Retirement ‘Wave’ Building Among House Republicans?

The announcement Friday by former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., that he will not seek re-election in 2008 capped a week in which three veteran House Republicans in a 24-hour span declared that the current 110th Congress would be their last.

Hastert’s announcement — coupled with similar ones Thursday by Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce and Mississippi Rep. Charles W. “Chip” Pickering Jr. — brought to five the number of House Republicans who are not seeking re-election next year, compared with two on the Democratic side.

While nearly 15 months remain until the November 2008 election, the retirement decisions of Hastert, Pryce and Pickering will stoke speculation of a larger “wave” of GOP departures that would seriously hamper the party’s quest to make the 16-seat gain that they need to regain the House majority they lost last November.

Democrats pounced on the retirements as evidence of sagging morale in House Republican ranks and public disenchantment with President Bush and his party, which ran the House for a dozen years before the 2006 elections.

It is amazing how many Republicans are calling it quits this early. It appears that they see the writing on the wall and next year will not be easy for them.