Weiner Problems? Try Term Limitations

Front and Center Senator

Giggity Giggity Goo!

This front and center Senator, Anthony Weiner, got me to thinking about how tired I am of career politicians.  Seeing Weiner in the news, I knew he reminded me of someone…QUAGMIRE from The Family Guy!  After all, they are both “perverts” of sorts.  When politicians start to resemble cartoon characters, it’s past time for term limits. 
I realize that many Americans believe that VOTING is EQUAL to TERM LIMITATIONS.  It is not. 

“Giggity, Giggity Goo”

“Glenn Quagmire, often referred to as just Quagmire, is a fictional character on the animated series Family Guy, best known for his hypersexuality…Aside from these excesses, Quagmire finds sexual arousal in seemingly banal situations, and sexual innuendo in much of the show's dialogue. During such periods of sexual arousal, he invokes several catchphrases, including "giggity giggity goo" (sometimes shortened to simply "giggity", or slowed down, replacing "goo" with "gig-gi-ty").^”

At least the fictional character, Quagmire, is a single pilot, unlike Weiner who is married and is a representative (New York Congressman) of our nation.  In ctpost.com’s article, US  congressman admits lying about lewd photo, NEW YORK (AP) ,June 7, 2011, “ Weiner also acknowledged that he had engaged in inappropriate contact with six women over the course of three years through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and occasionally over the phone. He said he had never met or had a physical relationship with any of the women and was not even sure of their ages. He also said he had never had sex outside of his marriage.” 

From Denial to Admission to Rehab--"Poli-Wood" at it's Worst
Maybe you have already heard me use this word--POLI-WOOD.  Politics has turned into a Hollywood sort of scene when in fact, politicians are supposed to be PUBLIC SERVANTS.  But Weiner appears to have attended the Lindsay Lohan school of accountability--boohoo...if you get caught trying to get away with something despicable do the following:

I think I need rehab...in the Bahamas.

1. Vehiamately deny any and all involvement;
2. Cry;
3. Admit that it isn't what it seems;
4. Cry again;
5. Reaffirm how great you are; and
6. Run away to some secluded spot and call it "rehab" or "treatment."

Come on Weiner.  If you are that proud of yourself to show it off on the web, the least you could do is stand up and be a man about it.  You have disgraced your position and do nothing but reinforce the stereotype of the greasy politician.

Career Politicians
In CATO INTITUTE’S, Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace, (Cato Policy Analysis No. 141) October 30, 1990, Policy Analysis—Term Limitation:  An Idea Whose time Has Come the question is raised regarding “term limitations” for members of the House of Representatives.  “Term limits were a part of the nation's first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, and were left out of the Constitution largely because they were thought of as "entering too much into detail" for a short document. Nonetheless, self-imposed limits on officeholders were long a part of America's public-service ethic; members of Congress returned to private life after a couple of terms. With the rise of the modern superstate, term limitation, once the accepted American tradition, has been replaced by congressional careerism. That is why the voluntary service limitations of the past must now be made part of the nation's laws.”

Table 2 Retention of U.S. House Incumbents, 1832-1988
Period	Percentage of Incumbents Seeking Reelection	Percentage of Incumbents Defeated	Percentage of Incumbents Retained
1832-40	56.0	18.3	45.8
1842-50	44.5	19.4	35.9
1852-60	55.4	24.5	41.8
1862-70	54.7	16.4	45.7
1872-80	58.5	20.1	46.7
1882-90	63.3	18.5	51.6
1892-1900	69.3	15.8	58.4
1902-10	78.6	9.8	70.9
1912-20	78.7	12.9	68.5
1922-30	85.9	10.0	77.3
1932-40	82.7	14.2	71.0
1942-50	85.3	12.5	74.6
1952-60	88.9	6.3	82.3
1962-70	88.8	6.4	83.1
1972-80	86.7	5.6	81.8
1982-88	90.9	3.5	87.7
1984-88	91.3	2.4	89.1
1988	93.8	1.5	92.4

Source: Walter Dean Burnham, letter to author.

"Over the past 180 years, the percent of incumbents seeking and obtaining their position in the House has risen from 56% to 94% (in 1988) thus producing the 'career politician.'  The President of the United States is elected for a total of two 4-year terms House of Representatives has UNLIMITED 6-year terms, the U.S Senate UNLIMITED 2-year terms and the Supreme Court has NO term limits (providing 'good behavior') as they are appointed by the United States President and effectively a life-time appointment."

Those who came to America wanted to get away from dictators, kings, and rulers of every kind.  The elitist mentality of the social democtrats are trying to kick us back hundreds of years into a time of a ruling class and a working class. If the founding fathers deemed it important that the President had a term limit and that it was understood that representatives only served a term or two, why do we have so many career politicians?  

Think about it.  If YOU spent your entire life in a room with others like you who had never done anything else other than make judgements about what "the people" need, do you think that you would know what they want?  After all, for most of your life, you didn't even live in the real world?  How could you know?!  This isn't a criticism of their desire to spend their life in politics.  It is an observation of just how out-of-touch career politicians really are with you and me.  It's clear that they are in it for themselves.  They have no intentions of being in touch.

Members of The House and Senate are paid with Taxpayers money receiving approximately $200,000 per year.  “Members of Congress receive retirement and health benefits under the same plans available to other federal employees. They become vested after five years of full participation” per Salaries and Benefits of US Congress Members by Robert Longley, About.com Guide. Sure, WE elect them but the Constitutional intent was a Democracy FOR and BY the PEOPLE.

“The myth that professional legislators are needed to deal with the complexity of government today is exposed by the $14.3 trillion national debt hole that has been created by the very professional politicians who make this argument.  We can no longer afford career politicians who defer tough decisions to commissions and other non-elected bodies.  Limiting terms will allow citizen legislators to come to Washington, DC, fix the problems and then go home to resume their lives, instead of becoming encamped in the cloistered world inside the DC Beltway,” Blumel concluded in U.S. Term Limits citizen Legislators, Not Career Politicians.