Local Paper Laments Career Politicians
January 4, 2012 at 11:33 am in Accountability, GAN, House, News, Norman D. Dicks by Larry 7 Comments
Kitsap Sun says Dicks is part of the problem.
Larry Killion, TPP Citizen Journalist. 12-19-11.
An article by Rob Woutat takes issue with “Congressional Careerism.” Norm Dicks, 70, (D-WA.) was first elected in 1976. Fourteen others have been in Congress anywhere from 36 to 56 years. Men, that did not see Congress as a career, wrote the Constitution with the idea that once a man did his civic duty in an elected office for a term or two at the most, he would then return home to his real job and career.
According to records from the first hundred years of Congress, those that stayed a second term in the Senate were veterans and half of the Senators did not stay for their entire first term. Seeing the need to cap the number of terms a Senator or Congressman should serve was not in the mindset of our first century patriots. The need was not there. Things have changed. Some say we are making progress with the professional politicians we have in office. Others say we should remember the intent of those that drafted our nation’s Constitution and stay within their founding principles.
The conservative Heritage Foundation reported that the idea of term limits has a diverse demographic support from men, women, blacks, whites, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, all favoring term limits, typically by 60 percent.
Regarding the question about term limits, Tea Party leaders were swift to respond. Greg Woodworth, President of the Tacoma 912 Project said, “Since this has already been tried back in the ’90′s, and determined by the courts to require a constitutional amendment to limit the terms of federal offices, it is now the responsibility of ”we the people” to limit their terms. Term Limits would have helped with the turnover, but the bureaucrats that actually run the show don’t have such limits, and would just corrupt the ”rookies” as fast as they arrive in D.C. It is encouraging that the Tea Party caucus members, those Republican freshmen who went to D.C. to stand by their principles have actually done what they promised, and are changing the way government is run. We need about 300 more of them in that town. The danger here is that the oligarchy that runs D.C. will spend a lot of money to make sure that only patsies get elected that they can control. Our job is to keep the pressure on the ones we send there, to continually remind them of who they really work for. Since it is highly unlikely that congress will vote themselves out of office with a constitutional amendment, it falls to the Tea Party to get the corrupt politicians out of office through elections.”
Woody Hertzog, Washington State Tea Party Coordinator said, “Personally, I strongly support term limits. The careerism is responsible for many of the problems we face in government. It has led to politicians voting for career instead of country, and for personal gain instead of the will of the people. Term limits would reduce arrogance in out of touch and out of date politicians.
The staff and support team of each elected official will bring the necessary experience to Washington and Olympia.”
Representative Dicks declined to discuss the question about term limits. Candidates running against him fielded the same question. The first to respond was Bob Sauerwein , GOP, running for WA. 6th Dist. Rep. He said, “It was, I believe, the intent of our founding fathers to trust in the dignity of man and be a SERVANT leader. That means they serve the people for a time and then return to our own place of work. Jefferson and the fathers had a long battle about this issue. Jefferson understood where not having term limits would take us, and indeed, he was correct. As a candidate, I have been asked this very question many times, and my answer has always been, yes. We need term limits. I would note that it should be long enough to allow new congressmen or senators to learn their jobs well, so I would propose something like three 2 year term limits on congress, and two 6 year term limits on senators and of course the presidency already has one. I would also note that a congressman or senator could run for the other office as long as he/she has not held it before. I think this would create a system of SERVANT leaders. I know that servant leadership is very hard to find, yet it is what our constitution requires of every representative of the people.”
Dear Patriots,
It seems that you are being silent on many of the issues as of late. What are we doing to correct the problems w/ our government? What are we doing to get term limits for members of congress, instated? What are we doing about identifying wayward liberal judges who are changing our Constitution from the bench??
Plz don’t stop now!!
Warmest Regards,
cj Wilson~
First off, are you CJ Wilson of the Angels? If so, I’d like to welcome you to the bright side of the force. I knew you’d figure out that freedom was the way to go. If not, then welcome, but disregard those last statements. Tea Party Patriots has numerous local groups that are working on implementing solutions similar to the ones you are discussing. Politicians friendly to Tea Party values (like those elected in 2010) are working to prevent confirmation of liberal judges, but there is only so much that they can do. The only way these solutions can be ultimately implemented is if we clean house, so to speak, of elected officials that are not returning the power to the people. A big part of how we are helping you differentiate the good and the bad is articles like this one from our new media division. (Shameless self promotion: I am a reporter on this site.) By having accurate information about the actions of each legislator, you can easily tell who can be kept and who should be rapidly disposed of. The presidential elections have kept us busy, but we are still watching as much of the actions of our legislators as possible. We have not stopped. As you say, we are still throwing strikes (that is if you are the CJ Wilson I think you are).
You have a great day and give me a call at 206.424.5190 if you have more questions. Just so you know, I am in Orange County, CA.
Greyson Peltier
Very interesting. With the recent comments from Rush Limbaugh when being interviewed by Greta van Sustern, just before Christmas, that although this sentiment is not new, it is becoming clearer that the Beltway GOP establishment is working to retain its control of the party. The true majority of conservatives outside of the DC Beltway were actually identified as Tea Party conservatives by Greta and confirmed by Rush.
It is appearing more and more that that majority is exactly favoring term limit recommendations. Question then remains, what is a viable number and what is the best way to push out the GOP Establishment and their ruling elite which is empowering careerism.
Tea Partiers need to wake up and understand that ONLY significant actions will demonstrate our firm commitment and resolute determination to see our core principles through. The tired, old leaders in both parties have, in most cases, been the ones to dilute, obstruct, and/or willingly get outmaneuvered on iniatives supported by the Tea Party.
Rather than nitpicking the GOP presidential candidates to death, a potent and lethal Tea Party would be working on finding more fiscally responsible Democrats to run against the Pelosis, Hoyers & other dinosaurs who are running for any term of office that exceeds 14 years. Throw out the GOP lions who have that much seniority, too (Sorry Boehner, but you can find something else to do if it helps prove the assertion that we are not playing favorites with the effort to remove incumbents.
And don’t breathe a WORD about term limits or an amendment to that end; focus on replacing long serving incumbents of either party, in their party’s primary, when motivated crossovers from the opposing party, might provide enough of a voting block to push a challengers from 42 to 52%, versus an incumbent.
I am not the smartest person in the world but when I read and hear about the ploys Obama will be trying to use it makes my blood boil. My family on my Dad’s side has been in the United States since the Penn Colonies. But I only can trace my grandfather back to June 6, 1881 the year of his birth. I can’t stand to hear people talk about changing the United States. I don’t mind who comes in the front door but Obama has opened our doors as wide as possible. I understand that Obama signed a small arms agreement with NATO. When are we ever going to dumb those worthless bunch of dead beats. I understand that the US is one of their main providers. I don’t think so. We have 45 million people unemployed and knucklehead has spent another 1Trillion dollars since last November. Can you imagine the amount of debt for 2012. I heard him say that to save money he would be disbanding our troops in the United States, and with that Patriot’s Act (the new one) he can lock any of us up in any country and we will never be heard from. He wants an easy way to make sure that he is RE-ELECTED. He’s promoting ACORN, and Muselm Brotherhood, and the Black Panthers. It is almost as if he wants a civil conflict in the United States. But what he doesn’t understand is that our men and women have fought since the Revolutionary War. Most of those men were farmers, who half the time didn’t have warm clothing, or enough to eat, and a lot of times wore socks. Obama should have read up on his American History before he decided it was time to take us down so that we would be part of the one world power. They are at the top and the rest of us would be their slaves. I pray that our Congress gets some balls and stop Obama from his nasty, evil schemes.
Oh don’t judge my heridage by my name. My maiden name was Sharon Kay Robinette and my Grandfather who was born in 1881 was James Robinette, and his wife my grandmother was a Wellman but I can’t even find her.
Sharon
Larry:
It’s come to my attention that your request to Jesse Young for commentary on Congressional Term Limits was not responded to in a timely fashion. That is certainly not our intent. Since Jesse is working two contracts at the moment and the demands of the campaign on his time are great, he overlooked your e-mail request for comment on this issue. In the future, please send requests to info@jesseyoungforcongress.com so we can be sure to respond.
Regarding term limits, Jesse would support a Constitutional Amendment as he states on his website under “Restoring Confidence in Government”. But, I think he has an even more creative solution to the problem which would avoid the lengthy process of ratification of an amendment and help overcome the problem of long-term staffs “running the show”. That is, changing the seniority rules in Congress. If Representatives were to lose their seniority after, say, three terms, there would be a cycling of new leadership and ideas, at minimum. Or, Congressmen may decide to return to the private sector at that time as their influence would be reduced. Those who stayed on would be there for the “right” reason, to serve their constituents as long as the constituents continued to vote for them. Such a change would likely minimize the impact of lobbyists, and their money, on the system as well.
Thank you Larry for your efforts to raise questions of critical importance to the citizens of the 6th District!
Jesse Stewart
Campaign Manager
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Jesse Young For Congress
253-509-8585
http://www.jesseyoungforcongres.com
Enough of career politicians, it’s time for term limits. Same goes for doctors, pilots, car salesman and back hoe operators.