Another weenie Democrat from New York is gone.

This one’s political career isn’t dying of exposure, though. His is more like a suicide.

Rep. Gary Ackerman will not run for reelection to the House in 2012, his office announced Thursday.

The New York Democrat will retire after 15 terms in Congress.

“The residents of Queens and Long Island have honored me with their trust and support for the past 34 years, first as a New York State Senator, and for the past 15 terms as a Member of Congress,” Ackerman said in a statement.

“During my years in Congress, it has been my pleasure to address the needs of thousands of individual constituents and to influence domestic and global policy while serving on the Financial and Foreign Affairs Committees in the House. I am most thankful for the opportunity I’ve had to serve my country and my community.”

Ackerman has been rumored to be vacating the scene for some time, though he’s been denying it. Today, the pants came off that rumor. He was due to get a primary challenge in a redrawn district, though his likely contender had publicly said today he wasn’t going to run against Ackerman. Both of them look pretty stupid now, but that’s nothing new.

Why do we care? Well, it isn’t often that a member of Congress from more than 1,000 miles away sics the FBI on you for making jokes about him on the internet.

Ackerman’s loss deprives us of one more boutonniered-sissy with a head full of stupid ideas on energy-from-unicorn-farts, animal rights and other issues dear to the Limousine Left. It does not, however, change the game; his district is safely Democrat, so it’s quite likely that a new left-wing fool – though perhaps not one sporting flora on his lapel as though he were an old-time G-Man of the more sparkling variety – will emerge from Ackerman’s ashes.

We’ll take what we can get, though, and we’ll chalk this up to congressional renewal. And we’ll recall the legendary words of Powers Boothe as Curley Bill Brosius…