Cincinnatus, Where Art Thou?

I usually avoid the political posts, but I can't help asking: Does anyone leave Washington?  A great many politicians spend a substantial amount of their time making clear that they're just in this town temporarily; that they're in it, not of it; that the great evil of politics is the "Washington politician" and the menagerie of hangers-on in and out of government that surround him or her.  And when the time comes to retire from electoral politics, is it back to the plough, a la Cincinnatus, or for that matter a la George Washington?  No: it's time to "relocate to Virginia, living closer to Washington to help make a 'successful transition' from public to private life," and to "open 'new chapters' and to 'engage in the important cultural and political battles of our day from outside the arena of the United States House of Representatives'" -- a chapter that I am ready to assume will involve a decent salary hike.  This from a man whose wife once called Washington a "mean town" and said she hated the culture of the city.

Three caveats: 1) Not everyone who is in politics in Washington criticizes "Washington politicians."  I object less to one position or the other than I do to the screaming inconsistency of hating the town and hating to leave it.  2) I don't have some great DeLay quote criticizing Washington and saying he longs to get back to Texas; I didn't feel like the kind of Nexis time that would yield one.  (Feel free to supply one in the comments section, if you like.)  Yet, although DeLay is a consummate Washingtonian, a lover of the political industry, the opposite of a regular guy living a regular life, I feel secure in saying that populism and anti-Washington rhetoric have been central aspects of his public political approach.  3) Some folks leave.  I'm thinking, for example's sake, of Senator Boren, who returned to Oklahoma to head the university, if I remember correctly. 

Perhaps more people should.  As I've observed before, the tragic dilemma, for some (and only some) federalists, champions of smaller central government and an increased role for local democracy centered around the states, is that it entails actually living in them -- and there is no doubt that many of them would quietly agree, to paraphrase Underneath Their Robes, that the states are "ghetto."  Anyone who has ever coped with the DFW airport knows that, if you want to connect quickly to flights to a variety of top-ranked golf courses, you're better off flying through Reagan or Dulles.  In any event, add Mr. DeLay to the ranks of folks who came to Washington vowing to change its ways, and ended up changing only their addresses.