I can't say I'm terribly surprised. Wisconsin Senator Joe Leibham announced this week that he is resigning from the Wisconsin State Legislature.
Leibham said that his resignation was compliant with the law as he plans to accept employment somewhere else. He said: “In the interest of considering future employment opportunities while being compliant with state law, I must resign my position as State Senator for Wisconsin’s 9th Senate District. My resignation will be in effect at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, December 1, 2014.”
Those of you who follow Wisconsin politics might recall that Joe Leibham ran for the US House of Representatives this past year but was beaten in the Primary by Real Conservative Glenn Grothman. At the time, many of us hoped this would be a good thing, because we thought Grothman would be too psycho to get elected. Heh. I guess he showed us.
I've never really liked Leibham. He always struck me as a Stepford Politician with a plastic game-show-host smile and a mouthful of platitudes about "Family Values". One of the positive results of the recent election, though, was that Leibham could not try for the US House and run for re-election for the State Legislature seat he had at the same time.
Leibham's term in the Legislature was actually to end in January, but, following in the footsteps of the Divine Ms Sarah, he's cutting out early. A whole blessed month early.
What is the hurry? From his press statement, I get the impression that he would have quit sooner except that he was constrained by state law. He was so eager to get out that he couldn't wait another 36 days until the term he was elected to serve was over.
He said in his statement that he was resigning so he could "consider other employment opportunities." Which is peculiar, come to think of it; considering how much he's always touted Family Values, you'd think he would have said he wanted to "Spend More Time With His Family". Um... dude, I strongly suspect that whatever "other employment opportunities" you're considering, they'll still be around in January. And frankly, a tendency to duck out of a commitment to look for something better is not something that would impress me if I was an employer looking at job candidates.
But I suppose it's the sort of move I should have expected from him. Now that his political career is on hold, he can't wait to jump into the private sector. It's not like he owes anything to the folks who voted for him.