Surely we all know the answer to that question by now.
Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is getting some GOP pressure to change her mind about resigning her seat, but a close friend predicted Wednesday that her decision will hinge on whether she can balance her service with what is best for her young children.
Hutchison was not talking Wednesday, the day after losing her GOP primary challenge of Gov. Rick Perry. A spokeswoman, who turned down a request to interview her, said she was in Dallas.
Hutchison’s future was a hot topic in political circles: Her decision will affect the fate of ambitious politicians and come into play as the GOP maps its strategy for gaining more U.S. Senate seats this year. It also could hand a juicy plum to Perry, who would appoint her successor pending a special election.
“My pitch to her would be that … it’s in the best interest of the state and the best interest of the Republican Party and in her best interest to stay in the Senate for a while,” said John Cornyn, Texas’ junior senator and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “My hope would be (that) she would consider staying through the duration of her term, which is through 2012.”
Say it with me, people: Nobody knows what KBH will do. Her most recent smoke signal was that she’d at least stick around till November or so. But we’ve seen this movie before, and we’ve seen how it ends: The date in question arrives, and she kicks the can farther down the road. I guess this time could be different, but I can’t see any reason to expect it to be.
And then there’s the same factor that led me to question all along why she’d want to quit in the first place.
Larry Sabato, professor of politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said Hutchison’s seniority is valuable to Texas, and questioned whether she would want to allow Perry to appoint her successor after their bruising battle.
“The things he did and said about her clearly have stuck in her craw and then … she’s also going to hand him her Senate seat as a plum to give to somebody else?” Sabato said. “It’s mind-boggling. It’s almost masochistic.”
I know I just posted this, but when something works, you go with it:
I don’t think that’s ever going to get old.