Posted on 05/05/2010 10:14:01 AM PDT by Artemis Webb
WASHINGTON – Rep. David Obey, a leading liberal Democrat and chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, intends to retire at the end of his term this year, Democratic sources said Wednesday. It is another blow to Democrats defending their majority in an election season of voter discontent.
Obey, 71, won the first of 21 terms in 1969 from Wisconsin — when a special election was held after President Richard Nixon tapped Melvin Laird to be his defense secretary. He faced a potentially bruising re-election campaign this fall.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Another one bites the dust..
21 terms is way too long.
You know when a powerful Democrat like this in a liberal blue state calls it quits, that a political tsunami of epic proportions is brewing.
Another reason why we need term limits!
This is big and offers a great opportunity for a GOP pick up. Obey was not facing a walk in the park this time around.
Wasn’t Obey a character in “Star Wars”??
A 2nd Tier Race that may need to be watched.
Filing deadline is July and primary is Sept. 14, so there’s plenty of time for a Dem free for all.
Not necessarily this time. Independents around here are really mad about healthcare and spending, and hold Pelosi, Obey and the House Dems responsible more than anyone else.
(Can't take credit for that, but I don't remember which FReeper I stole it from.)
Wisconsin ping
Can't blame this on Bush!
All I know is that there is a young 38 year old GOP DA by the name of Sean Duffy that is running against him as stated in the above article.
There's also Dan Mielke, who is a farmer and anything but a prettyboy. I like Mielke a little better, but he doesn't have party establishment support. I think either one would be fine as a congressman; Duffy probably better as a candidate.
Is it merely that he recognizes that the odds were against him in the coming election campaign? Is it that he is getting on in age? Or could it be, could it conceivably be, that the heart has gone out of him because he realizes he is on the wrong side of right and wrong?
All these years Obey has been an apologetic and pitiless liberal bent on imposing his will on the American people. But I bet he believes he always acted in the best interests of the people and that he was on the side of the good guys. I bet he always believed he was in the right but the Republicans and conservatives were on the wrong side. Doubtless, Obey confirmed his self-righteousness with the conviction that the Democrats were right on the issue of race and the conservatives were wrong. In other words, no conservative or Republican was worthy of respect because they are racists. No matter how absurd, no matter how far departed from common sense became the policy of his party, Obey held in faith to the belief that he was right on race and the other side was wrong and this faith no doubt sustained him.
Could it be that this construct is breaking down of its own weight? After all, the country put a black man in the Oval Office. But Obey has seen that man shamelessly play the race card to mask a series of lies and flagrant missteps in the management of the country's affairs. Obey has seen, but does he recognize, that President Obama has imposed on America, with Obey's connivance, a stimulus package that has not worked and a health-care reform that cannot work? Does nobody understand that he and Obama have left America very much worse than they found it? Has the heart left the man for the fight in which he must tell the world what he knows is simply not true.
Is the grasp of power no longer worth the lie? Is the game no longer worth the candle? Has Obey begun in his declining years to worry more about his eternal soul and less about the accoutrements of power? Has he just grown tired of the whole charade?
Or will he merely slither into retirement as benighted in his 70s as he was in his 30s? Is the sum total of his whole life and career that he has learned nothing apart from the mechanics of power? Will he go to his grave believing the whole liberal lie while denying the evidence of his eyes?
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