Ryan Costello is no longer serving in the United States Congress.
But he has not gone away.
In fact, you might say he's been more vocal than ever since departing Washington, D.C.
The middle-of-the-road Republican moderate was finding the nation's capital a fairly inhospitable place for those like him who didn't necessarily think bipartisan was a dirty word.
But those of that persuasion were finding themselves increasingly isolated in the era of Donald Trump and the extreme right turn the GOP was taking.
Then things got even more difficult. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed out the old congressional map - the one that made re-election for Costello and other southeastern Pa. Republicans pretty much a foregone conclusion. Then they decided to twist the knife a bit, creating a map of their own.
Costello took one look at the new map of his 6th District, which sits mostly in Chester County, and quickly determined his future was somewhere other than the House.
But in the days since he opted not to seek re-election, he's not been silent. He's been a steady presence on - of all places - MSNBC. He's been critical of Trump and other hard-line Republican conservatives.
Now he's joined forces with another former Republican member of Congress to push something that no doubt will rub a lot of his former Republican pals the wrong way.
It's a common-sense gun control bill that would do something gun control activists have been trying to do for years - eliminate the so-called gun show loophole and mandate that all gun transactions require a background check.
Yesterday it passed the House, but on what appears to be for the most part a party line vote. In other words the measure did not get much in the way of support from the GOP. Ironically, the bill likely passed because Costello and other Republican House members were replaced by Democrats who now control the House.
It now goes to the Senate, which remains in the hands of the GOP.
The measure will face a much tougher road there.
We talk about it on today's editorial page.
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