Bob McCarty Writes

After learning of the death of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) today, I decided to visit the U.S. House of Representatives online press gallery to obtain more information about the late member of Congress.  Upon my arrival at the web site, however, I was distracted by a link button — labeled “CASUALTY LIST” — that appeared in the left sidebar of the site.

First assuming the link would lead me to a site where war casualty lists were published, I clicked on it and discovered how 54 elected office holders had, as of Aug. 8, departed from the 110th Congress.  For instance:

• Thirty-six members of the House (six Democrats and 30 Republicans) had either retired, resigned or decided to seek other office.  In addition, six members — three from each party — had died as of that date.  Add today’s death of Congresswoman Tubbs Jones, and the casualty count jumps to seven.

• In the upper chamber (a.k.a., “the Senate”), five Republicans had retired as of Aug. 8 and one — again, a Republican — had died by that date.

Who knew that serving as a member of Congress could be so physically demanding?  And so deadly?