Obey steps down.

[applecorped]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/05/david-obey-to-retire.html?hpid=topnews

"House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.), a liberal lion first elected at the height of the Vietnam War in 1969, announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election in November -- a blow to Democratic chances of holding his northern Wisconsin seat. At an emotional press conference in the committee's chambers -- with his wife and children behind, sitting underneath the chairman's portrait -- Obey said he was "bone tired" after a life of public service dating to joining the Wisconsin legislature in 1962.
"There is a time to stay and a time to go. And this is my time to go," Obey said.
Duffy, a one-time cast member of the MTV reality show "Real World", had garnered national attention from party leaders -- including former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R), who endorsed his candidacy last month."

[applecorped]

**edit, Obey.

[dudalb]

I am betting in a few weeks we will be finding out there are real health issues involved.

[Darth Rotor]

Will Honor step down next?

Mark Twain wept. I associated Honor and Congress in the same thought.

My bad.

DR

[applecorped]

Good luck to Nigeria!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/world/africa/07nigeria.html

"Goodluck Jonathan, a mild mannered academic, formally took over the presidency in the capital, Abuja, just hours before his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/y/umaru_yaradua/index.html?inline=nyt-per), was buried in the northern stronghold of Katsina to chants of “God is great” from the crowd."

His wife is very patient I hear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodluck_Jonathan).

[Brainster]

I am betting in a few weeks we will be finding out there are real health issues involved.

I suspect he caught a case of anti-incumbent fever (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/05/david-obey-wisconsin.html). Nearly always (politically) fatal.

Obey's departure prompted political forecasters to move Wisconsin's Seventh District into the toss-up category from the Democratic gimme it's been for two generations. And it also raised spirits among Republicans as a signal that such a powerful Democratic chairman might be detecting some November political handwriting that he was about to lose his chair. And, thus, opt to go out on top.

Despite easy and repeated re-elections over the years, Obey's recent poll numbers showed him to be vulnerable in the current anti-incumbent political environment when the word Congress has become another eight-letter barnyard epithet.