Life on the outside after more than 41 years in Congress hasn’t been much different for former House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis. — or so it seems.
"I wish I knew," Obey said in an interview this week. "I haven’t had a chance to find out."
Almost since the end of his 20th full term in January (Obey also served a year and nine months in 1969 and 1970 after winning a special election), politics and government has continued non-stop for the 72-year-old liberal lion.
First, there was the transfer of more than 800 boxes of official documents and materials from his former congressional office to the State Historical Society in Wisconsin. Obey has been helping to sort them out so the records can be made available to the public at the University of Wisconsin (Stevens Point), close to Obey’s home in Wausau, Wis.
Around the same time in February, the Wisconsin capital became a virtual war zone as Democratic legislators fled Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to gut collective-bargaining rights for public employees as a way to tackle a looming budget deficit. Obey stepped into the heart of the turmoil and pushed for a recall of the newly elected Republican governor, accusing Walker of engaging in "political thuggery" much like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before his ouster in February.
Then there was the announcement in April that Obey would become a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service. He and James Lorence, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin (Marathon County), where the institute is housed, are the first to receive the honor, an unpaid position involving teaching and speaking engagements aimed at boosting student interest in public policy.
In the midst of all this post-Congress activity, Obey managed to tear a meniscus in his knee while riding down an escalator on his way to the Rayburn House Office Building, leaving him hobbled but undeterred in his work.
Finally, Gephardt Government Affairs in Washington announced last week that Obey was coming aboard as a senior counsel, focusing on issues ranging from trade to transportation. The move reunites two longtime friends and political allies, Obey and former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri.
"I started with Dick when he ran for caucus chairman and I was running against him," Obey recalled. "Halfway through the race I decided, number one, that he was going to win, and number two, that there was no reason he shouldn’t."
The collaboration with Gephardt resulted from a conversation Obey had with his old friend last year about what to do after his retirement from Congress. Obey said he plans to use the opportunity to "work on the issues I care about," including education, health care, and U.S. policy in the rapidly changing Middle East and Arab world.
Obey still follows the action closely while splitting his time between Washington and Wisconsin, and he doesn’t seem distressed about the gridlock over the federal budget and the looming debt crisis.
"I wouldn’t have gotten into politics if I didn’t have a lot of faith in people in government to do the right thing," he said. "It’s been my experience that sooner or later when something has to happen, it happens."
Contrary to recent speculation in the Wisconsin press, Obey said he has no plans to run for governor or any other office right now. "I guess that came from the fact that I had been involved in this protest movement," he said. "I’ve told people to take things one at a time. Let’s work on the recall petition first and see if that happens."
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