Florida Congressman C.W. “Bill” Young Dead At 82

Charles William Young, one of the longest-serving members of the House of Representatives, was reported earlier this week to be seriously ill; this evening, his office reports that he has died.

Florida’s longest-serving member of Congress and a Republican hawk on military spending during his 43 years in Washington… died Friday in Bethesda, Md. He was 82.

His chief of staff, Harry Glenn, said Mr. Young died at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized with back problems stemming from a 1970 small plane crash.

On Oct. 9, Mr. Young, who represented a district in the Tampa Bay area, announced from his hospital bed that he would not seek another term in 2014.

As one of the strongest military supporters in Congress, Mr. Young made headlines in 2012 when he said that the United States should withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, reflecting a growing weariness with the war.

Mr. Young was considered the elder statesman of Florida’s Republican Party and in the House, where he served 22 terms, beginning in 1970.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.