Take It To The Limit, One More Time

Now that Republicans are out of power, three Senate Republicans are eager to put forward an amendment to the Constitution that would limit House members to three terms and Senators to two terms.

Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) amendment would limit House members to three terms and senators to two terms. Every lawmaker then could serve no longer than six years in Congress. DeMint said term limits are a reaction to the influence of special interest groups on Capitol Hill, corruption, high federal deficits, and a Democratic agenda he says will increase the size of government.

"Americans know real change in Washington will never happen until we end the era of permanent politicians," said DeMint in a statement. "As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward...amassing their own power."

Two thirds of the House and Senate as well as three quarters of the states would need to vote for DeMint's amendment for it to become a part of the Constitution.

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) cosponsored the bill. Coburn has long supported term limits. He retired from the House in 2000 after being elected in 1994, pledging only to serve three consecutive terms.

States imposed Congressional term limits in the early 90's and those were thrown out in 1995 when the Supreme Court said that Congressional term limits imposed by states were unconstitutional, basically meaning that an Constitutional amendment was necessary to do so.

Part of the Contract With America platform in 1995 was a Constitutional amendment to do just that. Republicans completely failed to pass it. They failed in 1995 and again in 1997, and after that just kind of gave up. After all, why slit their own throats?

But hey, now that the Dems are running things, suddenly that Constitution thing matters again. Funny how that works.

Me, I'd love to see a bipartisan effort to impose term limits. Not going to happen, ever.