Colwell: Republican Fred Upton ending a 36-year career in Congress his way
Fred Upton now writes a different final chapter for his 36-year congressional career than one describing a head-first run into Donald Trump’s wall. Not that border wall, the wall Trump proclaims around “his” Republican Party.
Upton, the Republican elected 18 times in a southwestern Michigan district just north of South Bend, chose not to seek the Republican nomination for another term in a redrawn district with more obstacles than just Trump’s wall.
No surprise.
Why would Upton want the final chapter of his distinguished career to be about a thankless run in a district drawn more favorably for another Republican congressman endorsed by Trump, and with certainty of savage personal attacks, even the QAnon conspiracy claims that Trump opponents protect pedophiles?
In an emotional retirement announcement in the House, Upton said that “even the best stories have a last chapter.” He quoted his wife Amy’s view that the chapter’s title now will be, “And they lived happily ever after.”
Trump quickly issued a triumphant statement: “UPTON QUITS! 4 down and 6 to go.”
Indeed, Upton is the fourth of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to decide against seeking reelection. Trump wants revenge. Against the other six. Against other Republicans who crossed him in other ways, such as accepting results of the presidential election.
Upton mused earlier that if he won, that would show Trump was “not as strong as he might have thought that he was.” True. But running into the wall in a tough district against another congressman also threatened defeat, enabling Trump to claim more control over the party.
The new district takes away some areas where Upton won in the past and adds territory near Grand Rapids that Congressman Bill Huizenga, endorsed by Trump, now represents.
Upton might have won in his current district, though not easily. Some county Republican organizations in the district censured him for voting to impeach and voting to remove the wacky Marjorie Taylor Greene from the Education Committee.
But Upton has represented many people who benefited from his vaunted constituent services and admired his efforts to protect the Great Lakes, rescue the auto industry, bring infrastructure improvements and seek bipartisan cooperation to break deadlocks.
Upton thanked his “salt-of-the-earth” constituents, noting all didn’t always agree with him. Most in the basically conservative district did agree with his efforts since back when he started in government in the Reagan administration to hold down the national debt. It certainly was appropriate to thank constituents who voted to elect him in 1986 and sent him back to Congress in every election since.
His final chapter will be about his expressions of gratitude and calls for civility and bipartisanship in Congress, not about a mud-splattered, blood-splattered contest over whether he or Marjorie Taylor Greene is the Republican in name only.
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LAST WEEK, I wrote that the situation would be far different in Ukraine if Donald Trump were president. Lots of reaction: 49 emails, many coming after the column was picked up by Yahoo News.
Everybody agreed with me.
Well, not exactly.
There was agreement that the situation would be different, but a split over what the difference would be. My scenario was of Trump pulling out of NATO, scuttling it, paving the way for his bromance partner and fellow “genius” Vladimir Putin to take Ukraine. Some agreed that Trump would have ended up surrendering Ukraine to Putin, as he did in abandoning influence in Syria. Others disagreed, saying Putin wouldn’t have invaded if Trump were still president.
Final score: 30 agreed that a continuing Trump presidency would have been disastrous for Ukraine, 19 expressed the opposite view. Most responses were civil.
Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.