I felt we owed you a thread to mourn.

Even if he loses his long-shot bid for the White House, Rep. Tom Tancredo will be leaving the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of 2008.

Tancredo, 61 , waited until after the Colorado Rockies’ last out of the World Series on Sunday night before announcing that he plans to retire from Congress at the end of this, his fifth term.

“It’s the fact that I really believe I have done all I can do in the House, especially about the issue (immigration) about which I care greatly,” he said…

Until now, Tancredo has tried to put off any talk of what he would do if his White House bid fell flat. But over the summer, he began hinting that he had his eyes on a 2010 contest against Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat he sees as his polar opposite on the immigration issue…

He has often complained about the rigors of the presidential campaign trail, which has required him to spend more than 50 days in Iowa, and dozens more in New Hampshire, South Carolina and other states this year.

Your exit question: What’s next for Tancelot? Is he riding off into the sunset? Angling for a leadership role in that all-important coming battle against the Amero? Or lying in wait for Salazar in 2010? If the last one, a follow-up question: Does America need a senator who opposes legal immigration, too?