Tales from the Senate

Senior Senator from Michigan, Carl Levin, has announced that he won't be running for re-election when his term is up in two years.

“I love representing the people of Michigan in the U.S. Senate and fighting for the things that I believe are important to them,” he said. “As Barbara and I struggled with the question of whether I should run again, we focused on our belief that our country is at a crossroads that will determine our economic health and security for decades to come. We decided that I can best serve my state and nation by concentrating in the next two years on the challenging issues before us that I am in a position to help address; in other words, by doing my job without the distraction of campaigning for re-election.”

Perhaps many of us took that to mean that it's a distraction to campaign for re-election, despite the fact that that appears to be exactly the job to which these folks believe themselves to have been elected.
In fact, the most likely "translation" or parsing of that phrase would be:

"I want to do all the things I've wanted to do, but couldn't get a vote from my constituents because they don't want me to do it."

This fellow will bear watching. He seems to have some obfuscatory skills.

Posted by Pygmalion 56