Just think, this time next week it (the mid-term elections) will be over. Oh, the humanity!!!

A few rascals will be have been thrown out. The majority, because of the way districts are stacked, will be coming back to Washington thanks to you. Thanks for that!!!

Once the last last political ad checks are processed (mainly by TV stations), the media can resume it righteous decades-old campaign against excessive campaign spending. It will point out how much local TV spending money came from outside the district or state itself. Shocking!

By some estimates, Democrats, the GOP and independents shelled out more than $2 billion this year, although that figure may be low. By a lot!

Many relatively small TV markets, from Iowa to Maine, got lots of money this year. In some cases, more than they normally take in in a regular year. Now they are gearing up for the 2016 campaign. It started, when the polls closed.

Just as we don’t know where we are heading politically, most of us maybe aren’t sure about where we’ve been, much less where we are now. To help with a little trip down memory lane, we talked with Rep. Frank Wolf, who is leaving this year — on his own steam — after three decades in Congress. Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, represents a district that if full of active and retired federal workers and military personnel.

Wolf came into Congress in an era when, Democrats and Republicans worked together. When a Democratic President tried to low-ball the pay raise due white collar civil servants, Wolf would lead a bipartisan coalition of House-Senate members to get workers a bigger pay raise. When Republicans controlled the White House, he would join in a bipartisan coalition, led by House Minority leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Another member of that bipartisan team, Jim Moran of Virginia is also retiring this year. Both are Democrats. But you wouldn’t have known the party affiliation of Wolf, Hoyer or Moran when getting the best deal for feds was the issue.

For many years, party politics aside Republicans and Democrats in heavy federal population centers worked together. The idea was to make sure their constituents didn’t get the short end of the stick just because they worked for the government.

In the first half of today’s Your Turn radio show we’ll talk with Wolf, getting an insider’s view of the way it was, and why we are where we are now. That’s 10 a.m. EDT streaming at federalnewsradio.com or in the D.C. area on 1500 AM. After talking with Wolf we’ll go from past and present to the future, as in what’s next for feds. Our guest will be Janet Kopenhaver who tracks legislation-aimed-at-feds for Federally Employed Women. The show will be archived on our home page so you can listen anytime. Check it out for both a history lesson of where we we’ve been, how we got here and where this political train is heading on your track.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

By Michael O’Connell

Annual worldwide video game revenue is projected to hit $111 billion in 2015.

Source: Gartner

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