Saturday, January 26, 2013

Tom Harkin announces his retirement


He plans to retire after this term. And so goes one of the finest Iowa Progressives.
Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who championed landmark legislation banning discrimination against people with disabilities, said Saturday that he would retire and not seek re-election to a sixth term next year.

The announcement from Mr. Harkin, 73, sets the stage for one of the most competitive Senate races in the country in the 2014 midterm elections. It will be a key contest in the Republican Party’s quest to win control of the chamber from Democrats.

“It’s not easy to walk away, but life is fleeting,” Mr. Harkin said in an interview Saturday. “I’ve had the privilege to be here for 40 years. Too many people hang on to power for too long, and that’s not right.”

In a Washington career that began in 1974 when he was elected to the House, followed a decade later by his elevation to the Senate, he was a forceful voice of populism. He said that his biggest achievement was passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, a bipartisan measure he advocated on behalf of his brother, Frank, who was deaf. He was also a leading proponent of overhauling the nation’s health care system.
Iowa is a state divided between adults like Sen. Harkin and the lunatic children like Rep. Steve "The Dumbest King In Congress" King. Let's hope the adults play this right.

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