John Doolittle delivered his prepared remarks with a smile and a light, peaceful delivery. It was apparent from seeing his peaceful demeanor that he and Julie had made their decision after much thought and prayer.

When someone makes a tough decision and seems at peace afterward, it is a clear indicator that they are convinced of the correctness of the decision.

John Doolittle came over to George and I and thanked us for standing with him until the end. It reminded me of Tom McClintock’s governor campaign – when we stuck with our man to the end.

I am proud to have been represented by a stellar conservative like John Doolittle. His legacy exists in the stable of rock-solid Republican leaders that are in local non-partisan office in the area.

His legacy exists in the form of assisting poor, rural counties get funding to keep hospitals open or building water / power projects. The state of California has never cared about rural counties like John Doolittle has taken care of Northern California.

His scores from conservative grassroots groups were always in the 90% range for the entire time he was in office until the focus became on the very earmarks the Congressman was getting for his district became their primary issue.

The Abramoff investigation plus the fact that the Republicans are out of the majority contributed to the fund-raising issues that ultimately must have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Like Conrad Burns and JD Hayworth who lost their seats in 2006 and then were cleared of their investigations – the same will now apply to John Doolittle in my estimation. The DOJ will back off the investigation now that John Doolittle is leaving office.

To a person, everyone at the meeting was sad and disappointed as I heard several there say that they wanted John Doolittle to run for re-election.

The bottom line – John and Julie were tired of fighting and decided to ride off into the sunset. The unfortunate nature of Republican politics is that there is a tendency to swarm when blood is in the water.