McCotter should have said goodbye long ago

Thad McCotter quoted Bob Dylan in his resignation letter, but Dylan Thomas would have been more fitting. The Livonia congressman certainly isn’t going gently into that good night.
Rather than walk out of the Capitol with all the other non-returning representatives in January, McCotter chose to resign now, putting an exclamation point on the bizarre end of his poliqtical career.
The move was precipitated by McCotter’s failure to gather enough petition signatures to earn a spot on the August primary ballot. Earlier this week, The Detroit News detailed McCotter’s crude attempt to write a script for a TV show starring himself, leading to speculation that McCotter had lost interest in his seat long before the petition snafu.
I know McCotter fairly well and talked to him often during his Quixotic presidential run and during the petition crisis.
My impression is that he was disenchanted with Congress well before he wrote his manifesto Friday denouncing the failings of the institution.
He told me this spring that he only intended to run for one more term out of loyalty to the Republican party.
He’d lobbied hard for a favorable district draw and wanted to make sure the GOP held the seat.
Feeling the way he did, he should have passed on this election and allowed those with more interest in serving in Congress compete for the seat.
I wish McCotter well. He was a good representative. But I also wish this moment would have come six months ago.