Trey Radel to resign House seat

[Capt. Obvious]

Source: Politico

Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources.

Radel was caught buying cocaine in November from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility.

The first-term Republican plans to send a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Monday, sources said.




Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/trey-radel-resignation-102642.html

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Is this less of a pickup chance now?

[Mass]

1. Depends who will win the GOP primary.

[bigdarryl]

2. The republican party is so NUTTY they might elect someone worst

[DeSwiss]

3. It's a start.

- K&R

[treestar]

4. for once a Republican has to resign

probably only because he chose to

[brooklynite]

5. Not a chance of a pickup...

This is a solid Republican R+19 district. Now that Radel is out of the way, any Republican with a pulse and a clean arrest record will take the seat easily.

[Kennah]

18. The clean arrest record is in the "Nice To Have" column, but perhaps not required.

[flamingdem]

21. I read that a Repub righty Sheriff wants to run

I think from Naples, he's been gunning for Raydel for a while.

[47of74]

6. I wonder if he's going to be like Senator Widestance

And decide not to resign after all?

[QuestForSense]

7. I wonder what made him change his mind.

The article doesn't say. First he was staying, but suddenly now he's going.

[gvstn]

9. Good question.

The media gave his story less than 24hrs. Even though they spent weeks on Mayor Ford who did hte exact same thing. Maybe campaign people told him the comparison would be just too easy for his challenger? He definitely didn't seem to have anything to worry about in the national media.

[brett_jv]

11. Probably a good idea if he's serious about recovery ...

Or, then again ... if he's not.

[Mr.Bill]

14. My guess would be that he's

back to doing blow.

[freshwest]

19. Or is going into lobbying. n/t

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. I was hoping that he would run for reelection

It was possible that he could have won the nomination if his opposition was split by several challengers. It would certainly had been a pick-up opportunity for the right Democrat.

[No Vested Interest]

10. It's aboout time! nt

[JoeyT]

12. Must be nice.

Everyone I've ever known that got busted buying coke went to jail. I bet everyone else that tried to buy it from that agent went to jail too. I don't want him to go home, I want him to go to fucking prison where all us regular people go.

[KansDem]

13. Is he still pushing for mandatory drug testing for food-stamp recipients?

Trey Radel, Busted On Cocaine Charge, Voted For Drug Testing Food Stamp Recipients (Huffington Post)

[reddread]

15. am I the only one with a coke using Representative?

Is it OK if you have a D?
I dont think so.
drug test them all.

[olddad56]

20. very doubtful that you are the only one, or that he is the only one.

[reddread]

22. well, theres one distinction I probably dont share widely

that son of a bitch Jim Costa was there when my uncle was introduced to the stuff and a Paraguayan cocaine importer that destroyed many lives and futures. Certainly stole the one I had in mind.

[JI7]

16. i bet he is using again

probably never stopped. i wonder if some other congress member caught him doing it and that's why suddenly he is resigning.

[SorellaLaBefana]

17. I wonder if he wishes that he had supported decriminalization of drugs?

At least of naturally occurring ones.

The War on Drugs benefits only the criminals who sell them, and the corrupt government officials who benefit not only from cash in hand, but from the entirety of the industrial scale imprisonment of our citizens.

More Americans are now in prison - mostly for drug related "crimes" - than were imprisoned in the USSR at the height of Stalin's gulags.

This is a sad commentary on our laws, our sense of priorities, and our "justice" system.

[Tom Ripley]

23. Blow and booze obviously don't agree with him; he looks a helluva lot older than 37

[Blue_Tires]

24. It's funny how little this gets reported

Buying coke from undercover feds = One month of rehab