Should congressional terms be limited?

[undeterred]

John Dingell was elected in 1955

[BlooInBloo]

1. I'm not a fan of limiting the people's right to vote for whomever they want.

[EFerrari]

2. When there are powerful incumbents that no one will challenge

that's exactly what happens, though.

[BlooInBloo]

Restricting the people's right to vote for whom they will as a matter of *law* is even worse.

[EFerrari]

11. But if incumbents time out, the playing field is more level for

new candidates. There are a lot of talented people in this joint. That actually opens up the array of choices, not the other way around, imho.

[BlooInBloo]

12. (shrug) Why beat around the bush then? Just pass a law allowing people to only vote for....

the best candidate.

No matter how well-intentioned, restricting, by law, the voters' right to choose their leaders is still restricting, by law, the people's right to choose their leaders.

I'm completely down with the *goal* of avoiding the concentration of power in the hands of the (same) few. I'm not down with restricting voters' rights as a way to address that goal. Even if that means were successful, it takes too much power away from the people - as a matter of law.

[EFerrari]

14. You're right. It is a trade off. Someone gives the example down thread

of Teddy Kennedy.

My counter example is Feinstein. Anyone may challenge her and no one will because it's useless. She's too entrenched in every sphere that you need to access to mount a challenge -- money, media, party establishment & corporate support. Not to mention, she's the Pentagram's poster girl.

[stimbox]

17. Pelosi would be another good example. She's the poster child for entrenchment. n/t

[EFerrari]

18. Yep. She's a boon to the real estate interests here in particular.

She materially doesn't represent most of her district and acts against their interests with no penalty at all and thoughtlessly at that. Hence her comment that she wished to get Code Pink arrested just as homeless people can be arrested in San Francisco . . .

[stimbox]

20. yep.

hey nancy, step down and let someone else hold that gavel!

[undeterred]

3. The average person cannot possibly raise enough money

to wage a successful run against an incumbent. So our choices are limited to the independently wealthy.

[EFerrari]

19. That's right. We are implicitly restricted to the political class

which seems to be, more and more, an oligarchy.

[MonkeyFunk]

13. Do you think term limits have served California well?

[TahitiNut]

4. Neither am I. But I'd love to prohibit all elected officials from doing ANY fund-raising ...

... of any kind. No outside employment. NO personal campaign fund-raising. NO honoraria. NO book publishing. Nothing.

It'd be like an employment contract ... they should be solely invested in the "public interest."

That'd probably go a long ways toward solving the campaign financing crapola AND term limits.

[mmonk]

5. Either limit their terms or the money that influences them.

The ones that represent us are in such a minority, the rights of the people are no longer being protected.

[undeterred]

6. A lot of them start off with good intentions

but they are sucked into the system. So I think they should have a maximum of 10 years, maybe less.

[baldguy]

7. Representatives should only be able to accept money from their constituents.

[Fridays Child]

8. With free, fair, open elections; 100% publicly-financed campaigns; and an end to media monopolies...

..any citizen should be allowed to run as for as many terms as she or he sees fit.

[pnwmom]

9. That dumb idea helped to lose our majority a couple of elections ago.

We lost a House Majority leader in my state who had been doing a fine job, and got a Rethug instead -- who was running on a term limits platform. Of course, as soon as he got elected, he changed his mind.

[pnwmom]

10. Ted Kennedy would not have had the impact he had under term limits.

There IS value in experience.

[Yupster]

15. I'm for term limits

Senator Kennedy could serve his two terms in the senate and then find other places to serve.

He could be governor for two terms, a house member, a head of a charitable foundation or even CEO of a business.

There are lots of ways for a person to serve other than sitting in the same job for 50 years.

[LostInAnomie]

16. Yes.

I don't care if the run again after a few election cycles, but the way it is now is unacceptable. They sit there for decades, entrenched in money and power, afraid to do anything significant out of fear of losing that money and power. Give then two terms and watch real bills start getting passed.

[caraher]

21. Remember when this idea was a right-wing scam?

Because they couldn't beat Democratic incumbents? The ballot box is a built-in term limit mechanism. Reforms that might level the playing field for challengers might be wise, but I'm not sure what form those would take.

For every Dingell (representative from UAW, GM, Ford & Chrysler) you might wish would stay home there may also a Conyers whose experience is valuable. In a time when even the Supreme Court can (shamefully) pretend the world came into being in the year 2000, there's something to be said for continuity in Congress.

[EFerrari]

22. I disagree. The numbers seem to go very much the other way.

For every Kennedy in the Senate, we have too many DINOs who cuddle up to their corporate donors and screw their constituents.

[caraher]

23. OK, in numbers you're probably right

But the task is to get voters to realize that the corporatists are not looking out for their interests and vote accordingly. Term limits alone can't help; it's not as if there's any shortage of DINOs willing to run for office. We need to be sure that, whatever the limits are (or are not) on consecutive terms, we nominate the right people. It's no help seeing new faces pursuing old corrupt policies...

[BlooInBloo]

24. Legislating against people's right to vote is not the answer to a jackass electorate....

Tempting though it may be.

[leftofthedial]

25. no term limits, BUT

must change the current legalized bribery, er, campaign finance, laws.

100% public financed elections. Let them spend two years representing the people instead of hustling bribes from the corporate lobbyists so they can afford to run again in two years.

[Thothmes]

26. I did not vote, but

IMO that there should be a maximum age to serve in the Congress, the Presidency or the Courts. For arguments sake, lets say 72 years old. As much respect as I have for Senator Byrd, his time has past. Many folks on this forum make an issue of McCains age and his ability to serve as President. How effective will Scalia be when he is in his 80s. The peoples business is to important, and I think that advanced age cloud ones ability to clearly handle the peoples business.