Apparently She Got A Better Offer

In a move reminiscent of the one Jane Harmon (D-CA) made several years ago, a Missouri congresswoman has announced one month after her re-election that she will be resigning in February to take a different job.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), freshly reelected to her ninth term in Congress, announced Monday that she would resign in February and become the president and chief executive of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn., the top donor to her campaigns during her congressional career.

Emerson, who was elected to her late husband Bill Emerson’s seat in a 1996 special election and was the first woman to represent Missouri in the House, handily won reelection earlier this year over Democratic rival Jack Rushin with nearly 72% of the vote. One of the few women to hold Republican leadership positions in Congress, Emerson was chairwoman of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee and sat on the House Appropriations Committee. ...

In paperwork filed Monday, Emerson’s office said that negotiations for her new job began Nov. 19, after the election. House ethics guidelines on what sorts of negotiations for post-congressional employment are permitted are nebulous.   [Emphasis added]

 A Democratic spokesman hinted that she probably left because she didn't get the committee assignments she wanted (what Republican woman did?) because she was too moderate.  That may be the case, but that's hardly an acceptable excuse.  She chose to run for re-election and the people of her district turned out for her.  Now those voters have to go through the whole process all over again (and at some expense) because she got a better offer.

Our elected officials aren't even pretending anymore.  "Public service" is just a stop on the way to more money and more prestige.