Mega-Chismes: Dana’s 2016 retirement.

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Yeah.

Um…

So.

Long story short, 14-term Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport, etc.) who came to office in the late 80’s on an anti-incumbent wave promising to serve no more than three terms, is INDEED running again this year, but will probably retire next time (2018, after 15 terms.)   Or, again, that’s what he’s saying NOW.

I just had to check, after seeing the Winships’ comment that former OCGOP chairman and permanent klepto lobbyist Scott Baugh was running AGAINST his old friend Dana, and then finding Pedroza’s little post about this possibility way back in January, based on Baugh’s “quiet filing of a campaign committee for that seat.”

It was hard to imagine selfless company-man Baugh making such a bold move.

So, natch, I checked with Dana, who remembers me not as the polemicist who’s raked him over the coals since backing Bush’s 2003 Operation Iraqi Fiefdom, but as the liberal blogger who wrote a somewhat friendly post celebrating his marijuana liberalization bills and his opposition to horrific trade deals.

And yeah, pain in the ass, funny story, miscommunication.  Something Dana’d said made Scott think he should go ahead and form that committee JUST IN CASE.  Now Dana sounds mildly irritated.  “How are people going to know now, when Scott solicits funds, if they’re going to me or him?”

He says Scott is still his friend, and so much as suggests he’s his accepted successor, EXCEPT “We have several big differences.”  I help out:  “Like, Scott is a little more immigrant-friendly?”  “Yes, that’s a BIG one.”

It’s fucking funny, I’m sorry.  You can just sense how this job DEFINES these folks’ very being.  When I met Dana on the beach a couple years ago, he NEEDED to stay on Congress simply because President Obama was such a THREAT to the very notion of America.  Looking forward to 2016, he vaguely predicted that Hillary had no chance and that Joe Biden would be Democrats’ best hope.

What he told me today was that he REALLY hopes his colleagues let him be chair of the Finance Committee, finally.  He sure has the seniority, the experience.  He mutters something negative about “scientists.”  “You mean, the scientists who claim that global warming is real, a problem, is man-made, and that we can do something about it?”

“Yes, Vern.  MOST people do not believe that, most SCIENTISTS do not believe that.”  Dana, in his own estimation, is a very RARE independent voice that takes the bought-off majority of the scientific community with the cynicism they so richly deserve!

And he promises to let me know when he actually decides he’s ready to leave Congress, or more to the point, when he feels Congress is ready to function correctly WITHOUT him.

So, just letting Dr. Sue Savary know in case you already didn’t:  You ARE running against Crazy Dana, not Scott Baugh.  Godspeed!