The sudden retirement of Byron Dorgan from the Senate has people wondering whether North Dakota’s at-large Congressman, Earl Pomeroy, can survive what appears to be a very bad year for Democrats.  Pomeroy himself angrily scolded the Democratic leadership in Congress last week for dragging out the ObamaCare mess so long that he may as well have just retired.  Now it looks as though Pomeroy may have planned a golden parachute out of his seat:

“Several high-profile Democrats, including North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy and former Sen. Bob Kerrey (Neb.), are said to be in the running to fill former Oklahoma Republican Gov. Frank Keating’s post as CEO and president of the American Council of Life Insurers,” Roll Call (subscription) reports.

Rob Port at the Dakotas blog Say Anything says that Pomeroy previously denied doing this very thing:

The national life insurance industry, long big-money contributors to Earl Pomeroy’s campaigns, quickly dusted off a job for him but Rep. Pomeroy denied seeking it. …

Note that it isn’t ACLI courting Pomeroy.  It’s Pomeroy actively running to be CEO of ACLI.

So is Rep. Pomeroy staying in the House race?  And did he like to North Dakotans about seeking this job?  Is he waiting to see whether or not he gets the job before he decides to continue his campaign?

And guess who also works at ACLI?  Kim Dorgan — the wife of the retiring Senator.  My, my … isn’t that cozy?  North Dakota politics is often called insular, but this looks like a political version of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

Democrats Dorgan and Pomeroy have represented North Dakota in the Senate and House since the 1980s [Update: Pomeroy was first elected in 1993 — my apologies for the error].  It looks like change is coming to the red state of North Dakota, and both men are doing their best to seek shelter from the storm.