Posted on 02/11/2009 11:57:03 AM PST by Borges
Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) today becomes the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives in history, but his honor comes just as his colleagues have effectively declared that his time of grand power has passed.
As he eclipses the 53-year-and-two-month tenure of former congressman Jamie Whitten (D-Miss.), Dingell's 19,420-day career representing the western suburbs of Detroit has been remarkable not just in length but also in accomplishments. The 82-year-old held the gavel in 1965 when the House passed the legislation that created Medicare, he helped write the 1973 Endangered Species Act, and he led dozens of investigations into waste and abuse in federal agencies.
But the onetime chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, who is known for pointing to a satellite picture of Earth when asked about his committee's jurisdiction, is no longer the giant on Capitol Hill that he was. After the election last fall, House Democrats dumped Dingell as chairman of Energy and Commerce, where he had been the top Democrat for almost three decades. The fear was that Dingell would not act quickly to push through environmental legislation that could hurt the Detroit automakers he has long represented.
"He has represented Detroit, but he is out of touch with the country on this issue," said former congressman Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who added that Dingell's tenure "would go down in history as not only one of the longest but also one of the most dedicated."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Term limits for all of Congress! Please! Now, this would definitely be change that I can believe in!
A record of incompetence and chicanery unlikely to be matched, much less surpassed, in our lifetimes.
A perfect example of the career politician the Founding Fathers were trying to avoid.
He’s the longest serving in the House. Robert Byrd arrived in Congress in January 1953 for the last 17 days of the Truman Administration, 3 years ahead of Dingell, for 56+ years of total House and Senate service.
And just think, he arrived in the House a scant 121 years after the death of Adams and Jefferson and just 90 years after Lincoln’s assassination.
Every now and then, I just have to say “Norwood-Dingell.”
If I ever go on the lam, my alias will be Norwood Dingell.
Correction, 131 years...
And poor Charlie Norwood is dead now.
Dingell-berry is the longest hanging . . . uhhhh . . . substance . . . in the House?
No wonder the stench is increasing daily.
I'll second that. The voting public is supposed to be their term limits, but people don't care enough about congressional elections ... only presidential.
Roll him out the front door and dump him in the Potomac!
Yes, he managed to turn his home state into a third-world country.
NRA endorsed. Pro-gun to the core, NRA board of Directors.
That is till he gave it all up to vote for Clinton’s assault rifle ban in 1993. The dems flashed money for “crime control” in front of him and he caved along with Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
So because he is very liberal, we’re supposed to honor his alleged accomplishments???????
Depends on your viewpoint, doesn’t it? Good liberals love laws like the Endangered Species Act. Whereas conservatives think that legislation like that has had many negative impacts.
That's why we get these doddering old communist fools in charge of committees - if they represent a reliably Commie district, they can be re-elected ad infinitum.
The net result of the seniority system is that the filth floats up to the top of the bowl. Committee chairmen end up being the holders of "safe seats", which in turn leads to them being the most ideologically-extreme and partisan hacks imaginable. Can you say "Henry Waxman"? How about "Barney Frank"? That idiot, "Patrick Leahy". Also Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd, John Conyers, Charles Rangel, ad nauseum. All textbook examples of what's gone wrong with the Federal government...
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