John Shadegg - apparently already checked out

As if his retire/unretire two-step in February didn't make it clear to the voters of CD3 that he's no longer interested in working for them, John Shadegg took the opportunity in a Wednesday interview with PolitickerAZ to reinforce the point.

From the interview -

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix) is making no bones about it: He has his eye on John McCain’s U.S. Senate seat.

“I see my friends in the Senate deeply engaged in fights where even in the minority you matter,” said Shadegg, who won a seat in Congress in the GOP’s 1994 rout but has since seen his party lose its majority. “Yeah, I could find that very interesting, very appealing.”

Asked point-blank if he would take McCain’s current position if given the opportunity, Shadegg responded: “Yes.”

Shadegg has spent most of the year mailing it in, even when he has been in D.C. *working* for his constituents (some examples here, here, here, and here).

More evidence of this? During the current session of Congress, the 110th, records show that he has spoken on the floor of the House or has submitted statements for the record 58 times - 50 times in 2007, and only eight since his flirtation with retirement in February. By contrast, Harry Mitchell, an icon in Arizona but only another freshman in D.C. is on the record 104 times since January 2007, 51 of which happened this year. For the most part, first-termers from both parties are expected to be seen and not heard, so that total number (104) isn't particularly high or low.

For those of you who are among the math-challenged, that means that 53 of the entries took place last year. :)

All of which shows that by that measure, Mitchell and Shadegg were approximately equally active last year; however, since Shadegg moved to hang it up, he's less than 1/6 as active as Mitchell.

In other words, when Shadegg tried to walk away, he should have kept going - it would have been better for his constituents in CD3 (not that he cares about them) and it would have looked better for him when he starts running for another office (which probably *is* something that he cares about.)

Ya know, maybe he should just withdraw now to give the Republicans in CD3 a chance to run a write-in candidate. Otherwise, he's just ceding the district to his Democratic challenger, Bob Lord.