Very Retiring Republicans
BARNES, FRED
Very Retiring Republicans They’d rather quit than fi ght. BY FRED BARNES Democrats John Conyers, John Dingell, and Charles Rangel were in the wilderness from 1994 to 2006, the years of...
...He was 80...
...This is a serious problem for Republicans in the 2008 election...
...Knowing that his goal was to be Ways and Means chairman, she urged him to stay in Congress and said she and the boys would live in Washington...
...His strong relationship with Rangel, the new chairman, gave him encouragement...
...Tom Reynolds of New York is 57 and has been in elective offi ce for 35 years...
...Reynolds was minority leader in the state assembly when he was talked into running for the House...
...That left McCrery with a minimal role and little hope of a larger one any time soon...
...But that’s gone...
...But his talents have been underappreciated by Virginia Republicans...
...If that happens, Republicans could do as well in 2010 as they did in 1994...
...So he’ll take a private sector job, probably in Washington...
...He rebuffed pleas by President Bush and Vice President Cheney that he run for reelection...
...And when Rangel became chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee last year, he was 76...
...It just seemed like the right time [to retire],” he says...
...It was his second stint as committee chairman...
...Dingell got back the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he’d held earlier for 14 years...
...I’m a conservative Republican in a moderate district in a liberal state,” Reynolds says...
...The result: They moved and he ran and won...
...If I thought I had a better than 5050 chance of being chairman next year, I’d run,” he says...
...tisan summits” that brought together Republican and Democratic House members, with their spouses and children, at a retreat outside Washington...
...He was a member of the Republican class of 1998 and rose to become part of the House leadership and chairman of the campaign arm of the House Republicans...
...Those are the kinds of things where people develop relationships beyond Congress,” he said...
...Might these Republicans one day regret their decision to retire...
...House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had ruled out any compromise with Republicans on these issues...
...But he’s not running precisely because he doesn’t think that...
...He calls it “a sabbatical...
...Charlie and I made some progress working together” on overhauling Social Security and the tax code, McCrery says...
...Four have already quit, resigning rather than fi nishing out their fi nal term...
...The Dealmaker...
...But his wife, who lived with his two sons in their home in Shreveport, intervened...
...The Pol...
...The idea was to spur bipartisanship, which LaHood says is “the only way to get things done...
...Ray LaHood of Illinois says his favorite time in the House was when he co-chaired four “biparFred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Defeating incumbents is diffi cult, but open seats are easier for the opposition party to win...
...They believe the prospects of a Republican revival in the foreseeable future are exceedingly poor...
...Now Republicans in the House have the opposite expectation...
...He spent four months in 2007 negotiating secretly with Rangel...
...LaHood and his Democratic co-chair tried to organize a fi fth one in 2003, but “the sentiment to do a big retreat was not there...
...I ran for Congress to be in the majority, and I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it...
...But that’s not why he’s leaving...
...LaHood’s district is famous, having been represented by Abraham Lincoln, Everett Dirksen, and Bob Michel...
...If he had to wait 12 years, as the Democrats did, he’d be 70 before his shot at the Ways and Means chairmanship— too long...
...This time, after 20 years in Congress, he’s not changing his mind...
...We can do it, but I don’t think it’s a quick fi x.” The Moderate...
...When Democrats took over after the 2006 election, McCrery, 57, fi gured he could still play a signifi cant role on major issues like Social Security and tax reform and perhaps even Medicare...
...Jim McCrery of Louisiana, the senior Republican on Ways and Means, came close to retiring in 2004...
...It’s no fun...
...Prospects for the ’08 election reversing the Democratic majority don’t look particularly bright,” he says...
...They endured the shame of being in the minority...
...If I’m going to leave, this is the right time, the time to do something else...
...To win the House again, Republicans will have to build up their party in New England, New York, and the Upper Midwest, Reynolds says...
...BY FRED BARNES Democrats John Conyers, John Dingell, and Charles Rangel were in the wilderness from 1994 to 2006, the years of Republican rule of the House of Representatives...
...Elected in 1994, he says, “I don’t like being in the minority...
...Davis, 59, was also elected in 1994 and fi nds his fi rst taste of minority status unappealing...
...He has three kids in college, he says, “and two more years in the House is not going to help my marketability...
...His face became well known when he presided over the House impeachment of President Clinton...
...Here are the stories of four Republicans who are retiring...
...Then Democrats regained control of the House, and, at age 77, Conyers became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee...
...Tom Davis of Virginia is one of the smartest politicians in either party and a shrewd analyst of political trends...
...The fi rst in 1995 drew 200 members, 150 spouses, and 100 kids...
...The retirees have created an unusually large number of open Republican seats, exciting Democrats...
...But the last summit was held in 2001...
...The Uniter...
...The House today, he says, “is not a very nice place to be...
...Frankly, I’m 62 and I want to get out of the rat race...
...His misfortune was to have had the campaign post in 2006...
...But the party decided on a nominating convention to thwart him, and Davis, who had the best chance of keeping the seat for Republicans, bowed out...
...He was ready to run for the open Virginia Senate seat this year and use a primary to build statewide recognition...
...And times have changed, especially in New York...
...Then Rangel informed him that their efforts were for naught...
...So 30 of them, including some of the party’s brightest stars, are retiring...
...McCrery muses about a failed Barack Obama presidency, pulled down by tax hikes and excessive spending and too many favors for organized labor...
...What kept them from retiring after 1994 was their expectation that Democrats would win back the House quickly (they were wrong about that...
...Democrats might reapportion him out of a district in 2012 and, besides, “I never intended to serve in Congress in my 70s...
Vol. 13 • June 2008 • No. 41
