Reply #9: Hyde Reportedly Considering Retiring at End of Term [View All]

[dzika]

March 16, 2005

Hyde Reportedly Considering Retiring at End of Term

By Dana Milbank and Amy Argetsinger

Rep. Henry J. Hyde has been in
the House since 1975 and has
chaired two committees.

House Republicans are widely expecting Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois to retire at the end of this term, ending one of the longest runs in the House of Representatives and shrinking the minority of GOP lawmakers who remember life in the minority.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported yesterday that Hyde, chairman of the International Relations Committee, would announce his retirement "in a few weeks." The paper didn't name its sources, and Hyde's aides said he has not made up his mind.

But House Republicans say Hyde, who came to Congress in 1975 and is the fourth-longest-serving from the GOP in the chamber, is more likely than not to retire. He will be 81 next month and has a bad back. "My body can't cash the checks my mind writes," he is fond of saying. (The chairman is evidently a fan of the film "Top Gun," which made famous the line "Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash.")

Also, because of House GOP rules term-limiting its committee chairmen, Hyde is about to lose his chairmanship, which would leave the elder statesman as a backbencher after years of leading the Judiciary or International Relations committees. It was as Judiciary Committee chairman that Hyde earned fame because of his leadership of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Hyde, an old-fashioned Midwestern Republican, took his impeachment role with reluctance, becoming an unlikely conservative icon.

A third factor making another campaign unattractive: Hyde's suburban Chicago district has become more Democratic, and his victory margins have been shrinking since the impeachment proceedings.

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