Has the Senate become a horrible place to work?
Of the 100 Senators who were serving on Jan 3, 2001; 66 are no longer in office. Many have died, others have left involuntarily, but many have retired completely voluntarily. Among the voluntary retirees are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Olympia Snowe, Evan Bayh, Barack Obama, Zell Miller, Mark Dayton, John Edwards, Ben Nelson, Sam Brownback, Trent Lott, Fred Thompson, John Kyl, Ben Knighthorse Campbell, Byron Dorgan, Daniel Akaka, and Joe Lieberman. Even if some of those retired to avoid losing most of them didn't. They simply refused to run again or traded to governorships, cabinet positions, and in one case the Presidency. This kind of turn over from the Senate is close to unheard of. It is a symptom of just how disfunctional the Senate has become.