Time to resurrect the term limits movement

American Thinker

Tom Endicott
The current issues involving our Congress are debated endlessly in the media, but ultimately they become framed in the context of what they mean to the re-election efforts of our senators and representatives. We watch our congressmen deftly balance their positions on the issues in front of the cameras, dodging and feinting as they seek to determine the safest path to re-election.

Why must the importance of issues that impact our daily lives, and what they portend for our progeny, be degraded by relating them to the personal desires of our duly elected representatives to retain their access to cushy benefits and the perks of power? Are not the ramifications to our collective interests of national fiscal responsibility, defense of our country, energy independence, and health care policy more important than the career longevity of our congressmen?

It seems we elect serious and sincere individuals to go to Washington on our behalf and tend to our national interests. And for the most part, they are that. But once they become accustomed to the special benefits self-endowed by themselves and their antecedents, their interest turns from the merits of the issues to how their positions on the issues will impact their ability to retain the accouterments of power and representation. In this context, the issues become "all about them." The quest to maintain membership among the favored few becomes a barrier to voting their conscience and tending to what is in the best interests of those who sent them there.

Therefore, if we expect our representatives to deal with national issues without the risk of subordinating the importance these issues have to the populace to the temptations of power, this risk needs to be eliminated. And this can be achieved with the implementation of term limits.

Americans understand this intuitively, and it is the understanding of the potential structural conflict between responsible representation and the corruptive capabilities of power that have caused 37 states to impose term limits on their elected state officials . The provision, of course, also exists for our President as a result of the Twenty-second Amendment of the Constitution and it needs to be extended to Congress for all the same reasons. And because the depth and breadth of the impact Congress has on our lives is greater than state officials, the reasons are even more compelling.

Since it would be naive to expect those in the position of power to adopt provisions that would constitute a self-imposed date for their return home, we must do it for them. This movement needs to be resurrected at the grass-roots level so that the associated relevance of the importance of national issues can be returned to what each means to our collective interests and not theirs.

Perhaps it’s time for term limits

In-Forum.com

These are days of unprecedented government spending; TARP, bailouts, economic stimulus, health care reform, cap and trade and more. The mention of trillions of dollars is commonplace, and we are being numbed to the term trillion.

Our country is already

$12 trillion in debt, and those in power want to add trillions more to the debt by taking over our health care system, which, while far from perfect, is still the best in the world.

This fact is driven home by the number of people who come to the United States to get medical care instead of waiting months to get the care that they need from their government-run system. If we get a government-run system, where will we go?

Does anyone really grasp how much a trillion dollars is?

From the perspective of time, a million seconds equals about 11.5 days. But a trillion seconds equals over 31,668 years. Imagine dollars instead of seconds.

How long can we go on spending like this?

Perhaps it is time for the citizens to impose our own term limits on those who insist on more government control of our lives and giving us, our children and our grandchildren a debt load that is unsustainable and incomprehensible. We still have the right to vote out of office those who do not represent our values.

By the way, what is it called when the government forces its citizens to do something that its own members will not accept for themselves? Hmm.

LETTER: Dodd an example of need for term limits in Senate

The New Haven Register

I give John Carusone a lot of credit for his letter breaking from the party line. U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd has worn out his welcome and it is time for him to go.

He is a perfect example why we need term limits in the Senate. He has been part of the best club in the world, the Senate, for too long.

His poor judgment is good reason to be up in arms. Was he supporting Connecticut when he moved his family to Iowa for his feeble run for president?

He was a leading member, now chairman, of the Banking Committee when the country went through the worst banking and housing crisis since the Depression. If he was running a company, he would have been terminated for cause. Instead, he got a raise like all members of Congress.

What about all the special interest donations to his campaigns from companies like Countrywide and AIG?

The debacle of the AIG affair had to be the icing on the cake. AIG has been one of his largest campaign supporters. He supported the bonus payments to the AIG executives and lied about it on national television. How stupid does he think we are?

I have been a registered Democrat my entire life and I strongly support dumping Dodd.

Mike Carbray

Hamden

We must take back control of Congress

The Leaf Chronicle

Our law-making Congress is made up of honest and the less- than-honest representatives. What an atmosphere for the honest representative to try and do what is best for our country!

Perhaps "We the people" ask too much! Maybe the system itself needs adjusting — consider having the representative, after serving two terms, withdraw, taking the time to refresh his values and to become reacquainted with his constituents.

A newly elected representative would have the opportunity to bring solutions and ideas. This would break the relationship between the previous two-term representative and those with "deep pockets" wanting favors.

Term limits is the only way to have true representation of the people! "We the people" have to demand it! Get up off your "hands" and write or call your representative. Term limits is the only way for our survival!

"Premier Obama" is not interested in our republic. He is interested in controlling the U.S.S.A. (United Socialist States of America) — take from the rich, give to the idle — entitlements for everyone. Our President and the truth have little in common. "Premier Obama" and labor, hand in hand, plus 32 czars will lead us to bankruptcy

Is there hope? It's up to "We the people"!

C H O'BRIEN

At hearing, voters have their say on term limits

The Boston Globe

Councilor at Large Sam Yoon, who was defeated this fall in his bid to stop Mayor Thomas M. Menino from winning a fifth four-year term, said yesterday he is just one vote shy of having the majority support he needs to advance a measure that would impose a term limit for Boston’s top job.

Yoon insisted several times yesterday that term limits have “nothing to do with Mayor Menino,’’ but the mayor’s longevity in office animated many of the residents who testified in support of the bill at a packed City Council hearing. Several pointed out that no incumbent mayor of Boston has lost a reelection bid since 1949, when James Michael Curley, who had served five months in federal prison for mail fraud, was ousted by John Hynes.

“Voters do feel a chilling effect when they feel like the election outcome is out of their hands with a perpetual incumbent,’’ said Sandy Kautz, who described herself as an activist from Roslindale.

“I believe, especially in Boston, that term limits are crucial, because our system is a strong-mayor system, where there are very little checks and balances, and there is very limited accountability for some of these decisions that a mayor makes.’’

Yoon’s bill, which would require approval by Menino and the Legislature, would limit the mayor to two four-year terms. It would not apply to the City Council.

Councilors Maureen E. Feeney, Mark Ciommo, Bill Linehan, and Charles C. Yancey declared at the hearing that they oppose the measure.

“Term limits are an antidemocratic measure, because it would force incumbents who serve a certain term to step down,’’ said Yancey, who has served for 25 years on the City Council. “The people should decide when they step down.’’

Linehan said he would not support term limits “in any way, shape, or form.’’

“It limits choice and the opportunity to participate,’’ he said.

And Feeney invoked the late US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who served 47 years in office.

“Surely, the state and the country would have lost so much if we had placed term limits on his time in office,’’ she said.

Yoon said he currently has the support of five other councilors on the 13-member council: Michael F. Flaherty Jr., Michael P. Ross, Chuck Turner, John R. Connolly, and John M. Tobin Jr.

Tobin said he would support term limits only if they applied to city councilors as well. Connolly said he would introduce an amendment that would limit councilors to six two-year terms.

Yoon said he is willing to make those changes if that is what his colleagues want. “I’m looking for a win,’’ he said. The council is scheduled to vote on the issue tomorrow at its final meeting of the year.

Menino has not said whether he would sign a term limits measure.

During his reelection campaign this fall, Menino criticized term limits, declaring during one debate that he has “term limits every four years,’’ when the city holds mayoral elections. But Kevin McCrea, a South End businessman who ran against Menino in this year’s mayor’s race, asserted at the council hearing that the mayor had told him over dinner at Hamersley’s Bistro that he would sign a term-limits bill if it came to his desk.

In an interview with WBZ-AM yesterday morning, Menino said “continuity in office isn’t a bad thing’’ and that the public “has the opportunity to make those decisions who is their mayor for the next four years.’’

Still, he said, “whatever the council will do, I’ll look at and try to do the best I can.’’

Dot Joyce, a Menino spokeswoman, refused to elaborate, saying term limits are a “council issue.’’ She would not comment on Menino’s conversation with McCrea, saying it was “a private dinner.’’

The measure would not be retroactive. Menino, already the longest-serving mayor in Boston history, could run for two more four-year terms if the bill became law.

In Massachusetts, only two cities impose term limits on their mayors, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Lawrence limits its mayor to two four-year terms, while Methuen’s mayor is limited to three two-year terms.

At the hearing yesterday, many residents argued that the measure would encourage more competitive municipal elections, increase voter turnout, and bring fresh ideas and new leadership to City Hall. Feeney, who chaired the hearing, said she had received 70 phone calls and e-mails about the issue - the vast majority of them supporting term limits.

ChunFai Chan, a West Roxbury resident who worked on Yoon’s campaign, likened the current mayoral election system to “a three-day-old piece of bread sitting on the kitchen table.’’ Anne M. Pistorio, a member of the North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association, said, “The job-for-life mentality has to go.’’

And Dorothea Jones, a member of the Democratic State Committee from Roxbury, said, “Entrenched power does not mean more democracy.’’

If the office were limited to two terms, “the existing mayor will focus more on the job at hand than on maintaining a political machine,’’ said Stephen Gaun, a policy analyst intern at MassVote, a nonpartisan voting rights group that is backing Yoon’s bill.

Only one resident spoke out against term limits. Mary McCarthy of Dorchester said “term limits already exist’’ in the form of quadrennial mayoral elections.

“That is the power of the vote,’’ McCarthy said. “We can choose who we want.’’

Backers of mayoral term limits speak at City Council hearing

The Boston Herald

Dozens of supporters of a proposal calling for mayoral term limits spoke out at a City Council hearing this morning, saying the measure would increase voter turnout, spur fresh ideas and restore democracy to the Hub’s municipal elections.

“The job-for-life concept has got to go,” said Anne M. Pistorio of the North End, one of nearly 60 people who filled the Council chambers to back a resolution by departing Councilor Sam Yoon that would ban a mayor from serving no more than two four-year terms in a row.

Yoon, who noted that nine of 10 largest cities in the country have some form of mayoral term limits, said his proposal is not targeting Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who was just elected to a historic fifth consecutive four-year term.

“This is has nothing to do with Mayor Menino,” he said. “This has to do with the next 20, 30 and 40 years and (improving) the city my children will inherit.”

Yoon plans to bring his ordinance to a vote at the council’s final meeting of the year on Wednesday. He said he has gotten nods from five other councilors who support his bid. He needs seven for it to be passed before it can be sent to the mayor for his approval and then sent to the state Legislature for possible passage.

In order to gain the backing of Councilor John Tobin, Yoon said he is considering amending the proposal to also cap the terms of City Councilors, limiting them to serving no more than 12 consecutive years in office or six two-year terms. Comments

Anderson backs amendment to limit Congress terms

Kansas.gov

Fourth District Congressional candidate Jim Anderson today announced his support for a constitutional amendment to establish term limits for members of Congress.

“Now is the time to put an end to career politicians,” Anderson said in a statement.

Anderson, a small-business owner, former airline pilot and self-decribed “constitutional conservative,” is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat now held by Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard.

Early in his congressional career in 1995, Tiahrt supported limiting representatives to six two-year terms.

He’s now serving his eighth term.

The proposed amendment Anderson supports was drafted by four Repulican senators: Sam Brownback of Kansas, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas.

It would limit senators to a total of two six-year terms and House members to three two-year terms.

“If we are truly going to start restoring our country in 2010, we must begin at the root of the problem, and elect people that truly want to serve the public, not live off their confiscated earnings,” Anderson said. “The Founding Fathers never intended for citizens to find permanent homes in Washington D.C. They certainly never intended for them to serve national party and special interests over their constituency. But that is what continues to happen, and the country cannot financially or morally afford it any longer.”

Time to unload Albany incumbents

LoHud.com

Re "Ex-GOP leader guilty of fraud," Tuesday article:

OK, so Joe Bruno has been convicted. Let's see now if his sentence is something meaningful or just a slap on the wrist.

There has existed a need for ethics reform in Albany for years, if not for decades. So, while our state's lawmakers pontificate, ponder, cogitate, discuss and debate ethics, we, the citizens of New York, should enact our own ethics reform. At the next election, let's vote all the incumbents out. Let's forget about voting for our favorite party and vote against all those serving in Albany at the time. And keep voting them out until they get the message that they represent us, the voters, not their business partners or corporations.

To those formulating the ethics reform, I suggest that term limits (no more than two terms) be incorporated. Term limits will not allow our lawmakers the time to acquire the power and cultivate the friendships needed to become corrupt; or if they are already corrupt, will not allow them to do too much damage. There are those who would object to term limits on the premise that we need experienced lawmakers in Albany. Let me remind them that Mr. Bruno has more than 30 years' worth of experience. Many other politicians convicted of ethics violations, such as Guy Velella, also had many years of experience. Do we need or want that kind of experience? Can we afford that kind of experience?

Chris Malek

Lake Peekskill

US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison makes it official, files to run for Texas governor

LA Times

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison formally entered the Texas governor's race Monday, taking on two-term incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in the March primary.

Hutchison, filing her paperwork at the state Republican Party headquarters, threw jabs at Perry by suggesting he isn't as popular as she is with voters and chastising him for what she said is "cronyism and mismanagement" in his office. Perry filed last week to run for an unprecedented third term.

Hutchison said there is a revolving door between Perry's office and lobbyists and said she would push for ethics reform if elected.

"I think it's time for us to have term limits for governor," Hutchison said. "It is time that we have limits on campaign contributions so that people know that you're not going to be able to buy access with millions of dollars in campaign contributions."

Hutchison has co-sponsored legislation that would limit U.S. senators to no more than two six-year terms, but she is now in her third full term. Hutchison has said she will remain in the Senate while running.

Perry and Hutchison have been squaring off for months, even before both were officially in the race. Party activist Debra Medina also is running. The winner of the March 2 primary will face the Democratic nominee in November 2010.

Responding to Hutchison's filing, Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the senator has spent 16 years in Washington and has lost touch with Texans through her "record of voting for bailouts, earmarks and record deficits." Miner said Texas is better off economically because of Perry's leadership in job creation and limiting spending.

Hutchison repeated her familiar campaign themes of protecting private property rights and improving education and the transportation system.

Speaking later Monday to about 1,200 people at the Texas Farm Bureau's annual convention in Fort Worth, Hutchison said that if she is elected governor, the government won't be able to take property for private purposes, underpay farmers and then turn it over to a foreign company. She said among her first acts as governor would be ensuring that lawmakers can consider private property legislation early in their 2011 session.

Hutchison also said that if she's elected, the Trans-Texas Corridor project will "really be dead." The farm bureau, which endorsed Hutchison, has opposed Perry's toll road network plan that threatens to take farm and ranch land.

Hutchison also said Monday she wants to work with Texas law enforcement officers to get them federally authorized training that could help them learn to properly question and handle suspects who may be illegal immigrants and to work with federal authorities in the deportation process.

That may have been a reference to the new Democratic candidate in the race, Houston Mayor Bill White, who supported local policies restricting police officers' ability to inquire about immigration status until a suspect has been arrested on a criminal charge.

Hutchison called White a credible candidate, and said she is the one who can triumph in the 2010 election.

"I am the conservative who can win this race," Hutchison said.

Asked about her strategy for defeating Perry in a Republican primary where social conservatives who tend to back him reliably show up to vote, Hutchison pointed to her record of winning general elections for Senate with more than 60 percent of the vote, compared with Perry's 39 percent in 2006 when he had three well-known competitors for governor.

"I think Republicans will look at winning, they will look at strengthening the Republican Party and they will see that I am the candidate who can win," Hutchison said.

Meanwhile, Perry's camp chided Hutchison for skipping an event at a World War II museum and campaigning instead. Hutchison's campaign said foggy weather prevented her plane from reaching the event in Fredericksburg.

N.C. group recruits for new term-limit pledge idea

WRAL.com

RALEIGH, N.C. — A novel method to persuade politicians to fulfill term-limit pledges came to John Skvarla of Pinehurst three years ago when his specialty construction company got bonded for an upcoming job.

Maybe, he thought, politicians could bring fresh and real meaning to the phrase "my word is my bond."

"It was like a eureka moment," the 61-year-old Skvarla said. "We can have elected representatives who are immune from the need to be re-elected."

Skvarla founded last spring the Alliance for Bonded Term Limits, which is trying to recruit candidates nationwide to sign legal documents pledging to give large amounts of their personal money to charity if they serve more time in Congress or a legislature than they promise.

The Moore County-based Alliance says three candidates already have agreed to sign the monetary pledges, including two GOP congressional hopefuls in North Carolina in 2010. More are interested. The decisions could help invigorate a national term-limits movement that lost some momentum since its heyday 15 years ago.

As a politician, "people assume you're a lying piece of garbage," quipped 10th Congressional District candidate Scott Keadle, who said he'll give away $500,000 if he serves beyond six years if he's elected in 2010. "I'm not asking people to trust me, but they can trust me to ensure that I can't afford a half-million dollars."

Limiting the amount of time politicians can serve on Capitol Hill and in statehouses nationwide would send home lawmakers who have so much power and influence that they've forgotten their constituents, to the gain of special interest groups, according to bond supporters.

The president and governors in more than 35 states already have term limits.

"Congress has become detached from the electorate. A good portion of that is connected to too many terms in office," said Kenneth Benway of Whispering Pines, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army and the Alliance's president. Like Skvarla, Benway is a registered unaffiliated voter.

The nonpartisan, not-for-profit Alliance is recruiting candidates through a Web site, e-mail blasts and YouTube. The Alliance gives potential candidates information on how to assemble a legally binding monetary pledge.

The Alliance's first convert was 7th Congressional District candidate Will Breazeale, who signed in October in Wilmington a promissory note pledging to give $250,000 to Kids Voting, a civil participation group for children, if he wins in 2010 but serves more than six years in Congress. Breazeale lost two years ago to Democratic incumbent Mike McIntyre.

It will be up to voters to decide whether pledges by Breazeale and Keadle - an Iredell County commissioner who wants to challenge U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry in next May's GOP primary - are impressive or a publicity stunt. Victories for either candidate would be considered upsets.

Philip Blumel, president of U.S. Term Limits, said his advocacy group has some questions about the practicality of such a monetary pledge but called the Alliance another positive grassroots effort for the movement.

Fifteen states currently cap the number of consecutive or overall years a person can serve in their state House or Senate, all of which were approved by voter referenda, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. North Carolina doesn't have term limits for legislators.

Term limit opponents argue Legislatures benefit from experienced lawmakers who can shepherd complex bills and provide context to younger colleagues. And voters already have the power to oust lawmakers at the ballot box.

There had been about 20 states with limits during the 1990s, but the movement took some hits.

Republicans in Congress who made term limits part of their "Contract with America" failed to pass any bills. Courts repealed some limits, including laws in 22 states that had placed term limits on their federal legislators - the U.S. Supreme Court said the U.S. constitution would have to be changed to do so.

Blumel said it's also been hard to make inroads in states that have no voter initiative and referendum procedures: "Polling shows there's never been a time when the citizens did not want term limits."

But voters often don't punish their own representatives much when they break a self-imposed pledge.

In 2006, 10 of 12 GOP House members whose voluntary term-limit pledge was up that year ran for re-election anyway, and nine of them won, according to data collected by researcher Richard Niemi and a colleague. Evidence is also scant about whether state term limits change the behavior of legislators, said Niemi, a professor at the University of Rochester.

"Studies also haven't found a great difference between people who have come on board to state legislatures after term limits have gone into effect," he said.

Alliance leaders such as Skvarla disagree. They say the bond idea will encourage integrity among lawmakers and help them focus more on improving America and less on the next election.

Jacksonville City Council term limits: Eight years is plenty

Jacksonville.com

Former Jacksonville City Councilman Lad Daniels says term limits should be relaxed.

"I would have been more effective had I been able to be there longer," Daniels told the Charter Revision Commission, as reported in a Times-Union article.

Spoken like a true politician.

Members currently can serve only two four-year terms consecutively. Then their names must be left off the ballot for one election.

After that, they may run for the same council seat again, which is the case with Council members Denise Lee and Warren Jones.

The theory behind term limits is that fresh ideas are important, too.

Daniels' theory makes sense for a tiny city, not one with nearly 1 million people. There are plenty of talented people in Duval County, ones that aren't slow learners.

Daniels should put his well-intentioned time and efforts to more productive use - advocating staggered terms, for example.

As The Times-Union noted, half of all council members typically are newcomers after each election.

And it may be a lot worse after the 2015 election - when as many as 14 of 19 council members could be "term limited" out of office.

Nobody thinks it's a good idea for an overwhelming majority of council members to be newcomers.

The obvious solution is to stagger terms. The Duval County School Board does it with no fuss.

For one election cycle, however, some council members may serve longer than a few others. Figuring out who gets the extra time in office has been politically unpopular.

Here is one simple solution. Draw council seat numbers out of a hat.

Term limits are here to stay. But they don't work properly without staggering elections, too.

The public clearly supports term limits. Listen to the people and do it right with staggered terms.

Honduran congress votes against ousted president

cnn.com

(CNN) -- Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya will not be reinstated as head of state, an overwhelming majority of the Honduran congress voted Wednesday.

In an hours-long process, 111 lawmakers voted in favor of a motion not to return Zelaya to office. A majority of 65 votes in the 128-member body was required to reject his reinstatement.

Zelaya was removed from office in a military-led coup on June 28 and replaced by congressional leader Roberto Micheletti.

On Wednesday, lawmakers voted one by one and addressed the chamber as they cast their vote, making for a slow process.

The vote was a key part of a U.S.-brokered pact that representatives for Zelaya and Micheletti signed October 29, giving Congress the power to decide Zelaya's fate.

Hondurans elected a new president, opposition candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa, on Sunday. He assumes office January 27.

Zelaya, who says he does not recognize the election, also has said he would not accept the post even if Congress voted him back in. Accepting the job, he said, would legitimize the coup.

Many nations said before the Sunday's election they would withhold recognition if Zelaya were not returned to power.

Some countries, such as the United States, Colombia and Costa Rica, have said they will recognize Lobo. Others, such as Argentina, Brazil and Spain, have said they will not.

Despite the diplomatic pressure from abroad, lawmakers were voting the will of the people, Congressman Juan Angel Rivera Tabora said.

"History will judge us, and I'm certain it will judge us positively," he said. "Congress didn't make this problem. The problem came to us."

Those voting against Zelaya echoed those sentiments. After the coup, the same body voted to install Micheletti as interim president. Wednesday vote only happened because the agreement between the two sides called for it, many lawmakers repeated.

Zelaya's supporters argued that the coup was an illegal act that only restitution could heal.

Congress sought opinions from the nation's Supreme Court and other bodies before holding the vote. The court ruled last week that Zelaya cannot return to office without facing trial on charges that he acted unconstitutionally when he tried to hold a vote that could have led to the removal of presidential term limits. The Supreme Court had ruled before the coup that the vote was illegal and Congress had forbidden it.

The coup came on the day the term-limits vote was to have been held.

Micheletti and his supporters have insisted that Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power, not a coup.

But the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the European Union and most nations -- including the United States -- condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated immediately. He wasn't.

Zelaya, who was flown out of the country while still in his pajamas on the day of the coup, has been staying at the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras' capital since secretly returning to the country September 21.