Andrew Romanoff (in photo), a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Colorado, says he was told by White House deputy Jim Messina that three jobs “might be available” if Romanoff dropped his campaign in favor of Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet. That resembles the story Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., has told about White House pressure to drop his successful primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. In Sestak’s case, according to an internal White House inquiry released last week, former President Clinton had suggested Sestak might secure a nonpaying commission appointment. What could have been an anomaly suddenly looks like a strategy, and not a noble one. But is it really anything new in politics? And is it illegal, as many Republicans charge?
In TPMmuckraker’s interactive map of the “Shadow Congress,” made up of 172 lawmakers-turned-lobbyists, Kansas has bipartisan representation: from former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (in photo), now with law firm Alston and Bird, and former Democratic Rep. Jim Slattery, currently with Wiley Rein and Fielding. Predictably, the state with the most members of the Shadow Congress — 17 — is Texas. As one small firm boasts on its website: “No one knows the way around Capitol Hill better than those who have previously served in Congress.”
No wonder retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has been a proponent of civics education. In a new national survey by FindLaw.com, only 35 percent of Americans could name a member of the high court, and only 1 percent could name all nine members. The best-known is the one who says the least from the bench: Justice Clarence Thomas, named by 19 percent of those surveyed. Only 15 percent could name Justice Sonia Sotomayor (in photo), despite her polarizing confirmation hearings last summer.
Sen. Sam Brownback’s choice of state Sen. Jeff Colyer, R-Overland Park, as his running mate in the governor’s race may not seem all that important — a case of one conservative teaming with another. But it might matter a lot, should Brownback win the job and then decide to try another presidential run in 2012 or 2016, or do as then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius did last year and join a new president’s Cabinet. As demonstrated by the promotion of Mark Parkinson (in photo) to governor after just two years as lieutenant governor, Kansans cannot assume that their lieutenant governors will be irrelevant. There still may be times when lieutenant governors’ official duties are so few that they feel like returning to their old jobs, as then-Lt. Gov. Paul Dugan of Wichita did during Gov. John Carlin’s first term. Or that their most important duty is to stand atop the Capitol and watch for approaching glaciers, as then-Lt. Gov. Shelby Smith of Wichita once joked of his time in the administration of Gov. Robert Bennett. But running mates also need to be qualified to step in and serve as the state’s CEO.
