Friday, July 2, 2010

Finally!

Robert Byrd has left the building.  Finally!  Politicians who serve more of their adult lives ON the public payroll than off it should never have been allowed to stay that long. Supporters argue that they were reelected by the people of their districts and to have term limits would take away their supporters' voting rights.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with campaign and seniority rules that heavily favor incumbents in terms of money and recognition.  Oh, and who writes those rules?  Yep...them in power.

Ironically, when Byrd was elected the first time, and through the first twenty years or so of his time on the public dime, he would not have crossed the street to talk to a man the color of our current president, much less shake his hand. I guess the positive spin is that it means there is hope for all of us, if we live long enough, to reconsider the stupid things we do and say when we're very young and very ambitious.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought I was one of the only one's that felt the way you do. It's sickens me to no end that politician can stay in power, keep getting re-elected for such a long period of time. It's not good and I'm so in favor of term limits for every office from the smallest city to the largest part of the US Government.

Mary said...

I had this discussion with my husband the other day: there should be no such thing as a "career politician". They should only be able to be in office for 2 terms...MAX.

quilly said...

I think term limits should be enforced. Too many politicians stay, as you say, because the system favors them, giving the voters no real choice.

SouthLakesMom said...

It's interesting to contemplate -- when the Founders established the representative body, people didn't live very long. Men were responsible adults very early in life (compared to today) and didn't live long enough to "camp out" in the Congress. Plus, they didn't get PAID enough to make it a lifetime commitment. They all had to work for a living in addition to serving. What a concept...