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Blue Dog Tanner To Retire
Democrat Blue Dog John Tanner of Tennesse has unexpectedly announced he will retire in 2010.
This is the second retirement (the other being Dennis Moore of Kansas) of a Blue Dog Democrat in a marginal district and thus will likely present the GOP with a pickup opportunity.
UPDATE: State Senator Roy Herron is going to run.
I agree the race leans to the Democrats but they will have to work for it.
3 Responses to “Blue Dog Tanner To Retire”
NW Tennessee is still solidly Democratic territory. There are two very well-known Democrats – Roy Herron and Lowe Finney – who will almost certainly get into the race there. The GOP does not have a deep bench in that part of the state. Anything can happen, but I would not count on Tanner's district switching to the Republican Party, regardless of its support for McCain in 2008.
Can't really blame the blue dogs who decide not to run, the Democratic party isn't giving them much motivation to stay. Same for the “RINOS” 4 and 8 years ago.
Don't fool yourselves..lol..
The minute MedMob caught wind of Obama-change a-comin' they courted as many dems as they could. They knew the GOP was a snap to bribe. After all, they'd been doing it for years. My guess is that this fellow from TN is not the only one who is ambivalent about his career in politics.
Take the money and run. I'm sure they knew a long time ago that resisting an overwhelmingly popular idea like the Public Option would be political suicide. So they just crunched the numbers and decided to sell out their constituents under the *urp* [sorry, I almost vomited] guise of “making the right decision” for them in spite of the democratic process.
I just laugh when I hear talking heads in the media barking up the “you'd better shape up or face replacement” tree when confronting blue dogs. They're laughing too…all the way to the bank..