Longest-serving congressman retiring; frustrated over partisanship

Rep. John Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history, announced Monday that he plans to retire — partly because of frustration over the bitter partisanship dividing the legislature and the country.

The 87-year-old Michigan Democrat, who was fiercely protective of Detroit's auto industry, has served in the House of Representatives since winning his late father's seat in 1955. He became the longest-serving Congress member on June 7, when he eclipsed the record held by the late Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

Frustration with partisan politics played into Dingell's decision to leave Capitol Hill. 

"I find serving in the House to be obnoxious," Dingell told The Detroit News. "It's become very hard because of the acrimony and bitterness, both in Congress and in the streets."

In an address Monday, Dingell said Congress had succumbed to bickering instead of finding compromise. 

"This Congress has been a great disappointment to everyone — members, media, citizens and our country," Dingell said, according to prepared remarks. 

"Members share fault, much fault. The people share much fault, for encouraging a disregard of our country, our Congress and our governmental system."

He said people and their representatives need to realize they share their fate. "No one can say to a fellow American, 'Pardon me, your end of the boat is sinking.'"

His decision follows that of another veteran, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who announced his retirement in late January.

"I'm not going to be carried out feet first," Dingell told the News. "I don't want people to say I stayed too long."

He is a former chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee and is known for his skill at legislative deal-making and for his staunch support for the U.S. auto industry.

Dingell has played a role in a number of major pieces of legislation, including President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and Medicare.

Dubbed "Big John" for his imposing 6-foot-3-inch frame and sometimes intimidating manner — a reputation bolstered by the wild game heads decorating his Washington office — Dingell has served with every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"Presidents come, and presidents go," former President Bill Clinton said in 2005, when Dingell celebrated 50 years in Congress. "John Dingell goes on forever."

Dingell had a front-row seat for the passage of landmark legislation, including Medicare, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, all of which he supported.

“Our air, land and water are cleaner, our health better and our environmental protections stronger, thanks to John Dingell's remarkable leadership over more than a half-century," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental lobby. 

But he was accused of stalling the Clean Air Act to help auto interests. His hometown, the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, was home to a Ford Motor Co. factory that was once the largest in the world.

One of his proudest moments came in 2010, when he sat next to Obama as the $938 billion health care overhaul was signed into law. Taking up his father's cause, Dingell introduced a universal health care coverage bill in each of his terms.

For 14 years he chaired the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees industries from banking and energy to health care and the environment. He also led its investigative arm, which produced several high-profile cases.

He often has used his dry wit to amuse his friends and sting opponents. Even when he was in a hospital in 2003 after an operation to open a blocked artery, he maintained his humor.

"I'm happy to inform the Republican leadership that I fully intend to be present to vote against their harmful and shameless tax giveaway package," he said from the hospital.

His critics called him overpowering and intimidating. And the head of a 500-pound wild boar looking at visitors to his Washington office only boosted that reputation, as did the story behind it: Dingell is said to have felled the animal with a pistol as it charged him during a hunting trip in Soviet Georgia.

Yet the avid hunter and sportsman was hard to typecast. He loved classical music and ballet — his first date with his wife, Debbie, a prominent Democratic activist whom he affectionately introduced as "the lovely Deborah," was at a performance of the American Ballet Theater.

Born in Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 8, 1926, John David Dingell Jr. grew up in Michigan, where his father was elected to Congress as a New Deal Democrat in 1932. After a brief stint in the Army near the end of World War II, the younger Dingell earned his bachelor's and law degrees from Georgetown University.

After the sudden death of his father in September 1955, Dingell, then a 29-year-old attorney, won a special election to succeed him.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press