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Both will be 90 (Feinstein turns 85 before the end of the month, so she'll be 91) by the end of their next terms. This is madness - - people complain about Congress endlessly and yet the same tired senators are voted in over and over and over again.
Orin Hatch is retiring. Mitt Romney is his likely replacement.
Feinstein should retire but has decided that her voice is indispensable. Interestingly fellow Ca. Senator Barbara Boxer (who is younger by a decade) called it a career and passed the torch before the 2016 election.
Not sure why all these Senators chose to age or die in office. Especially when they are leaving their states without representation during their decline. My state one had two Senators whose ages combined to 180 years- Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings. When Fritz announced his retirement he said he didn't want to treat the US Senate as a retirement home like Strom had- ends up they were checking the old guy in and out of Walter Reed everyday...
I get the feeling many voters don't bother to look outside the box for new candidates. They simply vote what's familiar. And if you are a candidate and don't have a boatload of money for ads, nobody hears about you until your name ends up on a ballot. It's too late by then.
Both will be 90 (Feinstein turns 85 before the end of the month, so she'll be 91) by the end of their next terms. This is madness - - people complain about Congress endlessly and yet the same tired senators are voted in over and over and over again.
Outside of you being wrong since Hatch is retiring, your overall point is well taken.
However much of it depends on the cognitive ability of older people. Some are very sharp even if they do not possess the quick wit of their younger days.
One could also argue that they have experience that few others have. The problem comes in when they just keep someone of life support just to get a guaranteed vote, as what was done with people like Strom Thrumond or Robert Byrd. If I am not mistaken both were still in office at a point where they were walking vegetables.
This is not said to deride them personally, as they were blessed to have lived that long in relative health. But their minds had gone years before, and they should have retired to enjoy their golden years with family/friends.
So it really depends on the state of their minds more than anything. Some people get degenerative brain diseases much earlier, assuming they should have ever been elected in the first place. Yet there are plenty of sharp old people who can run circles around younger people from an intellectual standpoint.
Considering how our school systems are now educating our kids (i.e. lack thereof), many young people don't possess close to the knowledge, history and common sense as the older generations.
Outside of you being wrong since Hatch is retiring, your overall point is well taken.
Yes - - my reading comprehension skills of a chart were very subpar. Particularly embarrassing because I had read the stories about Hatch giving up the seat when it happened - - although I wouldn't put it past a politician to reneg on a promise.
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Particularly embarrassing because I had read the stories about Hatch giving up the seat when it happened - - although I wouldn't put it past a politician to reneg on a promise. 
