Ken Buck is fed up.
The Republican lawmaker from eastern Colorado already announced (last November) that he would retire from Congress at the end of his term. But now that apparently is not soon enough.
On Tuesday, he abruptly surprised many on Capitol Hill — particularly fellow Republicans — by speeding up his timetable. Now he’s retiring from Congress at the end of next week.
But, why the rush? In statements and interviews, the thoughtful Buck made it quite clear that he had grown weary of the dysfunction miring lawmakers in disputes over team loyalties rather than actually solving problems.
The gridlock is not new, he acknowledges, but it’s only getting worse.
“It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress,” he said in a sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash, “and having talked to former members, it’s the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress ….
“This place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”
Amen, congressman. Preach!
Pardon my excitement, but I couldn’t help but agree. By all accounts, Buck sounds like a liberated man, freed at last from the constraints of a political world that seems increasingly bent on feuds, factionalism and theater more than workable solutions.
The problems aren’t limited to only one party, he was quick to point out. But in the era of former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, it has become increasingly difficult, especially for those who dare offend ever-shifting standards of loyalty generally emanating from Trump himself.
Buck knows. As a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, he might be viewed as a member of a favored class in the Trump era. Yet, he is better known for his frequent breaks from his party, notably on headline-grabbing issues raised by the Trump-loyal MAGA wing.
He has criticized his fellow Republicans for echoing Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He has had the temerity to express doubts about Republican claims to have found evidence that President Joe Biden committed an impeachable offense. He was one of three House Republicans to vote against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, citing the lack of evidence against him.
In other words, he actually let the lack of facts get in the way of going along with what fellow partisans thought was a good story — or a good party line.
As a result, despite his many years of service, including staff work in the 1980s with then-Rep. Dick Cheney on the committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair, there were not a lot of tears shed in GOP circles about his early retirement. There are, however, worries among the House GOP leadership about how to navigate their ever-shrinking and already narrow majority as they try to run the chamber.
Buck’s departure will leave a House in which Republicans will outnumber Democrats 218-213, which means House Speaker Mike Johnson can afford to lose only two votes to pass legislation along party lines. That increasingly is forcing Johnson to turn to Democrats to move must-pass legislation like the bill that recently kept the federal government from closing down.
Back home in Colorado, Buck’s departure creates a vacancy in his 4th Congressional District seat. His sudden retirement throws a wrench into Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert’s plans to run for election next term not in her own 3rd District but in Buck’s 4th. The open seat means that the district on June 25 now must elect a representative to complete Buck’s term while district Republican voters simultaneously vote in the primary for his successor.
The highly controversial Boebert, whose antics wore on her 3rd District constituents to the point where she thought it a better idea to run in the 4th, criticized Buck’s abrupt retirement as a “swampy backroom deal” but said she would run in the 4th District primary all the same while continuing to serve the 3rd District. Got that?
If nothing else, if Buck manages to end Boebert’s congressional career, that will be a true final act of service to the American people.
Yes, as Ken Buck might say, congressional politics aren’t what they used to be. But they never cease to be surprising.