One More Time With Feeling
The third time is the charm, but maybe not the last. Again I turn to term limits. I have given in a couple of previous blogs my reasons why I think we should have term limits for our congressmen (No I won't say congresswoman). His name is Larry Craig, "the potty king".
Take a look at the congressional scandals and tell me the average tenure of the perpetrators. I don't know but I will assure you after over a half century of observation, there won't be very many ( if any ) freshman representatives or senators involved. Most of the ones I have observed have significant time on the "hill". I believe I read where Craig had served 26 years. Lets go back to Wilbur Mills, nearly a half century ago. Move on to Dan Rostenkowski with a tenure of about 25 years. What about Foley or Jefferson.
Lord Acton said "power corrupts". All of these guys had accumulated a lot of it. When being in congress ceases being public service and becomes a career, and a very powerful and lucrative one at that, the game changes completely. The main objective becomes to get re-elected. The way to get re-elected is to raise money. The way to raise money is to do favors. The way to do favors is to forget about the common good and use your power to help the selected sugar dads and moms who furnish the bucks.
Along with continued residence in Washington comes a loss of contact with the "home folks". You go home and shake hands a couple of times a year. You keep funds flowing for the bridges, libraries, parks and other sops to the locals. You keep close contact with the big buck guys and make sure they're taken care of. After awhile you forget to "dance with the one that brung you" or even who they are. You find power comes with a lot of temptations relative to those who either want to be close to it or share it.
So my friends, if you want to clean up politics, if you want the Craigs et al to go away, or if you would like to see sanity and some respect for traditional values reappear, lets limit the time of temptation and let the boys and girls after a short stay come home and live among us.
Take a look at the congressional scandals and tell me the average tenure of the perpetrators. I don't know but I will assure you after over a half century of observation, there won't be very many ( if any ) freshman representatives or senators involved. Most of the ones I have observed have significant time on the "hill". I believe I read where Craig had served 26 years. Lets go back to Wilbur Mills, nearly a half century ago. Move on to Dan Rostenkowski with a tenure of about 25 years. What about Foley or Jefferson.
Lord Acton said "power corrupts". All of these guys had accumulated a lot of it. When being in congress ceases being public service and becomes a career, and a very powerful and lucrative one at that, the game changes completely. The main objective becomes to get re-elected. The way to get re-elected is to raise money. The way to raise money is to do favors. The way to do favors is to forget about the common good and use your power to help the selected sugar dads and moms who furnish the bucks.
Along with continued residence in Washington comes a loss of contact with the "home folks". You go home and shake hands a couple of times a year. You keep funds flowing for the bridges, libraries, parks and other sops to the locals. You keep close contact with the big buck guys and make sure they're taken care of. After awhile you forget to "dance with the one that brung you" or even who they are. You find power comes with a lot of temptations relative to those who either want to be close to it or share it.
So my friends, if you want to clean up politics, if you want the Craigs et al to go away, or if you would like to see sanity and some respect for traditional values reappear, lets limit the time of temptation and let the boys and girls after a short stay come home and live among us.
posted by Oldhugh | 6:35 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home