[guest post by JVW]

I’m hearkening back to a post of mine from eight years ago, in which I wrote:

Thanks Democrats. The party of the young and the multicultural is now led by a 76-year-old white woman and a 66-year-old white man. You can’t make this stuff up.

UPDATE:
The number two House Democrat? Seventy-seven-year-old white male.

The number two Senate Democrat? Seventy-two-year-old white male.

Then four years ago, upon the Democrats’ ascension back into power, I commented upon the same dynamic:

The House Democrat Caucus today nominated Nancy Pelosi (D – eSalon) [then 80 years old] to serve another term as Speaker of the House. She faced no opposition for the post and her top two lieutenants, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer [then 81] and Majority Whip James Clyburn [then 82], were also returned to their leadership positions.

Well, guys, the party of youth and vibes is at it again! Jim Geraghty has an interesting piece on internal competition within the Dems’ caucus:

Now, 2028 is a long way off, and on Tuesday, AOC lost an election — House Democrats had to decide whether she or northern Virginia representative Gerry Connolly should be the next ranking member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee. At 35, AOC is less than half the age of 74-year-old Connolly, but House Democrats preferred him over her, 131 to 84. (That’s a 60.9 percent to 39.1 percent split.) Connolly is undergoing chemotherapy and immunotherapy for esophagus cancer.

So there you have it: our Adorably Ornery Clueless niece remains the future — not the present — of the Democrat Party. And Mr. Geraghty then quotes a similar observation made at The Hill by Mike Lillis:

On Wednesday, the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee confirmed the ranking member positions for the senior lawmakers of four top committees — Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, and Appropriations.

That puts Reps. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), 75; Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), 73; Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), 86; and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), 81, in some of the most prominent seats to confront the incoming Trump administration next year.

None of them faced competition from younger members.

And the trend will continue on Monday, when the Steering and Policy panel is scheduled to fill out its committee roster, which will keep a number of veteran lawmakers in the ranking member spots they currently hold.

That list includes Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), 76, at the top of the Homeland Security Committee; Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), 71, as ranking member of the Small Business Committee; Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), 76, on the Science, Space and Technology Committee; and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), 71, on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

It comes as no surprise that Democrats, a party comprised largely of career politicians who worm their way up through the lowest level of the political sewers until they finally find a lifetime sinecure in a Congressional seat where they are guaranteed 60% of the vote even if they are incarcerated or dead, would have an awful lot of elderly legislators using the halls of Congress as Heaven’s waiting room. But given the fact that it was only voters 44 and younger who provided majority support to Kamala Harris (though by lower margins than they did for Joe Biden four years ago), you would think the Democrats might give them a bit more authority. Then again, when choosing among AOC, Ilhan Omar, Greg Casar, Eric Swalwell, and the like, perhaps the Democrats are indeed taking the wiser path.

– JVW