Retiring GOP lawmaker: People ‘lose their soul’ in Congress

A retiring GOP lawmaker is railing against the culture at the Capitol on Friday, saying “some people lose their soul here.” 

Rep. Raúl Labrador (Idaho), who is stepping down from Congress after this year, said that he started his job with great optimism about what he could do, but quickly grew disillusioned by his colleagues’ approach to their work. 

{mosads}“I thought it was a revolution. I thought we were going to completely change the way that Washington worked,” Labrador told Politico in an interview published Friday, citing the Tea Party wave in 2010 and his first week in Congress. “Within one week — I’m not exaggerating — I saw a large majority of my class saying, essentially, ‘Whatever you need us to do, we will do.’ And I was sick inside.

“I assumed that everyone had the same idealistic mentality that I did,” he says. “But week after week, I realized that most of the people here just want to keep their jobs and hold on to power. And it’s one of the reasons I haven’t fit into this place very well.”

Politico reports that Labrador, who recently lost the Republican gubernatorial primary in Idaho, is known by one friend as “the angriest man in Congress.” 

He has also called Congress “broken” and admonished “hypocrites” in his party.

“I won’t miss a lot of things about this place,” Labrador said. “I think some people lose their soul here. This is a place that just sucks your soul. It takes everything from you.”

Labrador, a former immigration attorney and member of the House Freedom Caucus, has become an integral presence in GOP lawmakers’ talks on immigration this year. He said last week that he thought lawmakers would be able to talk about “an agreement in principle” for an immigration bill.

Early reactions to the bill sent to GOP leaders on Thursday suggested that it would unlikely bridge the divide between moderates and conservative immigration hawks.