Category: term limits

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term limits

Wow, This Job Is Tough

It’s a dirty job, kicking voters in the teeth. But somebody’s gotta do it.

I speak of the craven marionettes of the New York City Council, complaining how tough it is to abet Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s assault on democracy. Bloomberg demanded a third term in office. He pulled strings.

Polls show that voters like the two-​term limit that they twice endorsed at the ballot box. So instead of asking voters to change their minds, city politicians connived to ignore them.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn explained that ignoring voters is demanded by these hard times. Weakening term limits is a “vote and a choice” that is “a difficult one,” but you know, the city is now, she says, “facing the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression.” Ergo voters must be treated like chopped liver. Sequitur, meet non. Non sequitur.

Councilman Simcha Felder concurs.

“Before us today is a very difficult decision, and one which we have been elected to make,” Felder told his colleagues.

You see, voters elected Felder to ignore the voters and keep himself in power longer against their wishes. So what else could he do? Why oh why can’t the stupid voters protesting this unilateral overthrow of term limits understand this?

The poor politicians. Nobody understands how tough they have it, serving their narrow political self-​interest and sticking it to the citizenry. It is the weight of the world.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
term limits too much government

A Barney Frank Appraisal

Guess what: The disastrous policies that spawned our recent mortgage crisis prove that congressional term limits would be a very bad idea.

Not my opinion, I hasten to add. It’s the view of one Edward Tucker, writing a letter to the Wilmington [DE] News-​Journal. Sorry, Ed, about how this Internet thing keeps your communiqué from dropping immediately into the ash heap of history.

Tucker’s view is typical of those who claim term limits would disastrously eject “experience” from the halls of power. He has nothing but praise for the expertise and gab gift of Representative Barney Frank, who has clung to his seat since 1981.

“The ability of only a few elected officials, such as … Barney Frank of Massachusetts, to speak intelligently about financial issues…has been impressive and reminds us that elected officials can grow expertise in office.”

Sorry, Mr. Tucker. But Barney was not one of the few congressmen who had been trying to curb the reckless lending policies of the Federal Reserve and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (The three Big Fat F’s that each deserve a Big Fat F.) Frank was, frankly, one of the chief enablers of federal policies that pushed easy credit and shaky mortgage loans.

Long-​time incumbents may become expert indeed at spewing plausible-​sounding nonsense in front of the cameras. But expertise in con-​artistry isn’t quite the cure-​all it’s cracked up to be.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
term limits

A Bloombergian, Buzzing Confusion

A politician has changed his mind about term limits.

Over the years, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City has often expressed firm support for the city’s two-​term limit on officials. But lately his comments about term limits have been getting fuzzier.

And now the newspapers report that the mayor openly supports a unilateral revision by the city council to weaken the limits from two terms to three.

The change would have to be unilateral. Bloomberg is a popular mayor, but his own polling shows that most New Yorkers, although they may like him, would dislike any weakening of the term limits law.

New Yorkers passed the two-​term limit in 1993. They confirmed their support in 1996. Bloomberg and city councilors will be showing an extraordinary contempt for the voters if they dictatorially trash term limits to cling to power.

The bad news gets worse, alas.

Ronald Lauder, the billionaire who financed the term-​limits drive in 1993, now says he supports a third term for Bloomberg, and supports bypassing voters.

Lauder contends that in these trying financial times, it is just too risky to let anyone else man the helm. Funny, though, how the city managed to carry on in the wake of 9/​11, letting Mayor Giuliani step down. That was a worse mess.

But then, the mess may be in the eye of the incumbent.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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term limits

Reader’s Remorse

You know what buyer’s remorse is, right? The New York Times doesn’t.

When you purchase something and then realize it wasn’t worth what you paid, that’s buyer’s remorse. The Times stretched the concept to enacting a public policy and then realizing the policy isn’t working.

David Chen and Michael Barbaro’s recent article on term limits led off by informing us that “A decade after communities around the country adopted term limits, at least two dozen city governments are suffering from a case of buyer’s remorse.”

But hold on. City governments [read: city politicians] didn’t bring us term limits. It was the voters, using the initiative process. Because politicians never “bought” the idea, they can’t have buyer’s remorse.

Politicians do complain about term limits. For instance, Tacoma, Washington, Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg fears that if she has to give up her seat a $2 million pedestrian and bike trail she’s been pushing might not be completed.

In Rowlett, Texas, a Dallas suburb, the mayor decries that term limits make it harder to land positions on national organizations like the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

New Yorkers have twice voted for term limits. Still no voter’s remorse. That’s why Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council are scheming to repeal the limits, without a vote of the people.

Many have talked about Bloomberg as a possible independent candidate for president. But it looks like he’ll go down as just another politician.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall term limits

Fast-​Moving Planet

This presidential campaign is about change, but it’s outside of government that change comes fast and furious. Maybe it’s just my advancing age but the world seems to be speeding 90 miles an hour into the future.

Actually, we’re spinning at over 1,000 miles an hour and soaring around the Sun at 67 times that rate. Some days it feels like it.

Yes, there is going to be change. It ought to come from us, not the insiders — or the politicians running to purportedly change Washington, or to change your neck of the woods, often after decades in office.

Most of our changes won’t come through government policies. They’ll happen in the marketplace, or at church, through a non-​profit group, or in the neighborhood or family. But some changes do require politics.

Then, “We, the People” must be able to act. Which means citizens must be able to pass an initiative or call a referendum on a law passed by legislators.

Americans overwhelmingly agree, but some reformers don’t get it.

Once I argued with a major term limits supporter who suggested that term limits would improve legislatures enough to render the initiative process unnecessary.

Not long after, I debated an advocate of public financing for political campaigns. He said the initiative wouldn’t be needed once his reform was achieved.

There are many reforms. Because we live in an ever-​changing world, we need the ability to keep making reforms. That’s the voter initiative.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
term limits

Helter Keller

In 2000, Florida Congressman Ric Keller was just Citizen Keller, running for Congress for the first time.

An October 2000 news story states, “Regardless of whether Democrat Linda Chapin or Republican Ric Keller wins Orange County’s congressional battle, neither one of them will be in the seat past 2008. Both Chapin and Keller have signed pledges limiting themselves to eight years in office.”

Now, that was optimistic. But hey: I was optimistic too.

After Keller won his first term, I saw him speak at a conference sponsored by U.S. Term Limits. He was persuasive about the virtue of serving a few years, then stepping down. No big deal for him to leave Washington and return to Florida to enjoy balmy lakeside life. Keller was very aw-​shucks and folksy about it.

That was then. Now Keller has decided eight years in one political office is not enough, despite his pledge.

He’s telling reporters that as a “rookie candidate” he just didn’t understand the importance of seniority in Washington. Hmm. That’s funny. I thought one of the best reasons to support term limits was because we understand how seniority works in Washington!

There’s also the issue of integrity versus self-​interest. Other leaders have kept term-​limit pledges: Mark Sanford, now the governor of South Carolina; Tom Coburn, now a U.S. Senator; and Keller’s fellow Floridian, Charles Canady, who was just nominated to serve on the state supreme court. Unlike Keller they’ve succeeded and kept their integrity.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.