I read in this morning’s news that Arizona Republican Congressman John Shadegg won’t be running for re-election this fall. Shadegg’s decision to step down is a merciful act of political euthanasia that will end the suffering of Americans under his long-ill vision of politics and policy.

A review of John Shadegg’s legislative record for just the last two years reveals a minefield of diastrous votes and bills. Some of those minefields are literal, created by cluster bombs and intentionally placed minefields, crossed by child soliders who before losing their lives had nothing but the gall to be born in a war zone. Despite the presence of legislation to deal with these problems, John Shadegg refused to lift a finger to help address these problems. Shadegg voted for the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act in 2008, reinforcing and legitimating intrusive government surveillance programs without constitutionally-required warrants or court review. Rep. Shadegg lent his support to a bill that would make it illegal to offer government services in any language other than English, and at the same time tried to take away citizenship from babies born right here in the USA. What does he think this country is, Nazi Germany? In one sense, yes: the model of citizenship Shadegg tried to drag this country into was the same model of “pure blood” citizenship used in Nazi Germany. The portion of American babies who Shadegg decided would be allowed keep their citizenship would have been the recipient of force-fed government-funded religious proselytization if Shadegg had gotten his way in the Congress last year.

What a waste of a congressional career. John Shadegg can’t leave his office soon enough to satisfy me.