Ted Kennedy has died

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by Sdiver

Myself personally, I'm somewhat divided about term limits for members of congress. On the one hand, I'm for it. People like Kennedy and his little "dynasty", are reason for creating term limits.

But on the other hand, look at Charlie Wilson, (Charlie Wilson's War). Had term limits been in place while he was first elected into office (1972), and the Soviets still marched into A-stan, would he have been as instrumental in bringing them down, as we all know how he, along with others, brought down the Soviets?

Gents,

The one constant in life, above, death, taxes, and the Cubs since 1908, is…………… Change. Things change, the pendulum swings. It's fun to be in the catbird seat and watch everyone else grovel and complain. But sooner or later, the positions switch, the haves become the have nots, but just wait, - the pendulum can only stay out there so long before it comes back again.

Long before there was a Kennedy with 46 years, there was block of the long serving Solid South Democrats who maintained Southern Traditions. They morphed into the Dixiecrats in 1948 who fought for States-Rights and Segregation; a few flipped and became Republicans.

So, the issue of Term Limits is a non argument - it doesn't matter. Have them, don't have them - it only changes the dynamic, not the outcome.

A side note, for some reason, the Midwest seems to be a bad place to try to hang on to a Senate Seat. Looking at a map of the Top 25 Longest Serving Senators, we see that regionally, the south has the most and is the place to be if you want to die in office as an old, old man, but the Northeast is a close second; then the West. Perhaps the voters in the Heartland are just a bit more discerning? (See map, attached)

Senators Map.jpg

[The Reaper]

Sorry, I just have to keep bumping this thread because I love to see it when I log on.

TR

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Sorry, I just have to keep bumping this thread because I love to see it when I log on.

TR

Consider it rebumped.

For those interested - here are names of the top 25.

Senator Bird is the longest, half a century and counting.

Senator
Dates of Service
Length of Service


1. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)
Jan 3, 1959 to present
50 years, 7 months, 25 days

2. Strom Thurmond (R-SC)
Dec 24, 1954 to Apr 4, 1956
and Nov 7, 1956 to Jan 3, 2003

47 years, 5 months, 17 days

3. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
Nov 7, 1962 to Aug 25, 2009
46 years, 9 months, 19 days

4. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI)
Jan 3, 1963 to present
46 years, 7 months, 25 days

5. Carl T. Hayden (D-AZ)
Mar 4, 1927 to Jan 3, 1969
41 years, 9 months, 30 days

6. John Stennis (D-MS)
Nov 5, 1947 to Jan 3, 1989
41 years, 1 month, 29 days

7. Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Dec 24, 1968 to Jan 3, 2009
40 years, 10 days

8. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC)
Nov 9, 1966 to Jan 3, 2005
38 years, 1 month, 25 days

9. Richard B. Russell (D-GA)
Jan 3, 1933 to Jan 21, 1971
38 years, 9 days

10. Russell Long (D-LA)
Dec 31, 1948 to Jan 3, 1987
38 years, 3 days

11. Francis E. Warren (R-WY)
Nov 18, 1890 to Mar 4, 1893
and Mar 4, 1895 to Nov 24, 1929
37 years, 2 months

12. James Eastland (D-MS)
Jun 30, 1941 to Sep 28, 1941
and Jan 3, 1943 to Dec 27, 1978
36 years, 2 months, 24 days

13. Warren Magnuson (D-WA)
Dec 14, 1944 to Jan 3, 1981
36 years, 20 days

14. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE)
Jan 3, 1973 to Jan 15, 2009
36 years, 13 days

15. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM)
Jan 3, 1973 to Jan 3, 2009
36 years

16. Claiborne Pell (D-RI)
Jan 3, 1961 to Jan 3, 1997
36 years

17. Kenneth D. McKellar (D-TN)
Mar 4, 1917 to Jan 2, 1953
35 years, 10 months

18. Milton R. Young (R-ND)
Mar 12, 1945 to Jan 2, 1981
35 years, 9 months, 22 days

19. Ellison D. Smith (D-SC)
Mar 4, 1909 to Nov 17, 1944
35 years, 8 months, 13 days

20. Allen Joseph Ellender (D-LA)
Jan 3, 1937 to Jul 27, 1972
35 years, 6 months, 24 days

21. William Boyd Allison (R-IA)
Mar 4, 1873 to Aug 4, 1908
35 years, 5 months

22. John McClellan (D-AR)
Jan 3, 1943 to Nov 28, 1977
34 years, 11 months

23. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT)
Jan 3, 1975 to present
34 years, 7 months, 25 days

24. Walter F. George (D-GA)
Nov 22, 1922 to Jan 3, 1957
34 years, 1 month, 13 days

25. George Aiken (R-VT)
Jan 10, 1941 to Jan 3, 1975
33 years, 11 months, 2 days

[incarcerated]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...edy_institute/


Kerry asks $20m for Kennedy institute

Fiscal groups criticize military bill earmark
By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff / September 25, 2009
WASHINGTON - A large military spending bill moving through Congress contains a little-noticed outlay for Boston that has nothing to do with national defense: $20 million for an educational institute honoring late Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

The earmark, tucked into the defense bill at the request of Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, requires US taxpayers to help the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate realize its goal of building a repository for Kennedy’s papers and an accompanying civic learning center on the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus in Dorchester, next to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

The item is drawing fire from fiscal watchdog groups, who assert that military funds should not be raided to pay for an institution that has nothing to do with improving military readiness.

“Whatever beneficial value civic education may have, it’s hard to see why the Defense Department should pay for it,’’ said Laura Peterson, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. “It would seem the location of this hefty earmark has more to do with the powerful position of its sponsor than [the Defense Department’s] responsibility to educate elementary school children.’’

Kerry strongly defended the insertion of the $20 million earmark yesterday. He requested that it be included in the $360 billion defense budget, he said, to recognize Kennedy’s long tenure on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The institute will serve as a focal point for the late Massachusetts senator’s legacy, much as presidential libraries do. It will house Kennedy’s official papers and oral histories from the nearly half-century he served in the Senate. With a museum and exhibit space, it also will be dedicated to educating the general public, students, teachers, new US senators, and Senate staff about the role and importance of the Senate in American political life. The institute plans to host an annual “Summer Senate’’ for high school students from across the nation.

The $20 million earmark would cover as much as 40 percent of the institute’s initial fund-raising goal.

Beyond raising questions about the practice of slipping earmarks into bills in Congress, the provision also presents a potential ethical question for Paul Kirk, the longtime Kennedy aide Governor Deval Patrick appointed to fill the late senator’s seat yesterday.

Kirk, who stepped down yesterday as chairman of the JFK Library Foundation, has also served as a member of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute board and has played a key role in helping plan and raise funds for the new center. If he casts a vote in favor of the defense bill, he also will be voting in favor of an institute to which he has had close personal and professional connections....

[Box]

6 out of 25...
...Republicans must not be able to hold a job as well.


IMO term limits are a hard call: the voter imposes term limits, but many voters aren't voting for leadership that is best for the country they are voting for a welfare pay raise and the politicians that should be "term limited" have perfected the art of pandering to this voter base.
...on the other hand this barrel of monkeys we call congress with the combined centuries of "experience" that they posses have proven that collectively, the US elected body of leadership can fuck up a shot-put.

Now we need 20million bucks tacked onto the defense bill for an institute?
Is this building going to have class rooms used for military training? Are they going to do military defense research ? Nope, no need for term limits here. Go get that cash Sen Kerry! Hell, ask for 40 million and build a memorial park right next to the institute; we'll pay for it

Senator Kennedy held his job for 47 years and likely would have continued to serve if he hadn't succumbed to his own mortality... so he must have done a great job representing Massachusetts or the voters would have run him off...
...right?

If the voters like what they want, then why shouldn't they get to vote for him - or did 47 years in the seat allow him to perfect the art of "telling the voters what they want to hear"

meh...