What is "the stock retirement speech"

[Hutingxi]

Katie Couric from CBS says recently in her notebook that
Eleven senators say they'll call it quits at the end of this term, and more than 30 members of the House have decided not to seek re-election.
Indiana's Senator Evan Bayh isn't the first lawmaker to cross that bridge.
But some say he went a step further and burned it. He didn't give the stock retirement speech the one about wanting to spend more time with the family.

I wonder what is "the stock retirement speech". Thank you for your attention.

 

[Barb_D]

When something is kept "in stock" is in part of your inventory. It's a metaphor in this case meaning these types of speeches are kept "on the shelf" and you can pull them down and use them any time. They are customized. They are all very similar to each other.

This Senator didn't say the same things the other say when the take their speech off the shelf.

 

[Hutingxi]

Thanks a million. By the way, what does Katie mean by "click away in the ether, when she writes the following in her notebook:

This weekend, the suicide of Marie Osmond's son Michael topped the entertainment sites. I generally don't read the comments section...but this time, unfortunately, I did. I saw cruel barbs, senseless sniping and opinions without portfolio from pseudonyms clicking away in the ether.​

 

[Barb_D]

People are who are typing in the anonymity that comes with "cyberspace."

She's saying that people can be horribly cruel, rude, and insensitive to the feelings of others when you can do it via the Internet -- things they would never say out loud when it would be their mouth speaking the words. But hey, once you're online and no one knows it's you - you can be a rude, vicious, and cruel as you want -- no one will ever find you.

 

[BobK]

:up: The 'ether' in question is this sort -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether - rather than the chemical sort. 'Clicking away' refers to the noise their keyboards make; in this use of 'away' there is no sense of direction, just a sense of continuousness.

b