Senate Agriculture Committee

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy Will Retire At End Of 2022, After Serving As Third Longest Serving Senator!

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Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy will retire at the end of his 8th Senate term at the end of 2022, after an amazing 48 years in the upper body of Congress!

He will leave office as the third longest serving US Senator in the 234 years of that historic institution, only behind Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who served 51.5 years, and Democrat Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who served just short of 50 years.

At the moment, he is fourth longest serving, behind Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who served 47 years and a bit more than 5 months, which Leahy will pass in June 2022.

Leahy just passed Democrat Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts in total service in late October 2021.

Leahy is the last member of Congress elected in 1974, and the only sitting Senator to have served while Gerald Ford was President, and also to have served while Jimmy Carter was President.

Leahy is the only Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont, as Bernie Sanders always ran as an Independent. Leahy is easily the longest serving Vermont Senator as well.

Leahy has been, in his long career, Chairman of the Agriculture, Judiciary, and Appropriations Committees, and is President Pro Tempore of the Senate, third in line of Presidential succession.

Leahy also presided over the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump in 2021.

Had Leahy chosen to run for an unprecedented 9th term, he would easily have been reelected and in 2026, would have become the longest serving US Senator ever!

Leahy is a premier liberal and progressive throughout his career, and will be nearing the age of 83 when he retires at the beginning of 2023.

Leahy is a great figure in the history of the Senate, and will be missed when he leaves office!

The Imminent Loss Of A True Statesman From The US Senate: Richard Lugar Of Indiana

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With 24 hours to go, it seems imminent that Indiana Senator Richard Lugar is about to lose his Republican primary for a seventh term to a Tea Party right wing extremist.

If this happens, as expected, it will be a true tragedy not only for Lugar, but also for Indiana, and for the wish for bipartisanship and principle in the US Senate.

Lugar has been in the Senate for 36 years, after serving as Mayor of Indianapolis, and while he is a strong conservative, he has never resorted to reckless statements or crazy viewpoints, always keeping his dignity and image as a person willing to cross the aisle and work with opposition Democrats.

The fact that he cooperated with a new Senator, Barack Obama, in 2005-2006, on working to avoid the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons on a world wide basis, now is being held against him.

The fact that he has occasionally supported the President on a few issues, not many, was enough to make people angry in his right wing Republican state.

The National Rifle Association is against him; Lugar has supported the DREAM Act on immigration; and he supported the two Supreme Court nominees of Barack Obama.

Lugar was twice Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and twice Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and if the Republicans won the Senate in 2012 and Lugar won, he would be Senate President Pro Tempore, third in line of succession to be President of the United States.

Of course, Lugar’s age, 80, could be used against him, but he is a very vigorous, energetic 80, and is seen by many as a brilliant statesman in his major area of interest, foreign policy.

But the GOP of 2012 is sadly controlled too much by the Tea Party and other right wingers, and the only good thing that might come out of a defeat of Richard Lugar is the takeover of the seat by a Democrat, Congressman Joe Donnelly, which would give his party a chance at keeping the Senate majority, a much endangered majority!