It's not easy being a House Democrat.

The party's perky, youthful 60- and 70-year olds are in open revolt against the party's decrepit, doddering 80-year olds as they seek to sort out who gets which committee seat.

According to an unintentionally funny story from Axios:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' (D-N.Y.) members are breaking ranks and trying to shove aside older colleagues for top committee spots.

Why it matters: The impending Trump administration has given some Democrats a foothold to argue that the party can't manage another two years under gerontocracy.

• "There is growing anxiousness among younger members to get their chance," one senior House Democrat told Axios.
• "Some of them need to be put out to pasture," a ranking House Democrat said of their party's committee leaders.

By younger, they mean 60- and 70-year olds.

Axios continues:

The challengers aren't young either, but they're all going after Democratic committee leadership members in their late 70s.

• Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), 60, is challenging Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), 76, as ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee. Grijalva announced a cancer diagnosis in April and said he won't seek reelection.
• Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), 72, is trying to unseat Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), 79, as the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. Scott's health has long been a concern and he has been absent the last two weeks.
• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), 61, will announce Monday whether he runs to unseat Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), 77, as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Axios first reported.

Fox News's Elizabeth MacDonald had a master tweet the other day as to why this is happening:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 'sclerotic patronage' system which has now lost Democrats three elections, is why the jurassics remain in power. (We see a similar dynamic in the Senate with Mitch McConnell's crew running the show there, even though Republican voters gave them a Trumpian majority. Like Nancy, Mitch may have stepped down from the leadership position but he isn't going anywhere.)

So, we see the 70 year-olds challenging the 80 year-olds for power, which looks a little Chernenko-like.

But the youth wing of the Democrats are another reason the Democrats are in such big trouble. The "squad" of far left and socialist crazies is the alternative from that direction, running on a no-win platform of unworkable ideas, failing the world over, every time they are tried.

Axios reported this battle for a committee chairmanship here:

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) decisively defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) to win reelection to her Democratic leadership role spearheading the party's political messaging.

Why it matters: The battle for the chairmanship of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee was the only contested election for a slot in House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' (D-N.Y.) leadership team.

• Jeffries and other top Democratic leaders were all reelected by acclamation Tuesday morning.

Driving the news: Dingell defeated Crockett 152 to 59, according to two House members who were at Democrats' closed-door caucus meeting.

Dingell is 71. Crockett is 43.

But Crockett, if anything, is even nuttier than the squad. That's the other reason the 60- and 70-year olds are so restless. They want "their" turn and they are being squeezed from both directions. Hence, the revolt, a fight over scraps in a thrashing, already-defeated party, while President Trump and his youthful team of non-swamp reformers sail onward.

What a lovely bunch of losers.

Image: PxHere / CCO public domain