Rats Flee Sinking Ship

House Republican John Linder of Georgia is stepping down at the end of this session. He's the 19th Republican to announce his departure.

But still the MSM and the GOP are portraying the Dems as the ones in trouble. According to them it's the Democrats - not the Republicans - who are hemorrhaging members in the run-up to the midterms.

As usual, reality is at variance with the media construct. I couldn't say it better than Don Duval commenting at the NYT:

Just to put things in perspective--given all the noise we've heard in the press in the last couple of months about the Democrats retiring in droves--unwilling to face the voters in what a wide swath of the press likes to portray as a extremely hostile environment for Democrats--as percentages:

5.4% of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. House (14 of 255) have announced they will not seek another term.

10.6% of the Republican caucus in the U.S. House (19 of 178) have announced they will not seek another term.

For all the press's efforts to portray the Democrats being in some sort of wholesale retreat--the reality is that while 1 in 20 Democrats are choosing not to run for re-election, 1 in 10 Republicans are leaping out of the GOP's lifeboat.

Imagine that.