Monday, May 7, 2001
If the career politicians were going to stop term limits anywhere, they were going to stop them in Florida. The “Eight is Enough” term limit initiative passed with 77 percent of the vote.
But that wasn’t good enough for the politicians, who spent years suing the voters to stop term limits. Finally the Florida Supreme Court said no, the voters knew what they were doing; the term limits stand.
But no career politician worth his salt is going to let the voters enjoy their democratic victory unmolested, right? So now the Florida careerists not only want to extend their potential stay in office from 8 years to 12: they also want to increase the length of each individual term.
Under a proposed ballot measure, House terms would be 4 years instead of 2; Senate terms would be 6 years instead of 4. Senate Majority Leader Tom Rossin, the measure’s sponsor, says that, quote, “one reason the Senate is more [deliberative] than the House is that we have 4 years instead of 2. You’re not looking over your shoulder saying, ‘Am I going to get in trouble?’ ”
Uh, excuse me? Get in trouble with whom the voters? The logical conclusion of this sort of reasoning is that the politicians should just serve for life, and never have to concern themselves with those pesky voters at all.
Max Linn, president of Florida Citizens for Term Limits, has the best response to this kind of malarkey. He says: “Eight is enough and borders on too much.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.