When he was first elected I was fifteen. His career in the House is a complete argument for term limits. I will miss him though. He was a bit of a character who always spoke his mind, often in a humorous manner. May he rest in peace.
Palin is mulling a run for his seat as the sole Representative of Alaska in the House. In 2023 I want to see Palin as a member of the House and Trump as Speaker of the House. Just seeing Trump rip up Biden’s speech before Biden makes the State of the Union Address would put a spring in my step for the entire year.
Rotation-in-office rules and mandatory retirement, please. There was a dame elected to represent Rochester in 1986. She could have retired with a satisfactory pension at the end of 2006 (when she was 77 years old), but she insisted on running again every year. Her husband fell ill with cancer at some point, dying in 2014. She kept jetting in and out of town. See ya, honey. She ran for re-election that year and then again in 2016 and was running again in 2018 when she abruptly dropped dead at the age of 88. We just do not benefit from such people in federal office. No clue why the voters kept returning her to office, other than passivity in the face of mediocrity is the local signature. (Four different people represented Syracuse during her tenure).
Did you catch that the 88 year old Charles Grassley, who has been in Congress for 47 years, is running for another six year term? His life expectancy is 4.8 years and anyone that age has a good shot at spending some part of those years cognitively impaired. He has a primary challenger, who I hope will hand him his ass.
Alphonse d’Amato was a deeply unpleasant character who said deeply unpleasant things about Jacob Javits when he ran against him in 1980, asking rhetorically do you think that man can survive to the end of his term. Javits actually did die less than six years ‘ere he left office and he was an invalid for a considerable run of years because of something he was concealing from the electorate: he had Lou Gherig’s Disease. Who would run for office in that condition?
Although there are a very small number of politicians who function well for an extended time, most get rather ossified in their positions. Term limits seems the only answer with the greatest benefit to all, including the politicians themselves.
Art Deco I live in the Town of Somerset, Niagara County 2.6 miles from the lakeshore. In the string of the earmuff district! Don’t look at me I didn’t vote for that old mummy. I have no idea what shape my House district is now and I don’t care. For the term protection corruption project to be made that obvious I sneer. Bunch of flyspecks.
If Louise Slaughter left this earth before her husband just think, they might have put him on the ballot. Dingell, D-MI. Is his wife still in office? Who cares.