by Dan Creamer

Created on: June 15, 2009   Last Updated: July 11, 2009

First, let me say that I am in favor of term limits for all elected officials, particularly our senators and congressional representatives. Term Limits are the only way to prevent the creation of a class of professional politician more interested in reelection then public service. Over time, professional politicians feel entitled to the prestige and power that accumulates to them. They forget that they are in office to serve the people. They pander to the special interest, political action committee's and power brokers who can best serve their personal interest; forgetting that they are supposed to be citizen servants of the republic, not tenured for life politicians.

The potential for ever achieving a constitutional amendment limiting the terms of the house and senate is not good. In the republican contract with America from 1994 term limits were one of the promises made to the electorate. It was a promise they did not even come close to keeping. No incumbent from either side of the aisle, or either house, is ever going to vote for term limits, if they think there is any chance of passage. It would take a ground swell of public opinion and a deafening clamor from the citizenry to bring them about. Even then, the money that would be spent, on a public relations campaign, to defeat them would stagger the imagination.

Too many special interest, corporate entities and lobbyist would be adversely affected and they would all circle the wagons to prevent such legislation from ever getting out of committee much less coming to a vote. If they had to deal with a politician who knew, he or she was limited to six years; their leverage would be severely curtailed. The politician who has to plan a return to private life is not likely to care as much about securing the benefits of tenure. As it is now though, most politicians seem to worry more about the trappings of wealth and power they accumulate over a long political career, then they do about their constituents.

The arguments against term limits are old and well known. One of the most prevalent is that if the founding fathers thought it wise or necessary they would have done so. In fact, they were discussed extensively, prior to the final draft of the constitution. Thomas Jefferson was for them. In June of 1776 as a member of a committee of thirteen, appointed by the continental congress to examine different forms of government for the new nation, he urged that tenure be limited.

In part, he wrote, "to prevent every

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