"King Of Pork" Retires

Ways and Means Committee chair Bill Thomas, faced with a term limit on his committee chairmanship, has decided to retire.

The "King of Pork" has been very good to his home district of Bakersfield, but his tough ways ("temper tantrums" in one write-up) have made him unpopular with many in Congress ... but he's popular with Pres. Bush, as AP explains:

President Bush lost the congressional engineer who turned many of his campaign promises for tax cuts, free trade and prescription drugs into reality with the retirement of Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas. ...

Since 2001, when Bush took office and Thomas took the helm of the panel, he steered several major tax cuts into law that lowered tax rates on most wage earners and shrank tax bills on investment income. He turned a long-promised Medicare prescription drug subsidy for the elderly into law, and eased the president's ability to pass trade pacts negotiated with other nations.

That may just be a case of MSM making Thomas look good so they can create a new crisis for the president.

Related Tags: Bill Thomas, Ways and Means, Bush