Opinion: John Dingell, House Democrat, sitting there now for 19,421 days

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Today is a really big day. It’s Dingell Day.

John Dingell sets an all-time all-American new record for sitting in the House of Representatives.

The 82-year-old Michigan Democrat has been sitting in the same place now for 19,421 days.

Dingell’s tenure on Capitol Hill goes back to the first Eisenhower administration.

Dingell’s seen 11 moving vans come and go from the White House. Sounds pretty absorbing. Every four years something to see in Washington. Sometimes he has to wait eight years though.

Dingell’s father sat in the same seat.

Dingell also set a new House-sitting record Wednesday. Being Capitol Hill, and there not being much else going on in the world, they had a party in advance. Commendations all around. Capitol Hill loves commendations. They’re wordy. They’re worthless. And free. A perfect political combo meal.

Even the White House commended Dingell. They’re working on Day 23 over there. Evidently they don’t have much doing either.

Tomorrow Dingell will set an even newer record -- 19,422 days sitting there.

For every single one of those days, Michigan’s Dingell has been known as a champion of the American automobile industry. So that’s turned out well.

And then, on Saturday, Dingell celebrates yet another House survival record -- 19,423 days.

This is getting pretty exciting. We’d better stop.

-- Andrew Malcolm

This is Day One of The Ticket’s Dingell Drive; register here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are available over here. And we’re now on Kindle as well.

Hat Tip: Frank James in the Swamp.