The passages of power significantly look like a retirement home– if not a hospice.
Agent Kay Granger throughout a press conference with other Republican members of your home of Representatives at the Capitol on July 21, 2020.(Samuel Corum/ Getty Images)
This year, 2 seasoned members of Congress, Republican Representative Kay Granger from Texas and Democratic Representative Annie M. Kuster of New Hampshire, revealed that they were retiring from civil service, however the story of their last days played out extremely in a different way, showing the risks of a political system that allows both gerontocracy and older abuse.
In March, Granger, age 81, revealed that she was stepping down from her effective post as chair of your home Appropriation Committee and would not look for reelection, although she would end up out her term. She cast her last vote on July 24, and has actually appeared in Washington just as soon as considering that. For all intents and functions, Granger had actually vanished from public presence.
On December 20, The Dallas Expressa conservative online publication, exposed that Granger had actually been residing in an independent living center. Prior to that discovery, Granger's workplace was not returning telephone call to the Express or anybody else. Visiting her workplace, press reporter Carl Turcios discovered “the door locked, the front door glass window covered, nobody within, and no indication of the workplace continuing to be inhabited.”
Reacting to these reports, the congresswoman's boy, Brandon Granger, mentioned that his mom experienced “dementia,” a condition he declared was identified in September. Granger's workplace shared a declaration where she supposedly stated that “because early September, my health difficulties have actually advanced, making regular travel to Washington both challenging and unforeseeable. Throughout this time, my personnel has actually stayed unfaltering, continuing to provide extraordinary constituent services, as they have for the previous 27 years.”
Existing Issue
This variation of Granger's story, which positions the start of dementia in September, makes little sense, because, as Ken Klippenstein reports on his Substack, there is proof that as early as March she had problem checking out even from a ready declaration without uncomfortable effort. Even more, she offered her home in early July, which suggests that her relocate to the independent living center was currently in the works at that time.
Granger ultimately resigned her seat– however far too late. If she had actually left civil service a couple of years back, she ‘d be kept in mind as a leader, the very first Republican lady to lead your home Appropriations Committee. Now, there is a pall on her tradition given that, as The New York Times reports, she has actually “brought restored attention to how Capitol Hill is powered by a crop of septuagenarians and octogenarians, consisting of some who decline to give up power even far past their primes.”
Granger's fellow congresswoman Annie M. Kuster, age 68, provides an informing contrast. In an interview with The Boston Globe
