Arkansas Dem Rep. Vic Snyder Retiring

Did Firedog Lake Take Out Vic Synder???
Dave Weigel

The question, raised by Nate Silver and others: Is Firedoglake trying to scare vulnerable Democrats into retirement in order to kill health care reform? All indications point to “yes.”

With friends like Jame Hamsher who needs Teabaggers?

I canceled her emails

You should too

How did Arkansas shift so much politically over the last 15 years? Bill Clinton, hardly a firebrand conservative, was elected Governor there six times and won the state twice by convincing margins as President. But GWB won it twice and McCain won it by 20 - one of only two states where Obama did not outperform John Kerry.

What happened here?

Another one bites the dust,
Hay Hay Hay

Abe Lincoln is not one of my favorite founding fathers because he didn't let the south go. Sigh.

A few things:

First of all, Arkansas has not made a wild swing to the right over the past 15 years. It has always been a culturally conservative state but Democrats continued to do very well here, thank you very much, until they decided to adopt corporate centrism as a model in the 1980s. Up until then, there weren't any Republicans going to Washington from this state. Since then, Republicans have held three of the four congressional seats at one time or another, and one of the Senate seats, along with the governorship. Populist Democrats would have no problem taking, and holding, three of the state's four congressional districts forever if they embraced populism not only on the campaign trail but after they got into office as well. What's happened to Arkansas is not that they left the Democrats but that the Democrats left them. If you're going to get the same corporate screwing from the Democrats as from the Republicans, you might as well go with the party that hates the same people you do.

About Snyder: he's a personal friend and a very nice guy who, for whatever reason, has done very little since being elected in 1996. My take on it is that he never really liked the job; I never saw him looking really happy after he went to DC and he seemed least happy of all when he was in DC. That, coupled with the fact that in 14 years he's never introduced any legislation and hasn't to my recollection even been an important co-sponsor on anything means that this is probably not only the best thing for him but also for the district.

He's garnered enough goodwill that he would probably beat Griffin, no matter what the polls are saying today. But he's never really performed up to potential. So let's hope that the Dems will field a good populist candidate who really wants the job - if they do, Tim Griffin doesn't have a chance in this district.