Congress Needs A Dead Member Or 2 Before They Take The Pandemic Seriously-- They May Get The First

No members of Congress have died of COVID yet-- a damn shame, since that might get them to take it more seriously. One may though-- a new member, elected in a Louisiana runoff just over 2 weeks ago, Luke Letlow. Letlow is a relatively young man-- 41-- and he was just transferred to an ICU in Shreveport after having been treated with Remdesivir.

If he survives and is sworn in next month, he will represent the largest and most rural district in the state, LA-05, an R+15 hellhole that Trump won with 63.5% in 2016 and did even better in this year. There are 26 parishes in the district, all red except two small bits of swing parishes, East Feliciana and East Carroll. The two where most of the voters live are Ouachita (Monroe) and Rapides (Alexandria). Letlow was the chief of staff for Ralph Abraham who is retiring, after having lost the GOP gubernatorial primary. So people on Capitol Hill know him. He was a lobbyist once and has been described as a swamp creature. Still, if he dies, it wouldn't be the same as a longtime colleague dying-- like Don Young or Chuck Grassley, both of whom are ancient, got mild cases and survived. Congress won't start dealing with the pandemic seriously until someone like McConnell or Jim Inhofe is infected and dies.

Letlow came in first in a 9-way primary with 102,533 (votes) 33.1% of the vote and then beat the runner-up, also a Republican, in a low turnout December 5 runoff-- 49,182 (62%) to 30,124 (38%). Both are very right-wing, so the election wasn't really about anything other than a Republican-personality contest.

These are the members of Congress who tested positive and have no yet recovered:

• Mike Rogers (R-AL)

• Anna Eshoo (D-CA)

• Cedric Richmond (D-LA)

• Joe Wilson (R-SC)

• Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)

These are members who tested positive and were released this month alone:

• Austin Scott (R-GA)- Dec. 17

• Ken Calvert (R-CA)- Dec. 14

• Robert Aderholt (R-AL)- Dec. 14

• Susie Lee (D-NV)- Dec. 9

• Rick Allen (R-GA)- Dec. 8

• Ted Budd (R-NC)- Dec. 7

• Virginia Foxx (R-NC)- Dec. 7

• Doug Lamborn (R-CO)- Dec. 2

• Dan Newhouse (R-WA)- Dec. 2

• Tim Walkberg (R-MI)- Dec. 2

• Don Young (R-AK)- Dec 2

• Joe Courtney (D-CT)- Dec. 1

Foxx will never fully recover... but her constituents will never notice

By the way, now, Republican members trying to spread contagion by not wearing masks like spoiled two year olds, can be forcibly removed by Capitol Police.