DCCC Chairman Matsui passes on

2005 begins with a bit of bad news. Congressman Bob Matsui, a California Democrat, has passed on.

Rep. Robert T. Matsui of California, who spent time in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans as an infant during World War II and went on to serve 26 years in Congress, has died of complications from a rare disease, his family said Sunday.

The 63-year-old died Saturday night at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., outside Washington.

Matsui was the third-ranking Democrat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he was his party's point man on Social Security legislation. He also recently chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, where he led the party's unsuccessful effort to regain control of the House.

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Matsui was a good man and he will be sorely missed.