“I was talking to one member who is retiring and I said, ‘Do you feel good about it?’ and he said, ‘I really do,” said Rep. John Yarmuth. Exodus on Capitol Hill.

Songquan Deng/Songquan Deng

WASHINGTON — Even Congress hates Congress.

The last few months have been filled with similar announcements: Democratic Rep. Bill Owen announced Tuesday that he's retiring. Rep. George Miller announced his retirement the day before. On just one day in December, Reps. Jim Matheson, Frank Wolf, and Tom Latham all said they wouldn't run again.

All told, 14 members of Congress say they will retire at the end of the term — so far.

The number isn't out of the ordinary really — between 11 and 25 House members have retired in the last six cycles — but each day seemingly brings a new announcement.

A number of reasons have been thrown out in media coverage: the demise of the moderate member, frustration with the constant partisan bickering, and the dearth of legislative action. Polling has shown the American public has a higher opinion of dog poop, the DMV, and jury duty than it does of Congress. And it turns out members of Congress themselves may not feel much differently.

"That's a lot of it. I was talking to one member who is retiring and I said, 'Do you feel good about it?' and he said, 'I really do. It just got to the point where it wasn't worth it," said Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth.

"It's pretty stressful. Everybody is aware the system is broken and that becomes stressful. You wonder what can I do to make it work better," Yarmuth added.

"People get a little war weary and not a lot is getting done around here," said Rep. Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania.

Dent said he's "very happy" to be in Congress but understands that some of his fellow members want out.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, speaking recently on C-SPAN's Newsmakers program, conceded that lawmakers might be just as fed up with Washington.

"Both parties are experiencing the results of the frustration that has come from the gridlock that we've seen in the last two and a half years under Republican leadership where we have not acted in a positive way to work together to reach compromise to move this country forward," Hoyer said. "This is not only affecting American people but also members."

The committees are taking credit in either direction: The National Republican Campaign Committee chairman Greg Walden said he was counting the retirements of Matheson and McIntrye, who hailed from red districts, as a win for Republicans.

"I think it's a leave or lose mentality more among Democrats than among Republicans especially when you look at the seats that are coming open," he said.

The Democrats, meanwhile, happily took credit for the retirements of both Runyan and Griffin. Those members were on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Heat Wave" program.

Inside Congress, there's at least one boon, though: With all the members leaving, there's a little more space for those who remain.

"Frankly the retirements have benefited me because I'm on the Appropriations Committee," Dent told BuzzFeed. "And many of the people who have retired are on the Appropriations Committee and they are senior to me, so now I'm in the top 12 in terms of seniority, which increases the possibility for a subcommittee chairmanship. So it's benefited me."

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the party of Rep. Bill Owens. He is a Democrat. (1/15/2014)

The former Pennsylvania governor is slated to attend a young professionals event for the PAC later this month in Philadelphia — his first foray into the outside groups supporting Hillary Clinton’s possible 2016 campaign.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell will attend an event later this month in Philadelphia for Ready for Hillary, the political action committee gathering support for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's possible presidential bid.

A Facebook description for the event, a grassroots fundraiser for young professionals supporting Clinton, says that Rendell is planning making an appearance. The former Democratic governor's coming to the event would mark his first association with the super PAC, founded early last year.

"While we are certain you understand that Hillary cannot be present our good friend Gov. Ed Rendell will be, along with several other elected officials," it reads.

Seth Bringman, a spokesman with the group, confirmed that Rendell is expected to attend the event, a low-dollar fundraiser at Philadelphia's G Lounge bar.

Tickets for the Jan. 30 event cost $20.16, according to the Facebook page.

Rendell, the two-term former governor, supported Clinton during the 2008 presidential race, helping her secure the Pennsylvania primary.

In recent interviews, Rendell has said he believes Clinton will ultimately decide to run for president in two years. Rendell joins other lawmakers and former elected officials — such as Sen. Claire McCaskill and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm — in showing support for the pro-Clinton political action committee.

Audits are “something that this office does routinely,” the department’s inspector general says. The Sandy ads featuring Christie have been under scrutiny this week.

AP Photo / Julio Cortez

The federal inquiry into the "Stronger than the Storm" tourism ad campaign featuring New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is an "audit" and "not an investigation," the inspector general handling the matter said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

The statement released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s Inspector General David Montoya characterized the audit as routine, clarified that it was "not an investigation," and stated that the inquiry was not concerned specifically with the procurement process.

Audits are "something that this office does routinely," Montoya said in the statement.

"This is an audit and not an investigation of the procurement process," he added.

Rep. Frank Pallone, the Democratic congressman who requested the inquiry last August, has suggested in interviews this week that the federal agency has launched a "full-scale investigation" into the reasons state officials awarded the marketing contract to MWW, a national public relations firm based in New Jersey.

Pallone indicated to CNN on Monday that MWW won the bid over the runner-up, Sigma Group, because it agreed "it would put [Christie] and his family in the ad. They were chosen. The question is how did that process come about."

"I think the fact that the inspector general has now said they're going to conduct a full-scale investigation is significant," Pallone added.

The comments echo Pallone's press release on Monday about the audit. "At issue is the bidding process for the campaign and released documents," it read.

After Hurricane Sandy swept up the East Coast in October 2012, the federal government awarded $25 million in aid for a state marketing campaign aimed at promoting tourism last summer at the Jersey Shore — an area badly damaged.

"An audit was initiated in September 2013 to examine whether the State administered its Tourism Marketing Program in accordance with applicable departmental and Federal requirements," said Montoya in the statement.

An Asbury Park Press article last August first raised questions about whether MWW promised the state during the pitch process that Christie would appear in the television ads. After reading the article, Pallone wrote a letter to Montoya expressing concerns that the "winning bid proposed including Gov. Chris Christie in the advertisements, while the lower cost proposal that was not selected did not."

Christie's part in the ads, which ran during his reelection last year, frustrated Democrats who felt the marketing strategy aided the governor politically.

MWW executives behind the campaign disputed the suggestion on Monday that their firm won the bid over the three other competing companies because of an agreement to feature Christie prominently in the ads. Although a spokesman said the possibility of featuring Christie was mentioned "very briefly" in a pitch meeting with officials, the idea was not mentioned in its 233-page proposal.

Josh Zeitz, a senior vice president with the company, said the decision to feature Christie in the ads was "arrived at after the contract was awarded, based on timing, availability, and federal expenditure rules."

Sigma, the firm that came in second place, acknowledged this week that executives discussed the idea of a Christie appearing in ads in their pitch meeting with the state, according to an article published Tuesday night by the Press. During the oral presentation, according to Sigma's president Shannon Morris, administration officials "inquired if we would be open to featuring the governor in the ads."

In his statement, Montoya said HUD expects "to issue our audit report expeditiously. We will have no further comment until the audit report is issued."

A spokesman for Pallone did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

After marriage equality and a “conversion therapy” ban in New Jersey, Troy Stevenson is leaving Garden State Equality to run The Equality Network, Oklahoma’s statewide LGBT group.

gardenstateequality.org

WASHINGTON — In a sign of the rapidly changing landscape for LGBT rights, the head of New Jersey's LGBT group is heading home to run a similar group in the state of Oklahoma.

In an email to be sent to supporters Wednesday morning, Garden State Equality's Troy Stevenson writes, "On Sunday, January 26, I will be stepping down as executive director of Garden State Equality to take over as the executive director of The Equality Network in my home state of Oklahoma."

In a statement provided to BuzzFeed, Stevenson explained the move, announced a day after a federal judge in Oklahoma struck down the state's amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying.

"Leading Garden State Equality has been the highlight of my career. I have come to love my adopted state of New Jersey almost as much as my home state of Oklahoma, and say goodbye with a heavy heart. But I feel the time has come for me to return home and fight for my fellow Oklahoman's just as I have for New Jersey. I have the upmost confidence in the GSE team, and know that I could not be leaving the organization in better hands," he said.

Regarding the timing, he added, "This move has been long planned, but yesterday's court decision, overturning the marriage ban in Oklahoma, has left me overjoyed at the opportunity to help bring about the same kind of change, in Oklahoma, that GSE has brought to New Jersey."

John Mikytuck, currently the managing director at Garden State Equality, will serve as the group's interim executive director.

Stevenson had been the managing director of Garden State Equality before taking on the role of executive director in January 2013.

Among the advances sought by Garden State Equality during that time were legislative passage of the Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Ban (so-called conversion therapy), which Gov. Chris Christie signed in to law, as well as the passage by the legislature of a bill that would have made it easier for transgender people to change the gender markers on their birth certificates, which Christie vetoed this week. Garden State Equality was also a key part of both legislative and legal efforts to advance, and eventually secure, marriage equality in New Jersey.

As executive director of The Equality Network, Stevenson said his focus will be leading the public education campaign in response to Tuesday's marriage ruling, as well as working to bring employment protections, safe schools legislation and transgender protections to Oklahoma.

It’s the Boss vs. the governor.

Embroiled in multiple political scandals, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has just received his harshest rebuke yet, courtesy of the Garden State's real boss, Bruce Springsteen.

Christie — a Republican — is a major Springsteen fan, noting that he cried last year when the liberal rock legend, who regularly campaigns for Democratic candidates, finally acknowledged him in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. The two men hugged at the time, but that embrace is now ancient history after seeing Springsteen's latest appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

The host and the rocker both donned Springsteen's signature Born in the USA-era outfit (complete with bandana, jeans, and a cutoff shirt) to play a modified version of the classic song "Born to Run" — with a dash of "Jungleland" at the end — reworked and titled "Gov. Christie Traffic Jam." The lyrics reflect the George Washington Bridge lane closures that were allegedly Christie's form of payback after the Mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., refused to endorse his reelection bid — retribution that Christie denies knowing about.

Seems like the Boss doesn't buy it.

“The State Department should have increased its security posture more significantly in Benghazi based on the deteriorating security situation,” the bipartisan report argues.

Esam Al-Fetori / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday released a scathing new report on the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, charging the attack could have been prevented and that the Obama administration used inadequate intelligence in initially blaming it on spontaneous protests.

The Sept. 12, 2012, attack, which left multiple Americans dead including Ambassador Chris Stevens, has become one of the biggest scandals of President Obama's administration and could create complications in any future presidential run by former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who was in charge of the State Department at the time of the attacks.

Although administration officials and some Democrats initially sought to place the blame for the attack on protests against an anti-Islam movie, the report makes clear that the intelligence community had ample warning of the attacks and the overall grim security situation in Benghazi.

"In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the Unites States government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving," Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss said in a release.

The report notes that "In the months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2012, the [intelligence community] provided strategic warning through numerous intelligence reports that the security situation in eastern Libya was deteriorating and that U.S. facilities and personnel were at risk" and despite those warnings, the State Department didn't take steps to increase security.

"The State Department should have increased its security posture more significantly in Benghazi based on the deteriorating security situation," the report argues.

The committee also found that analysts "inaccurately referred to the presence of a protest at the U.S. mission facility before the attack" and that the intelligence community "took too long to correct these erroneous reports, which caused confusion and influenced the public statements of policymakers."

Those findings could be a silver lining for the administration and Clinton. Conservatives have repeatedly accused Clinton and the White House of purposefully lying to the public in the days immediately following the attack.

The bipartisan report, approved by a voice vote of the committee's members last month, also includes new recommendations to be improve security at diplomatic facilities, including ensuring facilities meet current security standards, expanding the intelligence community's ability to "conduct analysis of open source information including extremist-affiliated social media" to provide a better picture of security threats, and greater cooperation between the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community to identify security gaps and threats.

Wow. Just wow.

The Senate FINALLY released its declassified bipartisan report on Benghazi terrorist attacks Wednesday.

Here are some of the most revealing things we found in it.

Via intelligence.senate.gov

The bombshell findings in the last two paragraphs here:

Via intelligence.senate.gov

After page 18, I felt like I finally understood the tragedy.

Via intelligence.senate.gov

How about this Ansar al-Sharia report?

Via intelligence.senate.gov

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CNN’s Anderson Cooper teased colleague Randi Kaye for getting a contact high while reporting on “ganjapreneurs” in a pot smoke-filled limousine.

“Clearly, mistakes were made.”

When New Jersey Governor Chris Christie used the phrase "clearly, mistakes were made" to make his non-apology apology for the closing down of access lanes on the busy George Washington Bridge by top aides as part of a political vendetta, he joined the ranks of some of the United States' most elite politicians.

The famous phrase is used so often by scandal-plagued presidents and administrations that William Safire, who has written and added to his book Safire's Political Dictionary for more than four decades, devoted an entire section to it.

How Safire describes the phrase:

mistakes were made: A passive-evasive way of acknowledging error while distancing the speaker from responsibility for it.

Here's a brief history of the company Christie now keeps.

"Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit it." —Ulysses S. Grant, addressing the scandals that plagued his two terms as president

National Archives

"We did not achieve what we wished, and serious mistakes were made in trying to do so." —Ronald Reagan, addressing the Iran-Contra affair in his sixth State of the Union address

National Achives

"Clearly, mistakes were made." —then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, also on the Iran-Contra affair

National Archives / Via news.google.com

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Irony is dead. h/t to Emily Atkin .

You may be familiar with Freedom Industries, the company responsible for leaving nearly 300,000 West Virginians without water, after a chemical spill at a storage facility on the Elk River in Charleston, W.V.

The spill began with a leak of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, a compound used to wash coal of impurities and was first-discovered a mile north of the facility.

Here's a photo of the polluted river.

AP Photo/Tyler Evert

Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the spill, also has an “Alaska Division.”

freedomindustriesalaska.com

Freedom Industries Alaska also has a blog, linked from their website, that includes this post about clean water, “something most of us take for granted,” touting the company’s “environmentally safe” products.

Via freedomindustries.blogspot.com

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Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee proves to non-Fox News watchers that The Five really is everything.

Fox News' The Five isn't in primetime, but it is regularly in the tops at the network in ratings. How does a political panel show that airs at 5 p.m. pull those kinds of numbers? Is it the in-depth political discussion or the wide ranging topics? The Daily Show's Samantha Bee has a theory, and it's all about the sexual tension on that News Corp ground floor set. Or as Bee likes to put it, "riding the boner train to Pound Town."

Truly, watch the whole clip.

hulu.com

Since 2009, Harry Baker has been fighting charges that he molested a 13-year-old girl in a Fresno motel. Baker has given more than $8,000 to Denham’s campaigns.

U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (R-CA).

Handout / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A donor who has given more than $8,000 to Republican Rep. Jeff Denham's congressional campaigns is dealing with an ongoing trial for charges that he molested a 13-year-old girl.

Harry Baker, a well-known former county supervisor in Denham's district, is currently on trial for a felony charge of committing a lewd act with a minor. He was arrested in 2009 for a 2007 incident where Baker allegedly fondled the girl's breasts and put his mouth on her chest. Baker has been fighting charge since then, and the trial was delayed several times on account of Baker's health. He is 86 and the owner of Sierra Telephone, a large company in Oakhurst, Calif.

The Fresno Bee reported that Baker's attorneys tried to have the molestation case dismissed, despite video evidence of Baker and the girl in a Fresno motel room. The lawyers argued that the girl and her parents set Baker up and secretly videotaped him in an attempt to blackmail him. The lawyers have argued the girl and her family were gypsies with criminal records. A judge ruled in September that the case could move forward because it was about "touching not extortion."

According to FEC filings, Baker maxed out by giving $5,200 donations to Denham's campaign on June 13th . He also gave $3,000 towards Denham's 2012 campaign. Denham appears to be the only lawmaker Baker has given contributions to.

Denham's office did not return several requests for comment regarding the donations. Baker's lawyers did not return requests for comment.

Baker has also had another recent bizarre run-in with the law: He was arrested last July for firing a gun in a hotel room, arguing it had gone off accidentally while he had been drinking.

Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas was speaking at a Heritage Foundation “conservation with conservatives” when he made the comments. The full audio of the conversation can be viewed here.

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Which one are you?

Nearly 17,000 people work on Capitol Hill!

Here are some types of staffers you are just bound to run into.

aoc.gov

Charlie Comms

Always on the phone screaming at a reporter or on a smoke break. Has a two liter of Diet Coke at desk. Always has an "urgent email" to check.

Via bamfstyle.wordpress.com

Life Ambition: To work here everyday.

whitehouse.gov

Wilber Wonky

Guy who breathes, sleeps, and invests in political games. Relates every discussion to politics. Typical conversation goes:

Co-worker: “How 'bout them Capitals last night?”
His response: “How' bout the polling in Texas 4th District?”

thehayride.com

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Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte said at a Senate hearing on the commercial use of drones Wednesday that she worried they could be used in divorce cases for surveillance. She added that drones would be more intrusive than a private detective

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“What do I know? I’m from a marginal district that they need to have, that talks to people on a regular basis. Whatever,” Rep. Schrader said. The New Democrats lunched with Denis McDonough today.

Via Facebook: repschrader

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader got into a bit of a tiff with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough at a lunch on Capitol Hill today over Obamacare messaging.

At a lunch with the New Democrat Coalition — a group of moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill — McDonough attempted to go over various data points about slowing cost growth in health care and different pieces of good news coming out of Obamacare. Schrader, however, tried to say none of that actually mattered when constituents were coming to him to complain about premium increases.

Sources described McDonough as being dismissive of Schrader's point. Schrader confirmed the details to BuzzFeed and, dripping with sarcasm, said "I'm sure he knows best."

"They feel confident about it, I'm not sure I share their approach and was told so," he said. "I'm sure he knows best. I'm just a little country veterinarian from a small town in the great state of Oregon. So what do I know? I'm from a marginal district that they need to have that talks to people on a regular basis. Whatever."

Schrader said his larger point to McDonough was that the White House was not doing enough to communicate about subsidy eligibility which would defray the cost of premiums for a lot of people that are experiencing sticker shock.

"What's not being told because of the roll out issue is how most people in America, 70 percent in my state, can qualify for subsidies. And they'll experience a lot less of an increase and that's the goal of the ACA in the long run is to minimize the increase in a long run," he said.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

“They’re there to compete. They’re not there to talk about their politics or their religion or anything else,” U.S. Olympic Committee CEO says. LGBT groups push back on comments “bordering on speech police.”

A view of Olympic rings near the resort of Krasnaya Polyana, near Sochi January 4, 2014.

Maxim Shemetov / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — With the Olympics less than one month away, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee made some of his strongest remarks yet urging athletes not to protest Russia's anti-LGBT laws at the Sochi Games — drawing rebukes from activists.

"They're there to compete. They're not there to talk about their politics or their religion or anything else. So for us, we really just want the attention focused on our athletes and their great competitions," USOC chief executive officer Scott Blackmun said in an interview with ESPN.

"We're hoping that our athletes feel very comfortable speaking their minds before they go to the Games. But when they get to the Games, that's really the time to focus on sport," he added.

"His comments were unnecessary and bordering on speech police. Mr. Blackmun: we do actually want athletes to speak out and you shouldn't be telling them not to. Don't put a muzzle on them," Human Rights Campaign vice president Fred Sainz told BuzzFeed.

Hudson Taylor, the executive director of Athlete Ally, also took issue with Blackmun's comments, specifically noting the International Olympic Committee own anti-discrimination policies — found in Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter.

"What's important to remember is that the Olympic Games are not just about competition. They are about values and principles," he told BuzzFeed. "Supporting Olympic Principle 6's commitment to LGBT inclusion in the face of Russia's laws is not mutually exclusive to focusing on the sport. In many ways, it's one and the same."

Mark Jones, a spokesman for the USOC, defended the remarks, telling BuzzFeed on Wednesday afternoon, "As you know, we recognize the seriousness of the issue and Scott has repeatedly said that the law is inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Olympic Movement. He was asked if we are encouraging athletes to protest at the Games."

All Out, another organization that has been pressing for the IOC to protect LGBT rights, pushed back, with co-founder Andre Banks telling BuzzFeed, "If the Sochi Olympics are focused on gay rights, it will be because the IOC and Olympic sponsors have not pushed harder on the Russian government to repeal it's anti-gay laws before the Games."

Of Blackmun's comments that the Olympics are not a time for politics, Banks added, "It's not about politics, it's about the fundamental principles that define the Olympic movement. Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter bars discrimination. Athletes who take that seriously should be considered true Olympians, not troublemakers."

Brian Ellner, a board member of Athlete Ally who has been working to increase the number of athletes supporting LGBT rights, noted that athletes have been speaking up and condemning Russia's anti-LGBT laws and that he expects that to continue, saying, "With billions around the world watching we anticipate that athletes and fans will choose to speak out for fairness at Sochi."

Sainz agreed: "We hope that athletes express their opinions in a manner that is in conformance with IOC rules. It would be a mistake not to speak up against the heinous laws and practices that are going on in Russia right now."

“It’s a trap!”

Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash appears to have gotten a great birthday present for his fellow libertarian-leaning member of the "Rebel Alliance," Kentucky Repubican Rep. Thomas Massie. On his Twitter feed, Massie posted a picture of a Lego Star Wars X-Wing he received from Amash for his birthday.

"To the best wingman in the Rebel Alliance," the card on the gift reads.

"Thanks @repjustinamash for the birthday gift! These are the droids we are looking for," Massie tweeted in response to the gift.

In a fundraising email on his birthday, Amash also called Massie a "true friend" and "a nerd."

Via Twitter: @RepThomasMassie

Obviously.

Rand Paul joined Snapchat today and as of this writing he's sent his first two snaps! The first was a short video with a friendly message:

Posture, senator. Posture!

But his next snap was a little different.

A butt joke about the NSA. So Rand Paul.

The Arizona senator takes issue with the paper’s report on the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens.

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