Dingell: ‘I feel like I’m coming home’

One would think that the panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains that Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) can see from his Denver hotel room this week resembles a foreign landscape for someone who has represented the gritty western industrial suburbs of Detroit since 1955.

But the 82-year-old Michigan Democrat and dean of the House of Representatives says it makes him feel right at home as he attends his 14th Democratic National Convention. That’s because he was born in the shadow of the Colorado Rockies and spent four years as a ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park before moving to Detroit.

{mosads}“Let me tell you this, I don’t know whether heaven can be any better than the Rocky Mountains,” Dingell said Monday as he recalled what he obviously considers one of the happiest periods of his long life. “All the things I did in the Park Service were fun.”

Dingell, elected to Congress in 1955 to succeed his father, who died after 22 years in office, worked as a park ranger from 1948 to 1951. “I did everything, from trail patrols to rescue operations to trapping bears,” he said. He noted that his first boss was working for the Park Service when Rocky Mountain National Park was created.

A day earlier, Dingell stood at the entrance of the Brown Palace Hotel and pointed to the west as the sun set over the distant Rockies. “Look at that view,” he said. “I feel like I’m coming home.”

Dingell, who regained the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee in 2006 after helming it from 1981-94, explained that he was born in Colorado Springs, to which his father had moved from the Detroit area after he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. “His doctor said he had only a year to live, and he told him, ‘I’ll live to piss on your grave,’ which he could have because he outlived him,” Dingell said.

When the elder Dingell moved back to Detroit with his family, he ran for Congress and was elected in 1933. He served until his death in 1955, when his son, who graduated from Georgetown Law School and served as assistant district attorney for Wayne County, Mich., won his seat in a special election.

Dingell was elected to a full term in 1956 and has been reelected 26 times, usually by double-digit margins. As a result, he and his father have represented their southeastern Michigan district for three quarters of a century.

Dingell, who is in good health except for the fact that he has to use crutches while awaiting a knee replacement, is running for a 28th term in November, and if he wins, as is likely, he will become the longest-serving member of the House in history on Feb. 14, 2009.

That’s when he would surpass the longevity record of Rep. Jamie Whitten (D-Miss.). Only the late Sen. Carl Hayden (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) have served longer in Congress with service in the House and Senate.
Dingell keeps his longevity in perspective, saying, “It’s not the number of years you’ve served, but how well you’ve done with those years.”