Sometimes I really hate this industry. The memeball at the morning bullpen session was "Democrats are dropping like flies!" As you probably have heard, Chris "Wall Street Waterboy" Dodd and Byron "Told y'all about Glass-Steagall" Dorgan are both retiring.
Of course, the whole 'dropping like flies' theme came about because Democrats have no feel for stage crafting and all quit at once with fanfare and a glee club. The Republicans quit quietly as if drops slowly falling softyly from a facet. To each their wont, but it does skew the newscycle.
Here it is by the numbers, because this might actually shock you, of who is retiring on capital hill:
House of Representatives:
14 Republicans; 10 Democratic
Archaic Chamber of Old People:
6 Senate Republicans are retiring, 2 Democrats
That is almost a 2:1 Republican retirement rate to that of the Democrats.
So Gibbs, or any other competent spokesperson for the Democratic Party, why don't you trot that truffle out so I don't have to develop bullshit of how the Democratic Party is quitting en masse and cats and dogs are living together?
I mean, come on, it's basic math here, someone from the Party please find a camera, I know you love them, and kill this meme before the primary season, and especially the evening newscycle.
Seriously, this is borderline incompetent messaging here. Get out there and turn this bullshit around.
Update: Via Steve Bene via BruinKid in comments:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/...
Let's make this even more obvious: The percentage of Republicans retiring from the House is twice that of Democrats (8% versus 4%).
In the Senate, Republicans are losing 15% of their members to retirement, Democrats 3.5%.