IÂ’ve long thought that term limits are a bad idea, and have opposed them even when they were one of the staples of conservative ideology. I therefore find one of incoming House Majority Leader Steny HoyerÂ’s pet issues to be heartening.

With Democrats assuming majority power next month, Congress has a fresh opportunity to make things right. The new House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, has proposed a repeal of presidential term limits in every session since 1985. Now he may have the political muscle to get it passed.

In my American government classes, IÂ’ve always described the Twenty-Second Amendment as the GOP-controlled CongressÂ’ method of driving a stake through the heart of FDR and as close to the posthumous treatment of Pope Formosus as we are ever likely to see in American politics. More than Prohibition (a dumb idea that, having made it into the Constitution, was wisely repealed), the two-term limit placed upon presidents is a blot upon the Constitution.

Indeed, I agree with this great American.

"The United States ought to be able to choose for its president anybody it wants, regardless of the number of terms he has served," Dwight Eisenhower said on the eve of his 1956 reelection. "I have got the utmost faith in the long-term common sense of the American people."

Do I fear that the American people might engage in some monumentally stupid act and reelect Bill Clinton (currently one of only two Americans barred from election to the presidency by Amendment XXII)? Not really, for I believe that Senator Hillary Clinton would commit homicide before permitting that. Do I vainly hope for the reelection of George W. Bush for a third term? No, as I have become increasingly disappointed in the policies of the current occupant of the Oval Office since the 2004 election. And while I recognize that because of the Twenty-Second Amendment we were mercifully spared the reelection of Ronald Reagan as he descended into the fog of AlzheimerÂ’s disease, I also acknowledge that his situation is anomalous among recent American presidents, most of whom have remained healthy and active for at least a decade following their time in office.

Ignore the anti-Bush rant that constitutes the first half of Zimmerman’s column – focus on the big issue of restoring the Constitutional order to that established by the Founders.

Posted by: Greg at 06:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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