Maryland Crab Bake

As I mentioned earlier this week, Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski is retiring after 5 terms in the Senate, and it was a thought at least that Martin O'Malley might put his Presidential aspirations on hold and take a shot at it.  Things move quickly in the Old Line State however, as Dem Rep. Chris Van Hollen represents the Maryland suburbs north of DC, and he's immediately thinking of moving up in the world.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told supporters Wednesday that he will run for Sen. Barbara Mikulski's (D-MD) Senate seat.

"I am writing to let you know that I have decided to run for the United States Senate from our great State of Maryland," Van Hollen wrote in the email to supporters. "I am very grateful to the citizens of Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District for the opportunity to represent them and want to thank the many Marylanders who, over the last 48 hours, have called, sent text messages, or emailed to urge me to run for the United States Senate. A more formal announcement will come later, but I wanted to let you know of my plans."

Van Hollen's announcement comes just a few days after Mikulski announced that she would not seek a sixth term in the Senate. Van Hollen has long been mentioned in Democratic circles as a rising star in politics and is seen as a possible future leader of the Democratic party in the House or perhaps a United States senator.

That means Van Hollen's prime real estate is up for grabs in MD-8, and as I said, things move fast.

Less than 24 hours after Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced his candidacy for outgoing Sen. Barbara Mikulski's (D-MD) Senate seat, there's already a Democrat running to take Van Hollen's House seat: Marriott International executive vice president Kathleen Matthews.

The news that Matthews—who is married to MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews—is running was first announced in Politico's Playbook on Thursday. Before joining Marriott, Matthews was an anchor for local television station WJLA ABC7.

She's been hinting at plans to run for office for a while now and has been outspoken on gay rights and sustainability, according to Playbook.

Tweety's wife running for the House?  It's a safe Dem district for sure, but that brings me to Van Hollen's disastrous run as DCCC chair from 2007-2010.  He's the guy that ran on putting Blue Dogs in the House in 2008, only to lose 63 seats in 2010 when that strategy utterly backfired.  And now he's failing upwards?

And as far as Kathleen Matthews goes, well...she married Tweety.  I already question her judgment.

Look, I know these seats need to stay blue, but this is a real opportunity to put, you know, actual Democrats into office and not career politicians with dollar signs and fame in their eyes.

I suppose even that is asking too much.