No More Middle

First Read: “Congress is about to get more polarized in the Senate with all the retirements of moderates and look at the House, a place most would think couldn’t get MORE ideologically divided. Just in the last month, on the Republican side, there have been the retirements of Virginia’s Frank Wolf, Iowa’s Tom Latham, and Pennsylvania’s Jim Gerlach. On the Democratic side, out are North Carolina’s Mike McIntyre (announced yesterday) and Utah’s Jim Matheson. If you toss in Arkansas’ Tim Griffin and New Jersey’s Jon Runyan, and the pool of congressional members willing to vote with the other side is shrinking. Whatever’s left of the middle or the pragmatic caucus is disappearing. And there wasn’t much of a middle to begin with. Every one of these retiring members is going to be replaced by someone more partisan. It doesn’t matter which party wins control overall, the two parties, ideologically, will be farther apart and that guarantees even more gridlock.”