It’s official: Richard "Dick" Pombo (R-Nowhere) will not be attempting to reclaim the House seat he lost to Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.). The nation may breathe a sigh of relief. (McNerney’s probably effed anyway, though — after all, it’s still an extremely conservative district.)
You may recall that upon losing Pombo went almost immediately through the revolving door to scummy PR and lobbying firm Pac/West. As that did not satisfy his insatiable hunger for hackery, he has now added a new line to his resume: National Chairman of the Partnership for America, a scummy astroturf lobbying group.
I’ve come to think of Pombo as a kind of proxy for the Bush era, with its toxic mix of rigid ideology and corruption. His fate represents its fate. Will he fade away into obscurity, or regain his strength in the wilderness and return to power? We’ll see.
