The New York Times on Monday trumpeted the retirement of the "Dean of Congress," Democrat John Dingell, and promoted the replacement by his wife. Writer Sheryl Gay Stolberg devoted 31 paragraphs to the political swap, hyping the ascendency of Debbie Dingell. Stolberg described the spouse as "a former auto industry lobbyist and General Motors executive" who "promptly ran for her husband’s seat and won, positioning herself as heir to a political dynasty that dates to Franklin Roosevelt."
The headline cheered, "As the 'Dean' of Congress Steps Aside, His Wife Is Ready to Succeed." Looking back on the career of Mr. Dingell, Stolberg reminisced, "His career is a reminder of another era in Washington, when seniority mattered and committee chairmen wielded enormous power."
The Times journalist even recounted how the power couple met:
The Dingells met on an airplane, when she was barely out of Georgetown University and he was a divorced father of four. He recalls her as a “white-knuckle flier.” She said he “was tenacious in asking me out.”
Stolberg touted the 88-year-old retiree:
Some say that in running to succeed her husband, Mrs. Dingell has given him a gift — the gift of relevancy in a city that often casts the formerly powerful aside. “It’s a way for him to have a voice,” said Susanna Quinn, a good friend.
In February, the Washington Post hailed Dingell as the "legislative giant leaving a changed Congress."
Echoing Stolberg, Post writers Karen Tumulty and Paul Kane mourned:
In the 1980s, the prospect of a subpoena from his headline-grabbing investigative subcommittee was so terrifying that some Washington law firms built a specialty practice that the newspaper American Lawyer dubbed “the Dingell bar.”
They extolled, "He was the last of the true committee barons, one who muscled for legislative turf and who had been known to pound his gavel so hard it shattered."
