WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- U.S. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, saying he's weary, announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election, ending a nearly 42-year career in Congress.
The 71-year-old Wisconsin Democrat, who at 30 was the youngest person in the House when he was first elected in 1969 to the seat that had been held by Melvin Laird, said it was time for him to retire.
"I think that along the way I have made a difference for the district and state that I represent and for the country," he said in a lengthy statement post on his Web site. "But there is a time to stay and a time to go. And this is my time to go. I hate to do it. There is so much that needs to be done.
"But, frankly, I am bone tired."
"I haven't done all the big things that I wanted to do when I started out, but I've done all the big things I'm likely to do."
Obey said he was "especially proud" of working against American colonialism in Central America and fighting budget cuts proposed by President Ronald Reagan, passage of the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 and healthcare reform.
"During my congressional service, I have also tried to do what I could to keep us out of misguided wars and I have fought to reform the political institutions -- especially, the Congress -- to improve the quality of their work and to strengthen public confidence in them," he said.
He also made a point of blasting the "misguided and disastrously destructive decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that have put the system of American elections on the auction block," and lamented short-sighted politicians and the withering U.S. news-gathering forces.
