Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Tom Lantos announces retirement

This morning Democratic Congressman and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Lantos, announced that he will not be seeking reelection to the House due to cancer in his esophagus. He has been in Congress since 1981 and is known best for being a Holocaust survivor, an advocate for human rights, and a supporter of Bush's war policy and the war in Iraq.

If he had chosen to run again, he would be running against Jackie Speier in this years Congressional election.

How do you think this will affect Congress? I feel that it will be a huge loss because he has been a very effective and well respected Congressman over the past 27 years; however, it will also window of opportunity for someone with differing opinions on the war in Iraq.

1 comment:

Scott Silton said...

Jackie Speier (D) will almost certainly coast to victory in both the primary and general elections, although Leland Yee might give her a scare in the primary if he chooses to run. She's not a hawk like Lantos, and she'll have less clout than Lantos did as committee chair, but she has significant experience in the CA legislature -- she was term-limited out of both the State Assembly and Senate -- and should make for a competent if not outstanding US Representative.