I guess being a politician is becoming a less desirable position to hold, in this country.

Mississippi Republican Rep. Charles W. “Chip” Pickering Jr. announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election in 2008, making him the latest veteran House Republican to call it quits since the August recess began.

Pickering disclosed his decision not to seek a seventh House term in Mississippi’s 3rd District hours after Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, said she would not seek re-election in 2008. Former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was set to make a similar announcement Friday.

Pickering, who helped write the 1996 telecommunications law as an aide to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., was first elected to the House that year, succeeding veteran conservative Democratic Rep. G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery (1967-97). Pickering never faced a close race in his strongly conservative-leaning district; he did not even face Democratic opposition in the 2006 election.

Pickering established himself as a player on the Energy and Commerce Committee on telecommunications and other issues, earning appointment as vice chairman of the panel.

Pickering will be leaving the House as a young man — he turned 44 years old last week. Long considered a likely successor to Lott in the Senate, Pickering hinted strongly that his political career is not over. Pickering is considered a strong bet to go for a Senate seat when either Lott or Republican Thad Cochran retires.

“After eighteen years in public service, starting in 1989 in the first Bush administration, then on Senator Lott’s staff, and most recently as a member of the House, it is time for me to gain new experiences in the private arena,” Pickering said in a statement. “I am not saying a final farewell, but hopefully, simply taking a leave of absence.”

Pickering said he would hold a news conference Friday at the Mississippi Republican Party’s headquarters in Jackson.

Mississippi’s 3rd District, which includes a large swath of the state from towns on the Alabama border to Natchez in the southwestern part of the state has a significant Republican tilt after a controversial redistricting plan in 2002 combined Pickering’s district with that of then-Democratic Rep. Ronnie Shows (1999-2003).

Pickering, whose father was a leading figure in the state GOP before becoming a federal judge, trounced Shows by nearly 30 percentage points.

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