The American Spectator

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(Page 6 of 11)

term in 2000 and was asked about his earlier pledge, he casually remarked that the promise "probably went away." Naturally, there are Democrats like Max Baucus and Robert Byrd who plan to remain in the Senate for their entire lives, but I hold Republicans to a higher standard of conduct and accountability. br> -- Daniel McNamee br> Somerville, New Jersey /p>

Mr. Cline echoes the thoughts of many of us who have understood for the longest time that incumbency is the disease that is rotting from within the host body of Washington, D.C. Despite the intellectual gymnastics by the professional politicians to deny the obvious about basic human nature, the disease was nonetheless undeterred, as it continued to take its toll on the body politic, as evidenced by last week's elections. For me, the final dagger in the heart to the Republicans, in addition to those highlighted by Mr. Cline, was the horrifically obtuse decision by soon to be ex-Speaker Hastert, in refusing to allow the FBI to conduct a search of Rep. Jefferson's ( D. Louisiana) office, in order to facilitate the investigation of an alleged major crime, ostensibly committed precisely because of Jefferson's influence as a member of Congress. The arrogance of power crowd had found its champion. More so even than Sen. McCain and his beloved "Will of the Senate" mantra. I chuckled to myself, counting down the days before the elections, how the Democrats and the MSM were content to let this aspect of the "culture of corruption" go away quietly. After all, for the Democrats and the MSM, this one was too close to home, and besides they had Foley to focus on. Hastert had to be given a pass on this one.

p>But lest we forget, this problem has been many years in the making, aided especially by incumbency friendly gerrymandered districts. Not much play is given by the MSM on this either, even in discussing Tom DeLay, it's a throw away line. The MSM's story line is DeLay/Abramoff. But what of Term Limits? Have you noticed each time Newt talks about the vaunted Contract With America, that the failure to adopt Term Limits never comes up? Not to be too cynical here, methinks it was just a bone to be tossed to the faithful, never to be seriously considered. Oh well, we tried, let's move on. So here we are, with steroidal gerrymandered districts and Senatorial protections vis-a-vis Campaign Finance reform. If only Congress would focus less on Wal-Mart and more on themselves. After all, competition should flow from our leaders on down. Fat chance. br> -- A. DiPentima /p>

Great article and I am for term limits for everyone, not just Republicans.

p>The other side of term limits is that they know they are not going to be around and so don't care very much about what the voters think, OK I know they have not cared anyway or ILLEGAL IMMINGRATION would have been handled br> long ago. br> -- Elaine Kyle

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