Term limits have lately become a popular topic of conversation. When a lot of folks start getting fed up with what’s happening in Washington, term limits are sometimes becomes strategy #1 for solving the problem. But it’s like the idea of a flat tax or domestic drilling… it sounds good as a sound bite, but what does it really end up meaning, and why do we really think it’s going to help?

Frankly, I was a big supporter of the idea some years ago (back when Neal Smith represented my US House district in Congress), but I have figured out that the reason I was such a big supporter was specifically because of Neal Smith. That is, I wanted him out of office, and term limits sounded like an easy way to accomplish it. It was a specific, tactical, selfish reason.

I certainly recognize that there are other reasons, some of which are compelling. Let’s make a list, shall we?

I don’t like the person who’s currently my (legislator, governor, etc.). From my own party, I’ve heard activists actually say “How else do we get rid of Tom Harkin (Senator from Iowa)?”. Wow, so then what happens when we get someone in office who we actually like? You can’t have it both ways… implementing term limits is not the way to move your agenda forward. Term limits will likely cause us more difficulty in moving the agenda forward. What you need is to bring candidates who can win elections.

Two terms (or one, or three, whatever the number of the month is) are enough for anyone to accomplish what they need to accomplish. If the purpose of sending someone to represent us in Washington or our state capital is to accomplish some singular thing, this might actually make sense. But the purpose of the legislatures includes doing a good deal of work that must be [...]

It’s been an interesting week so far as reaction to the whole Joe The Plumber escapade has heightened people’s awareness of Barack Obama’s agenda.

For the sake of full disclosure, and ensuring people don’t accuse me of taking his words out of context, you can see the full transcript of the conversation between Obama and Joe here. I’m going to focus on one sentence that Obama said:

I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.

One can argue a hundred different opinions on this topic, and there’s been a lot of comments around how this is a Socialist agenda (and many consider this to be pretty obvious). However, the new argument from the Left is that there’s nothing new here that make Obama’s plans more Socialist than we are today. Or more Socialist than we have been for nearly 100 years. I received an email

Seven years ago today our world changed.  Expressing how that day felt and how it has changed the way we live today I will leave to the rest of the world today.  It was a day of great heroism and pain, and I cannot forget it.  It hurts.
My concern today is how quickly we seem [...]

Lyle Denniston at the SCOTUS Blog provides some interesting insight into today’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, a death-penalty case that has now been overturned by the high court. This was a case of child rape. Eight years old. By the her step-father.
The court is wrong.
As Lyle observes, the court has [...]

President Bush and Senator John McCain are both now promoting off-shore domestic drilling.  Hallelujah.  It took them long enough.
But it is, amazingly, going to yet be an uphill battle.  As long as Democrats continue to stand on weak, worthless principles, like “anywhere buy my backyard”, we’re going to have to fight for the things that [...]

This afternoon, my post about Iowa considering raising the Gas Tax to help pay for flood recovery was clicked into by someone on the “house.gov” network… that is, someone probably working in some congressperson’s office took a look at the post.. I have no idea who.  But less than an hour later, I notice a [...]

Not that anyone should be shocked, but definitely frustrated, but today’s Washington Post provides some insight to the plans of Congress with regard to converting more and more land over to federal protection control.  You know what’s scary?  If this had been the approach Congress took when Thomas Jefferson was president, we’d still be all [...]

John Hawkins at Right Wing News today proclaimed an about-face on his position regarding John McCain. Granted, Hawkins is not make a huge shift in position, since he has shared the same opinion of many of us that McCain is far from conservative and not what we consider the ideal candidate. But he [...]

My dad hates labels. We’ve had this conversation numerous times in the past regarding how bad it is to put a label on yourself or others as if that label defines who you are.
I understand where he’s coming from in many respects, and yet I also maintain a need to use short expressions clarify [...]

Joe Lieberman, Independent Senator from Connecticut (although, oh, he does still caucus with the Democrats in the Senate) explains his position supporting John McCain today in the Stamford Advocate. Lieberman says McCain is “really a reformer” who is not bogged down by partisan politics.
You’ll recall that in January Lieberman and McCain co-authored a well-written [...]