A South Carolina senator has introduced a constitutional amendment that would set congressional term limits. It should carry the image of a certain West Virginia senator who's been in Washington far too long.
Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, the amendment's sponsor, is correct when he says "real change in Washington will never happen until we end the era of permanent politicians."
Perpetual re-election, based far more on seeding home districts and states with taxpayers' money than promoting and protecting the Constitution and the liberties it guarantees, becomes the life's work of many lawmakers. This sordid convention has no place in a nation established as a haven from heavy-handed government.
But rather than make the argument that the founders intended for the legislative branch to be run by citizen lawmakers and not professional officeholders, we offer Sen. Robert Byrd as a prime example of why term limits should be considered.
Byrd has been around for a while. The Democrat has been in the Senate since 1959, making him the longest-serving senator and congressman in history. He was a U.S. senator before Barack Obama was born, taking office two days after Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government. Prior to being a senator, he served six years in the U.S. House and six years in the West Virginia legislature.
Byrd has been on the Senate Appropriations Committee for a half century and is considered the King of Pork. He was the first in Congress to bring home more than $1 billion in pork barrel spending for his state. Citizens Against Government Waste reports that from 1991 to 2008 -- spanning only about one-third of his Senate career -- Byrd secured $3.3 billion in taxpayers' money for West Virginia.
To see Byrd in action is to witness the most contemptible behavior one can imagine from a person who's been entrusted to make federal policy. For those who have never had the pleasure, a video is easily found on YouTube.com. Type "Big Daddy" and "Robert Byrd" into the search window and brace yourself.
In this 2006 performance at a Marshall University building dedication, Byrd bragged that "our efforts to construct this facility and create a stronger foundation for a biotech industry here in West Virginia began -- where? -- with a visit to my office ... by former Marshall University president Wade Gilley."
"Man, you're looking at Big Daddy!" he crowed. "Big Daddy!"
As the audience rollicked to his pandering, Byrd shamelessly boasted that he had added $35.6 million in federal funds for the -- you guessed it -- Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center.
#1 The quality of the rest of the Senate has increased Byrd's standing in my eyes. Oddly, he seems to be one of the few with at least some scruples, some degree of a moral compass. This sounds like damning with faint praise, and it is in a way. When everyone around you is an obvious felon and you are just a scoundrel, you win by default.
Posted by Whiskey Mike 2009-11-25 06:01||
2009-11-25 06:01||
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#2 Mentioned Video:
Don't forget Robert Byrd was the old Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan. Is there anything in W. Viginia which hasn't been named after this turd?
Posted by CrazyFool 2009-11-25 08:27||
2009-11-25 08:27||
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#4 Don't forget Robert Byrd was the old Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan.
:)
Not that there's anything wrong with that of course.
Posted by Perry Stanford White 2009-11-25 08:39||
2009-11-25 08:39||
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#5 I'm torn on this. It's not clear that the ignorant people of West Virginia would send us a better senator if we made them pick a new one every two terms. But the people with the seniority in Washington would become the staffers and lobbyists. Term limits has not worked well in Caliphornia.
Vigilant control of elected officials by the electorate is what is needed. Term limits won't provide it. Perhaps Tea Parties will.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-11-25 09:36||
2009-11-25 09:36||
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#6 In states with term limits the various politicians just switch chairs every few years.
Posted by Glenmore 2009-11-25 09:45||
2009-11-25 09:45||
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#7 But the people with the seniority in Washington would become the staffers and lobbyists.
Note that your uniform services usually 'rotate' people in and out of assignments every 2 to 4 years and senior civilian people rotate with each change of administration. While the services do suffer a mark degree of institutional entropy, it also has shown a remarkable degree of adaptability to change that other Beltway bureaucracies have not.
Posted by Procopius2k 2009-11-25 12:16||
2009-11-25 12:16||
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#8 Nimble Spimble is right. Term limits have not worked in Kaliphornia. All it means is that politicians are inexperienced and incompetent on top of being crooked and irresponsible. We can turn these people out whenever there is an election but the problem is that we don't. Part of the problem is the special interests who find candidates who will do their bidding and then finance their campaigns. When a politician gets termed out the special interests will find some new fool. But in the end, somebody has to vote for these clowns and so the root of the problem is the voters. We get the government we deserve.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2009-11-25 12:24||
2009-11-25 12:24||
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#9 Just look at WV's other senator; he makes Byrd look like a tower of intelligence and integrity. And just in case anyone thinks I like Byrd, I do not.
Posted by Whiskey Mike 2009-11-25 12:29||
2009-11-25 12:29||
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#10 Yeah but at least the shitbags will have to get real jobs eventually.
Posted by Hellfish 2009-11-25 12:34||
2009-11-25 12:34||
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#11 Don Garlets IS the Big Daddy. He, unlike Byrd, is God fearing, honest and hard working....
Posted by 49 Pan">49 Pan
2009-11-25 23:41||
2009-11-25 23:41||
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A South Carolina senator has introduced a constitutional amendment that would set congressional term limits. It should carry the image of a certain West Virginia senator who's been in Washington far too long.