Mr. Waxman leaves Washington

A Q&A with Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA).

It as a Republican who once paid Democrat Henry Waxman the rough compliment of being "tougher than a boiled owl." Many of the big things Waxman helped to make into law in his four decades in Congress took bipartisan work, the kind that has all but disappeared in Washington: tobacco regulation, easier access to generic drugs, increased food labeling and safety, cleaner air and water, AIDS healthcare and Obamacare. But that's not why Waxman -- a vastly influential legislator and among the last of Congress' 1974 "Watergate baby" generation -- is retiring. He figures he has a lot of tread left on his tires, but he wants to drive down roads other than the ones leading to Capitol Hill.

On newspapers he said, “Nothing's more important than our 1st Amendment rights. I've expressed concern recently about how the LA Times would survive [because] Tribune was spinning [its newspapers] off. I think the final package was most helpful for the LA Times, [more] than it would have been otherwise. I also strongly support net neutrality, [so that] providers of content that may not have a lot of money [will not] have a harder time succeeding.”