Posted on 06/02/2013 7:35:45 AM PDT by equaviator
Is 57 years too long?
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) entered the House in December 1955.
Out of the current 434 House members, 211 - nearly half - weren't born when Rep. John Dingell took office in December 1955. The Michigan Democrat is about to become the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history.
Roll Call reports that congressional leaders plan to honor Dingell, 86, for the longevity record. The celebration is set to take place June 13 in the Capitol's Statuary Hall. On June 7, Dingell will have served for 57 years, five months and 26 days, surpassing the service record of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.).
Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), announced the plans to celebrate Dingell and noted more details would be made available closer to the event's date.
Dingell came to Congress during President Dwight Eisenhower's first term after winning a special election to succeed his father, John Dingell, Sr., who had served since 1933. The younger Rep. John Dingell still uses his father's office furniture and every session continues to introduce legislation to provide national health insurance.
Then-House Speaker Pelosi borrowed Dingell's gavel when the House passed the Democrats' health care bill in March 2010 - Obamacare - the same gavel Dingell used when he presided over the passage of Medicare in 1965.
For 16 years Dingell was chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, from 1981 to 1995 and from 2007 to 2009. He grew his jurisdiction to the point that his committee handled up to 40 percent of all House bills.
Over his more than half-century on Capitol Hill Dingell's voting record has generally been that of a liberal Democrat. Throughout his career he has been a leading congressional supporter of organized labor, social welfare measures and traditional progressive policies. But Dingell's not easy to pigeon-hole ideologically. On some issues he reflects the conservative values of his largely Catholic and working-class suburban district, which stretches from Detroit's western suburbs to Ann Arbor. Dingell supported the Vietnam War until 1971.
And though he backed the Johnson Administration's civil rights bills, he opposed expanding school desegregation to Detroit suburbs via mandatory busing. He takes a fairly moderate position on abortion. He has worked to balance clean air legislation with the need to protect manufacturing jobs.
She worked at GM for a long time doing “lobbying”.
Are they going to lower the white hood on Byrd's headstone to half-staff in honor of this occasion?
That is too damn long.
While Dingell is not the worst Democrat there is, you would be hard pressed to compare his Detroit district in 1955 to today as justification for his longevity.
If John Dingell married former Wash DC mayor Marion Barry, he’d be John Dingell - ........
“I don’t think our forefathers ever meant for people to go to Congress for the rest of their lives. I am a firm believer in Term Limits.”
Our forefathers never intended for election to Congress to be a full time job. They expected Congressmen would be prominent members of the community who would have a stake in the vitality of their home areas and know the people they served. Today’s Congressmen are servants of the institutions and wealthy individuals who fund their campaigns. They reside full time inside the beltway where they do not have to rub shoulders with the average citizens of their districts. Most do not own property or businesses in their districts so they have no economic stake in the vitality of their communities. Our legislators have more in common with each other than they have with the people they purport to represent. They behave accordingly.
I’m wondering when it was that he went from being a ‘working’ politician to being just a figurehead.
Bump and bump!
Is that something like becoming the oldest in a brothel?
Example: "He (Dingell) takes a fairly moderate position on abortion."
Is that like being a fairly moderate bit pregnant?
Dingell is a "moderate" Democrat like John McCain is a "conservative" Republican, Mr. Writer.
Journalism today is a travesty....and has willingly acquired a very bad name. For instance, one doesn't even know which evil to root for in today's hot news, the mediawhore collective vs. the IRS.
It's like trying to align oneself with one evil over another in the war between Assad and the Syrian muslim brotherhood rebels.
The MSM, either through marxist ideological propaganda or sheer stupidity and ineptitude, is no longer the Fourth Estate but the Fifth Column within our Republic.
Leni
I agree with all of that.
Two terms in the house, two in the senate, two as governor, two at each level of state government are enough for anyone. It gets them out before they can establish the network they need to rob us.
TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!
Something tells me thats not a good thing.
“The MSM, either through marxist ideological propaganda or sheer stupidity and ineptitude, is no longer the Fourth Estate but the Fifth Column within our Republic.”
Nice turn of phrase and well put. A Fifth Column indeed.
I have no doubts that his nap times are very productive. In fact, I bet he doesn't need to actually do anything at all to get quite a lot done and he has no idea what he did and signed.
Dingle is a well oiled tool that's being used effectively to take the Republic apart. And you and I pay his salary and benefits.
Dingle and Bloomberg are the embodyment for the argument embracing term limits.
He is possibly the dumbest as well.
;)
“Dingell came to Congress during President Dwight Eisenhower’s first term after winning a special election to succeed his father [!!!!!], John Dingell, Sr., who had served since 1933.”
Apparently, none but the Dingell family are capable of representing this District -— or so say the “voters” of the District over and over again since 1933.
California was already headed to Dem majority when term limits were enacted.
Now that they have to get out, the Republicans at least have a chance to run someone.
Republicans have no chance at all against Dem incumbents.
I would be willing to give up term limits if the public employee unions who are really running the state and deciding every election were banned by law. As they should be.
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