by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Those looking for a furniture bargain in Kansas might soon do well to circulate through the flea markets in and around Dodge City because that is where the state's most famous recliner could end up in the not too distant future.
The recliner became a political punchline back in 2014 when Pat Roberts, the state's senior United States Senator, was revealed to not have a residence in the state that he represented in the Senate. Yes, Roberts and his Virginia realtor wife did own a home in Dodge City, but they had rented it out for years and were obviously not residing there. As the news broke, the embarrassed national lawmaker quickly claimed residence with a couple in the Dodge City area who had been longtime political supporters of his campaigns. When asked about the arrangement, Roberts said that he paid $300 a month rent when he was in the state, and that he had "dibs of the recliner."
The crusty old senator was able to overcome a strong challenge by a Tea Party Republican and was eventually elected to a fourth six-year term at the Senate trough. But now, two years out from the next election, Roberts has announced that he will not run for re-election. Perhaps he is tired of being referred to as Virginia's third senator - or maybe he is just too damned old to try and sleep in a Lazy Boy.
Roberts is currently eighty-two and way too old to be serving in the Senate anyway - and he is only three years younger that Dianne Feinstein. Now he will soon be able to spend his days puttering around the house that he and his wife do own - the one in northern Virginia - and maybe help her put up yard signs and hold open houses for her real estate business. Something productive, for a change.
Pat Roberts, of course, is not the only senator with a questionable home address. Once politicians make it to "the show" in Washington, DC, they seem to quickly come to regard the area surrounding the nation's capital as their home. Richard Lugar, a long-serving senator from Indiana, lost his Senate seat of nearly forty-years after it was revealed that he had sold his Indiana home shortly after being elected to the Senate in 1977, and had subsequently been billing the government for his hotel stays whenever he traveled "back home" to Indiana. Lugar and his wife owned a home in McLean, Virginia, at the time of his political demise.
My own senior senator, Ol' Roy Blunt of Missouri, is smarter than Lugar and Roberts. Ol' Roy and his Washington, DC, lobbyist wife own a condo in Springfield, Missouri, which (according to utility records) they rarely visit - but they do OWN it - along with a $3 million home in the DC suburbs where they actually live. And to Ol' Roy's credit, he is far too dignified to ever sleep in a recliner!
And most days he probably can find Missouri on a map.
Congratulations on your retirement, Senator Roberts.
Citizen Journalist
Those looking for a furniture bargain in Kansas might soon do well to circulate through the flea markets in and around Dodge City because that is where the state's most famous recliner could end up in the not too distant future.
The recliner became a political punchline back in 2014 when Pat Roberts, the state's senior United States Senator, was revealed to not have a residence in the state that he represented in the Senate. Yes, Roberts and his Virginia realtor wife did own a home in Dodge City, but they had rented it out for years and were obviously not residing there. As the news broke, the embarrassed national lawmaker quickly claimed residence with a couple in the Dodge City area who had been longtime political supporters of his campaigns. When asked about the arrangement, Roberts said that he paid $300 a month rent when he was in the state, and that he had "dibs of the recliner."
The crusty old senator was able to overcome a strong challenge by a Tea Party Republican and was eventually elected to a fourth six-year term at the Senate trough. But now, two years out from the next election, Roberts has announced that he will not run for re-election. Perhaps he is tired of being referred to as Virginia's third senator - or maybe he is just too damned old to try and sleep in a Lazy Boy.
Roberts is currently eighty-two and way too old to be serving in the Senate anyway - and he is only three years younger that Dianne Feinstein. Now he will soon be able to spend his days puttering around the house that he and his wife do own - the one in northern Virginia - and maybe help her put up yard signs and hold open houses for her real estate business. Something productive, for a change.
Pat Roberts, of course, is not the only senator with a questionable home address. Once politicians make it to "the show" in Washington, DC, they seem to quickly come to regard the area surrounding the nation's capital as their home. Richard Lugar, a long-serving senator from Indiana, lost his Senate seat of nearly forty-years after it was revealed that he had sold his Indiana home shortly after being elected to the Senate in 1977, and had subsequently been billing the government for his hotel stays whenever he traveled "back home" to Indiana. Lugar and his wife owned a home in McLean, Virginia, at the time of his political demise.
My own senior senator, Ol' Roy Blunt of Missouri, is smarter than Lugar and Roberts. Ol' Roy and his Washington, DC, lobbyist wife own a condo in Springfield, Missouri, which (according to utility records) they rarely visit - but they do OWN it - along with a $3 million home in the DC suburbs where they actually live. And to Ol' Roy's credit, he is far too dignified to ever sleep in a recliner!
And most days he probably can find Missouri on a map.
Congratulations on your retirement, Senator Roberts.
1 comment:
Apparently Virginia's third Senator has bought a house in Kansas. I think it is over by K-State. No word on whether he's actually slept there. Perhaps he has a grandchild of college age who finds it useful. I don't know.
Post a Comment