We were talking about this on another thread.
I don’t see any imperative to remove him, especially if the best reason is “he’s old so he might die”. Maybe I imagined this but I seem to remember something about some candidate that ran against one of the really old members of Congress making age an issue, losing, and then dying shortly after the election while the old guy lived on.
Anyway, he ain’t a RINO. The last time beating Ralph Hall was something that should have been on anyone’s to do list was in 2002, his last election as a democrat.
I seriously doubt he’s not sincere in saying he doesn’t plan to run again in 2016. I’d rather see an open field in 2016 rather than just handing it off to this Ratcliffe guy. Shrug.
The story of which you’re thinking relates to the 1984 U.S. Senate election in SC. Strom Thurmond was 81 years old, and his Democrat opponent, Melvin Purvis (son of the famous FBI agent of the same name), who was in his 40s, made a big deal about Thurmond’s age and how “South Carolina deserves a Senator who would be healthy for all six years of the term.” Well, Thurmond squashed Purvis in the general, and within two years Purvis was dead of a heart attack, while Thurmond continued serving in the Senate until past his 100th birthday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_South_Carolina,_1984