House Oversight Committee chairman and chief chicken fucker Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) announced this morning that he will not seek re-election in 2018.
"Since late 2003 I have been fully engaged with politics as a campaign manager, a chief of staff, a candidate and as a Member of Congress. I have long advocated public service should be for a limited time and not a lifetime or full career. Many of you have heard me advocate, 'Get in, serve, and get out.' After more than 1,500 nights away from my home, it is time. I may run again for public office, but not in 2018," he said.
Chaffetz was re-elected by a margin of 47 percent and not many politicians would abandon such a sure thing, so you can speculate why he would chose to head for the exit now.
I'd just like to point out that Chaffetz will leave behind an apparatus in shambles that may no longer even be capable of conducting credible oversight. Chaffetz followed the example of former Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa by using the committee as a partisan tool for opposition research.
If Democrats retake control of Congress, they could form a functioning committee but the committee's credibility in the eyes of the general public may never recover. It's been a running joke for most of a decade from the time of Solyndra and Fast and Furious.
If Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives, the ranking Democrat on the committee who could become the next chairman is Rep. Elijah Cummings.