Rep. Ralph Hall defeated by John Ratcliffe, Washinton Post
“Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Tex.), the oldest-serving member of Congress and one of the last World War II veterans serving on Capitol Hill, became the first incumbent House lawmaker to lose a primary challenge this year by losing Tuesday night to a tea party-backed challenger.”
Keith’s note: I really like Ralph Hall. He has every marble he started out with – plus a few others – and always manages to pull the perfect joke out of his head – exactly when needed – and tells it perfectly – with proper timing. At 91 that’s just awesome. Even more importantly, he always seems to want to listen to the other side and work with them. That is increasingly rare (sadly). Although he’s often aw shucks about it, no one in Congress has been a stronger supporter of a thriving space program than Ralph Hall – certainly no one exceeds his support in terms of sheer longevity and persistence. His wit and perseverance will be missed when this session of Congress concludes.
Well said Keith. Ralph Hall has been a steadfast supporter of the space program broadly writ even when NASA has been unable to give him much to work with. He understands that it takes cooperation and collaboration to make things work. His departure will add to the growing void of a lack of leadership for the country in Congress. Thank you for your service to the country Congressman.
I agree, however a lot of these Old Bulls are getting up there in years and time respects no one. There’s a big battle in the Detroit area over if Rep. John Conyers (D) will keep his seat due to a fight over his nomination petitions (honestly, younger Dems are trying to ease him into retirement as well). We’re going to see a lot more of this on BOTH sides.
Age doesn’t always impart wisdom; but in this case it certainly did. We need more legislators like him; unfortunately I don’t think we’re going to get them. Thank you sir.
Texans continue to exceed my low expectations of them – maybe the guy who beat Hall will replace Steve Stockman (R-TX) as the dumbest Member of Congress; certainly the voters of his district demonstrated their lack of appreciation of a dedicated public servant. As a Democrat who did not always agree with him on non-space issues, I think Chairman Hall deserved better – this is a shame.
We’re losing folks on both sides of the aisle that would work together…..Steven LaTourette here in Ohio quit because he was tired of his own party preventing him from working deals….
The old school politicos are riding off into the sunset. They get things done with cooperation and compromise. Today, the politicos worry more about getting reelected instead of doing anything good for their constituents or the country.