The American Spectator

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br> Wellington, Florida /p> p> THERE WERE LIMITS br> Re: Andrew Cline's Finally Term Limited : /p>

While I am generally in favor of term limits -- and it is certainly true that had limits been put in place in the 1990s, the Republicans might not have had to deal with so many scandals leading up to this election -- Mr. Cline's claim that the GOP "chose to stay put rather than to step down" isn't really fair.

Under Speaker Gingrich and against serious resistance from the Democrats (and the scorn of most mainstream news outlets), the House GOP did vote on a constitutional term limits amendment on the House floor on March 29, 1995. The vote was 227-204, with 40 Republicans joining 163 Democrats in opposing the limits. It was backed by 189 Republicans and only 38 Democrats. In other words a Republican-led majority voted for it but because it lacked the two-thirds majority a constitution amendment requires, it failed.

p>The GOP did subsequently drop the issue and Cline may be faulting them for that , which would be fair, I guess. But the GOP did make a serious effort to fulfill their promise in the Contract With America. It was the Democrats who stopped it. Nor is it clear that the GOP could have done any better on subsequent attempts. Most constitutional amendments do fail because it is an extremely hard thing to do. br> -- Sean Higgins

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