From the AP:
"WASHINGTON — Rep. David Obey, the powerful House Appropriations chairman, will not seek re-election, according to Democratic sources.
The Wisconsin Democrat, 71, was first elected to his seat in 1969 and easily won his 20th full term in 2008 with 61 percent of the vote.
Obey faced a potentially difficult re-election bid this fall, but his decision came as a surprise nevertheless. Obey scheduled an official announcement for Wednesday afternoon.
He is the chamber's third-longest serving Democrat and the highest-ranking House Democrat to announce his retirement.
The Democratic sources spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about Obey's decision before the announcement."
UPDATE -- and this has now been frontpaged, so I doubt there'll be much conversation in this diary.
There's some 200 articles being aggregated by Google, all within the last 30 minutes:
http://www.reuters.com/...
http://content.usatoday.com/...
http://www.jsonline.com/...
Of course, don't expect the mainstream media to report that there are fewer Democrats retiring than Republicans -- expect the meme from this to be more proof of a Republican insurgency...
There isn't a lot of detail yet about his reasons. My guess is that he's announcing now to give his potential replacements enough time to gear up for a race, and because it's been a heavy media week (what with the terrorist and the oil slick and whatnot) to bury the announcement. Who knows if there are health problems lurking (or an obsession with tickling).
All I know is that he's one powerful man in Washington, and he's done some good whilst there. So, thanks for your service, Mr. Obey, and enjoy your retirement (Don't come back as a lobbyist!)