Plum lobbyist gigs await those who help pass unpopular legislation. So the fear of losing political power is gone. And so is the voter’s hole card.

Democracy as we think we know it is dead, and has been dead for many years. It has taken the worst-case scenario–wildly unpopular and fatally flawed legislation–to hammer home who really runs the show: lobbyists and all the rest of the rent-seekers.

God help us. We’re going to need it. We’re in a power struggle with our hopelessly corrupt government, but lots of us don’t realize it yet. And that’s fine with Washington, the lobbyists on K Street, etc.

I hope I’ll be proven wrong, but there is no other conclusion that makes sense to me after watching this train wreck.

But I’d still support term limits. The idea that “my” congressman is so good as to be indispensable is what keeps getting us into these messes.

We have, and have always had, term limits. They are called elections. You don’t like them, throw the bums out. Ah yes, but that would require putting down the Pringles and getting off the couch.

True, but there’s a prisoner’s-dilemma aspect of throwing out your own bum… his replacement starts at the bottom seniority-wise, inferior to the other bums whose constituents are lazier/less responsible. Your guy may be a crook and a weasel, but if he’s been around long enough to steer goodies your way it’s greatly to your advantage to keep him. Assuring that everybody disappears after a fixed time addresses this.

My own objection to term limits is that, since no elected official would be around long enough to learn where the bodies are buried, it massively increases the power of the resident (unelected) bureaucrats. I can’t see that replacing the current system with an American version of “Yes, Minister” would produce the kind of gains the term-limiters are promising.

“I figure, any time they spend cleaning up that resume and networking is time they’re not spending trying to come up with more ways to make my life miserable”

Bravo! I told somebody about Pelosi’s junket to Copenhagen, and they expressed astonishment that congress-critters would be out of Washington at “such an important time.”

“H*ll,” I said. “If they’re in Copenhagen, they’re not in D.C. getting up to mischief. I’d have sent them ALL over… provided we made ‘em walk back.”

Personally, I’d much rather they focus on their jobs

I disagree vehemently. Some may think I’m joking when I propose my constitutional amendment (“Congress shall make no law.”), but I’ve been getting more and more serious about it every day.

As for pandering to lobbyists, the problem is the current crop thinks that is their job.