While we can only guess at the exact nature of the psychiatric or neurological trauma the Senate majority leader has suffered, we assume that it is severe, judging by his symptoms, the most prominent of which is his new habit of taking to the Senate floor to deliver speeches that sound like they ought to be coming from a man wearing a bathrobe in front of a liquor store in Cleveland.Why term limits are a good idea, and since the targets get to vote on them, why we're never going to see them.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
QOTD
The editorial staff at the National Review have some observations about Harry Reid who is now blaming Global Warming on the Koch brothers.
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2 comments:
I have never liked the idea of term limits. It smacks too much of censorship -- that is, a particular segment of the nation losing their chosen elected official because she/he might offend others.
California has term limits in their state legislature. What has apparently happened, is that voters lost control of their legislature. No matter who is elected, the (mostly union) bureaucrats hold the power, the long-lasting relationships, the ties to money and influence -- and decide what the legislature will do. And unlike the delegates, the actual power mongers can no longer be voted out.
No, what I would prefer is an annual "confirmation" election. Rather than have to exert themselves for a recall election, there would be a mandatory "confirm" vote that would have to succeed each year, for the Senator/Representative to be allowed to continue serving their elected term.
While we all want to muzzle the yahoos for the other folk that irritate us, I feel strongly that the first move to dump the yahoos should come from those being represented by said yahoos -- and the dumping should be pretty straight forward and simple.
The argument about losing ones chosen elected official is used by incumbents for whom the power of incumbency is sufficient to assure them that they will die of old age in office.
In practice, all politicians tend to go downhill with time and with continuing assurances of never losing their position unless the warden forbids them the use of their cell phone in the Federal joint, the need to replace grows.
The counter action for term limits is certainly the Gerrymander as this will at last assure that the party will hold on to control even if the politician is forced into a cushy directorship of a phoney-baloney agency somewhere.
Conformation votes like we have for judges would make for interesting times. Pols would have to raise money every year to fend off a negative confirmation vote in years when turnout is extremely low anyway. The incentive for vote fraud in that case would be immense.
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