December 30, 2014 10:56 AM UTC

At Least He's Not Your Congressman

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico reports, farewell to GOP Rep. Michael Grimm of Staten Island:

New York GOP Rep. Michael Grimm — who pleaded guilty to a felony tax charge last week — will resign from Congress effective Jan. 5, he said in a statement.

“After much thought and prayer, I have made the very difficult decision to step down from Congress effective January 5th, 2015,” he said in a statement. “The decision is made with a heavy heart, as I have enjoyed a very special relationship and closeness with my constituents, whom I care about deeply.”

He said that he cannot “continue to be 100% effective in the next Congress,” and added it is “time for me to start the next chapter of my life.”

It's quite possible that the "next chapter" in Rep. Grimm's life involves prison time. Grimm's guilty plea reportedly spared him a possible 20 year sentence on the felony fraud charges he faced, but the former FBI agent still faces up to three years behind bars in addition to restitution when he is sentenced. Early this year, Rep. Grimm made headlines after threatening to throw a reporter off the balcony of the Cannon House Office Building who asked him about one of the investigations then proceeding against him. "I'll break you in half like a boy," he said to reporter Michael Scotto. We've heard this is pretty normal interaction between New York City politicians and local reporters, but it did not leave a good impression with national audiences.

Grimm also made news this month, after he and Colorado's Rep. Mike Coffman became the only two Republican co-sponsors of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) who failed to sign a letter urging the measure be taken up in the lame-duck session. As we speculated at the time, it appears Rep. Grimm had a pretty good reason to keep his head down–though nobody has gotten a good explanation from Coffman about this to our knowledge.

Anyway, we wish Rep. Grimm well at sentencing. Failing that, a nice cellmate.