It's your night in the barrel

Robert McHenry in TCS Daily proposes this small Constitutional amendment:

Just like jury duty, but for twenty-four months.

Distinct advantages:

• No incumbents.
  
• Very little time to get to know the schmoozers on K Street.
  
• Term limits essentially automatic.
  
• Seniority system blown to smithereens.
  
• Did I mention no incumbents?
  

Possible drawbacks:

• You are not guaranteed to be represented by someone smarter than, say, Ernest Istook.
  
• The first House so constituted would likely have a surplus of really stupid bills under consideration.
  

On second thought, strike that second drawback: we already have a surplus of really stupid bills.

William F. Buckley Jr. once opined that he'd rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Boston phone book than by the 2000-member faculty at Harvard. I can't help but wonder what he would think of this idea. I suspect it would not sit well with the American left, which would reject it, not so much because it sounds somewhat Buckleyesque, but because their particular concept of government calls for Great and Sweeping Ideas, which J. Random Voter is presumably not likely to come up with on his own if suddenly he's thrust into the House. Not that the right is exactly devoid of elitism, as Harriet Miers could probably tell you.

Oh, and one more drawback:

• Were this to be passed, it would likely be harder to get the 17th Amendment, which calls for the direct election of senators, repealed.
  

Nobody, not even Robert McHenry, said it was a perfect scheme.