Bye, Bye Berry … Arkansas US Rep. Marion Berry Expected to Announce his Retirement

Another Democrat bites the Obama dust.

Arkansas US Representative Marion Berry is expected to announce his retirement from the House. Let’s refer to him as #6. Berry is the 6th Democrat to announce his retirement amid the anti-Democrat, anti-incumbency mood of the country. Berry is most likely the first in a long line of Democrats that will do so following the special Senate election win by Republican Scott Brown.

Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow morning, according to three sources briefed on the decision.

Berry will become the sixth Democrat in a competitive seat to leave in the last two months but the first to announce his retirement since the party’s special election loss in Massachusetts last Tuesday.

“The message coming out of the Massachusetts special election is clear: No Democrat is safe,” said National Republican Congressional Committee communications director Ken Spain.

Berry, first elected in 1996, had been noncommittal about his re-election bid for months although, privately, his allies insisted he was planning to run for re-election.

While Berry had rarely been challenged in the 1st district over the past decade or so, the seat has a clear Republican tilt as Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) won it with 59 percent in 2008.

It is quite telling that Democrats are retiring from seats that they held safe and in many cases unchallenged for years. The cry, “no seat is safe” may be more than just a Republican pipe dream. Depending on the mood of the country and the economic situation in November 2010, it might just become a reality.

Once safe blue dog Democrat seats no more. The voters of these districts are tired of the liberal Pelosi agenda and the fact that their representatives no longer listen to them, but instead follow liberal Democrat agendas instead.

Granted politicians retire every el;election cycle; however, there is a trend of Southern Democrats jumping ship.