I use to be against term-limits. Not anymore.

Me-thinks that if more politicians knew their term was coming to an end, they wouldn't worry so much about keeping their job and then vote their moral conscience. How many times have we heard a politician better watch what they say or they may offend their constituents back home and end up losing their job. So what happens---they've got to walk that fine line which ends up being the same shit year end, year out.

I watched Patrick Murphy, the new congressman last night on Olbermanns show. The dude was walking that fine line and my acid reflex started to kick in. Oh we got to "pray for the troops"... that was his answer when Keitho asked, "what do we do"? Then I read in another thread that er he has to say that to get elected next term.

AND that folks, is why we'll never get the fuck out of the Middle East.

And some of them have been around a hell of a long time, doesn't stop them from being principled.

My personal view on term-limits is that it won't do away with political corruption, in fact, a corrupt congressman who is term limited would probably try to do as much as damage as possible while they still could

I'm just tired of seeing politicians walk the fine line, especially regarding Iraq.

Alousy idea that gets no better the millionth time it's mentioned.

Or at least I had a happy dream that you did.

BTW: You might want to go back to your "give up" thread since folks are thinking that might have "given up" on it.

of personalizing everything. Not to mention being a deft hand at mischaracterizing and twisting what folks say. And calling people who don't agree with l'il trumad, trolls.

This is a horrible accusation and one that I think requires an immediately apology.

I'm hurt--- I'm really hurt.

"Me-thinks that if more politicians knew their term was coming to an end, they wouldn't worry so much about keeping their job and then vote their moral conscience."

Or they'd just go balls-to-the-wall and do whatever would benefit them personally, because they don't have to worry about keeping their job.

to pay close enough attention to what is happening. Not all of it is out of stupidity, most is from ignorance. Not malicious ignorance, just too much stuff going on for any normal person to process. Example; my wife is a very intelligent woman, has a Masters degree, and even watches the news. But she works hard all day, comes home and relaxes with something to read, or with some televised brain candy. But she can't keep up with all the machinations of the swift boaters, the Cabal News, the lying Cheney's, all of it. Too much information. And she's one of the BRIGHT ones. Walk down to a Wal Mart and spend five minutes listening to the conversations you hear among the customers (I'm not singling out WM for any reason other than they are such a huge resource for social anthropology). It is shocking. Americans, as a lot, just aren't that sharp, and are way too busy shopping and taking the kids to their soccer games to pay close enough attention to politics. As a result, they base their decisions upon the sound bites of idiots like Limbaugh and Hannity, or even from the manipulators on our side. We're not immune just because we're dems.

People should have to take a quiz before they're eligible to vote. 1) Name the President, VP, Speaker, in the correct order. 2) T/F: Al Gore said he invented the internet. 3) T/F: Iraq was responsible for the WTC attacks. 4) Do you watch Fox News?

Separate the wheat from the chaff. No voting if you can't name your own state representatives!

Short of this fantasy scenerio, term limits are the only way to clear out the cancer that has become our congress. All that said, I'm still not really in favor of limits. It just seems to go against the whole idea of representative democracy.

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Guys (and women)get elected, who don't know anything about writing bills, so lobbyists write them for them. It's one of the reasons that Jeb Bush got away with all of his bullshit in Florida.

The legislature was passing tax cuts for the rich down here, and passing all kinds of unfunded mandates on the county and local govt. It's specifically prohibited in the State Constitution. They didn't even know it until my friend sat down with her representative, and the County Commission.

They're having a meeting to send a resolution to the legislature to stop it, and demand the money back they've spent otherwise. It's going state-wide soon.

You can't just have a new jackass come to Washington every few years at this point. You need the specialized, career jackass to stay in Washington for as long as they can. But then that's how diminishing returns of increased complexity work.

democrats engage in massive voter registration efforts on the grass-roots level. If there was a serious increase in voter participation in the democratic process, I do not think that "term limits" would be an issue.