Rep. Barney Frank won't seek re-election
 

A day to celebrate. 1 down 434 to go. Time to start over. Term limits for the senate are due too.

32 Years in Office.

Term Limits anyone?

Wonder if his anus hurts as much as the taxpayers he has been *ucking for 32 years.

There must be some scandal or federal investigation looming.

It never stopped him before.

everyone loves the idea of term limits. they have em in many state legislatures what you find is that everyone is new, no one actually knows how to be a politician. You get all these dudes learning on the go and when they finally know how to do the job their term limits are reached. It's one of those ideas that is much better in theory than in practice.

Agree to disagree.

I like the idea that they "don't know how to be a politician". We're not voting for Politicians, we're voting for representatives, remember. The two are not neccessarily mutually inclusive.

And leanring on the job is fine, it may mean they have less of a vested long-term interest in profiteering, political empire building, and outright obstruction.

Best of all, I believe term limits supoorts third party opportunity. It's not a wasted vote anymore to give a third party a term (or two) to see how they do.

Life-Term Politicians are a huge portion of why Washington is as broken, devisive and corrupt as it is. Guys like this are effectively a ruling class of mafia like dons, with far too much power, and far too little time actually serving the people.

I do think term limits should have an exception for elected officials with broad mandates. If 65% of the electorate thinks you're doing a good job, you should be allowed to run for another term.

I actually believe that a 2 year term for Congress is too short. What ends up happening is that the incumbent spends more time campaigning and fundraising than actually representing... unless you're a lifer like Frank and become complacent with the status quo.

I think Congress should have a 4 year term limited to 3 terms. Senators should have the same amount of time, 6 year terms capped at 2. 12 years is more than enough time to try to create real, positive change in the district or state you represent.

How do you determine that except for elections? So if an incumbent come up against his term limit and only gets 62% of the vote, does the runner up get the job? Would drastically change the candidate field that year too, no?

An idea designed specificly to re-elected gerimandered district perma-politicians?

And I have to ask.....65% of the electorate, or 65% of actual voters? Thats a big difference.

Agreed. I'd like to see 4 years terms as well, for both House and Senate, but caped at two terms, just like the Presidency. One election, every four years, for all the seats around.

Fact is, after 8 years in Washington, even the best have lost touch completely with teh people they are supposed to represent. Hell, most of them by that point have lost touch with everything in society at large by that point.

Maxine Waters in line to take over from Frank on Financial Services
 

Talk about being careful for what you ask for...

I hear he's going to pursue his lifelong dream of touring with Elton John. He's hoping he can be the guy who pushes his stool in.

If Ted Kennedy was the Lion of the Senate, is Barney Frank the Lioness of the House?

Before opening the thread, I set the over/under for number of replies before the first homophobic comment at 3.5. Congrats on realizing the under.

And that's a bad thing? Maybe they will actually govern instead of waste our time and money doing nothing and speaking in talking points and campaign slogans.

alot of the "doing nothing" is party-level. You can nominate Popeye the Sailor man to the GOP congressman's seat he's not going to break with his party to pass a bill.

also I think people underrate how hard it is to be a politician. Like you can just take a CEO from some company and he'd be just as good. There are certain skills involved in being a politician and it's not the same as the world of business. or that a guy with 3 decades of gov't experience is just as good at being a congressman as joe blow off the street. that's tea party thinking and it's already proven to be a failure (Sharon Angle, Christine OConnell, this walsh dude who yells at his constituents)

here's another question if there are term limits, who is the speaker of the house? or runs the committees? Term limits destroys the idea of seniority.

TLDR Translation:

It's all the GOP's fault. All lifetime Liberal (D) Legislators are the perfect balance of Honour and Integrity, the perfect embodiment of Democracy in action! Gooooooooo (D)!

You have 50 congressmen all on their 3rd and final term, who is the speaker.?

Your idea of a good politician is the cleanest professional bullsh*tter. Although that's clearly the golden standard of the day, it's a broken system which needs to be fixed in my view.

Seniority is good for organizational structure in situations where people "move up" or "outrank" others. An assembly of elected and theoretically equal set of officials is the last place it's needed. If push comes to shove, we can figure out a better way to determine speakers and committee heads.