Congress is broken, he said, and badly needs to be reformed, though it's not clear how he can advance that cause by leaving. There have been a lot of congressional retirements this year. Many Democrats are disillusioned about their failure to pass health care reform, despite having large majorities in both House and Senate.
Then, two days ago, it was John Dingell's turn to make an announcement. Dingell has served in the House longer than any man in history. He was first elected, by the way, thirteen days before Evan Bayh was born. Dingell isn't the oldest man ever to serve in Congress; Strom Thurmond turned a hundred on the job. Dingell will be a mere 84 in July. Still, he's had a hip replaced in the last few years, knee surgery and two heart operations.
Additionally, he was humiliated last year when his fellow Democrats voted to take the chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee away from him, something that was a slap at the now-weakened auto industry as much as at Dingell.
Nobody, then would have been especially surprised if John Dingell also decided to retire. Nobody, that is, except for the folks who know him. Guess what: Dingell isn't planning on going anywhere. "Now is not the time to walk away," he said.
National health care was a priority of Dingell's father, when he was a congressman back in the 1930s. His son isn't about to give up, especially now that a serious health care bill has come so far.
"I think it is time for all hands on deck," Dingell said, before addressing a group of college Democrats in Ypsilanti. The nation is facing a lot of challenges, and he thinks he can use his seniority and experience to help get things done. Nor does he intend to let his physical limitations get him down.
The day after his announcement, Dingell was back in Washington, lobbying the Senate to stop dragging its collective feet on a food safety bill the House passed in March.
Food safety, like other consumer protections, has been a cause of Big John's for a long time. In a sense, it is hereditary. There is a famous photograph of FDR signing the Social Security Act in 1935.
Standing over his shoulder is one of the bill's main sponsors, Congressman John Dingell. Not this Dingell, but his dad.
Father and son have represented Michigan's Fifteenth District for a combined seventy-seven years now. The younger Dingell first got to Congress in a special election after his father died in 1955.
Before that, he was a house page as a boy, and was on the floor when President Roosevelt made his famous 'day of infamy' speech declaring war against Japan.
Now it needs to be said that nobody's reelection is automatic, and that Republicans are making noises about fielding a serious challenger. But odds are that Big John will still be there next year.
"I creak a little more each year," he said recently, "but I still give my people a full day's work. I still work hard on legislation."
He isn't going gentle into any good night.
And I think you've got to admire that.
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