Post election day at DNC Headquarters

[Sarge]

I've been soooooooooo good. Six months with nary a political comment.

But this came in the email today. Not as good as the danny/Hitler one, but pretty funny nonetheless

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5VLeBhzE3Y&feature=player_embedded[/media]

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Ugh, the hitler videos need to just go away. It was mildly funny the first time...very mildly.

As to the election results: I think super-majorities are bad for the country, as it allows a single party to run things their way without negotiation. However the bad news for the country is, this just means nothing will get accomplished, because neither side is willing to negotiate anyway.

A friend of mine was on the staff of a Republican senator for a long time, and recently quit. She told me that when she started, she was borderline right-wing nutjob; very conservative. However the longer she stayed in politics (I think it was 9 years), she became more and more moderate - her reason was, you have to be moderate to get anything done in Washington. The two extremes just clash, and never do anything.

 

[Sarge]

A great reason for term limits. Repubs screwed things up with total control and Dems have done no better. Term limits are imposed on the president, why can't they be on Congress?

 

[Lanky Livingston]

A great reason for term limits. Repubs screwed things up with total control and Dems have done no better. Term limits are imposed on the president, why can't they be on Congress?

Totally agree. The morning radio show I listen to is Walton & Johnson, who are both very libertarian. While I don't agree with a lot of what they say, they are very intelligent and I agree with some of it. One of their big campaigns is getting rid of "career" politicians, because its against the very point of the position in the first place.

 

[servumtuum]

Conceptually and functionally term-limits have an understandable appeal. The idea of moving away from the "keeping my job and thereby accruing more power" perspective and toward a view that "I'm in here for a limited time to do a job subject to possible removal if deemed less than proficient" does sound better than the system currently in place.

One problematical issue, I would think, would be the necessity of reformulating the manner in which things such as committee chairmanships are assigned, currently a function of tenure and a source of the aforementioned and highly attractive power which, as Sarge so astutely reminded us, is non-partisan, affecting our elected "leaders" regardless of party or ideology. It seems, unfortunately, that we would be asking a group to act against their own self-interest is modifying a system which works for them rather well and they are highly skilled at distracting us with other issues-a skill acquired by the necessities of the political process as currently constituted. I'm sorry to sound somewhat cynical but this issue has been raised several times in my lifetime with little forward progress due to the fact that we are requesting a group to voluntarily give up the very thing they've spent their "career" attaining. Power.

 

[Sarge]

There's some smart folks in there. Greedy, out of touch, but smart.

I'm sure they could figure it out if limits ever came about