on February 22. “Men, when they’re out of work, tend to become abusive.” He said that was not the case with women who “aren’t abusive, most of the time.”  Yet another interesting comment from the majority leader just yesterday. Republicans” should stop crying” about  the parliamentary procedure known as  budget reconciliation which may be used  to pas a health care reform bill. He said that Republicans had  used it  more than Democrats. Even if that is true, I doubt it was ever on such a significant  legislative issue.

But, the Senator may have unwittingly made a good point. Republicans should stop crying and just field a good candidate that will unseat him in November. After all, he already has an albatross hanging over him. The President has expressed his support  and has  campaigned on his behalf. Ask these folks about that. Martha Coakley, Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine.