We have term limits on Presidents

[Horse with no Name]

And it is time, I believe to enact term limits on other WH officials.
Cheney is entrenched in power in the WH because he has served under four administrations. He has had time to create massive networks using whatever tactics necessary to carry out his agenda.
There is no reason not to enact term limits on ALL WH officials.
Obviously the President is limited to two terms.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
However, any WH staffer should be limited to TWO non-Presidential terms.
That would cover a sitting VP who became President.
Let's get fresh people in the WH.
It is time to air out the house.

[northzax]

1. would this include the civil service people?

housekeeping? the cooks, the gardeners?

[Horse with no Name]

3. Strictly political positions

It would be like saying that Karl Rove couldn't ever serve anyone else again since he has already served two terms.

[HereSince1628]

2. Oh man, you are talking about cutting the puppeteer's strings.

That's never gonna happen. It's taken decades and billions of dollars for those behind the scenes to string up their puppets. They'll create deceptive digital voting machines before they let unstrung automatrons actually get elected.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Precisely.

I don't think the framers of the Constitution ever considered the insiders getting more power than the President.

[HereSince1628]

7. Maybe not but they realized it shortly after...

But I know Jefferson realized that inherited wealth meant inherited power exercised by a new aristocracy rather than an elected power by the people.

[Double T]

4. Also need term limits on ALL elected members of Congress.

Absolute power absolutely corrupts.

[Horse with no Name]

6. I disagree with this.

The people vote on this. The people don't vote on the cabinet members or other political APPOINTEES.
If a particular state is happy with their representation and their member still is interested in serving, I see no problem with it.

[HereSince1628]

10. The people pretend to have a meaningful voice in selecting candidates

The truth is it's the people with money that make it possible for candidates names to appear on ballots.

US representative democracy is not unlike professional sports leagues. To work the league must have opposing teams. Tremendous money can be made off the fans whether any team in particular wins the league championship. The players and the fans think that looking out on the pitch they are actually witnessing what is going on. They fail to see that the real game is with the parking fees, ticket sale and shares of the vendors' profits.

In the same way we think it actually matters which candidate we vote for.

[Double T]

12. The people also vote for a term limited President.

Congressional representatives that serve continually term after term control and command too much power which often leads to abuses of that power. Congressional representatives are self serving first; their constituents and constituent's issues are somewhere after that making term limits a remedy for self serving powerful leaders.

[loyalsister]

11. Talk about screwing things up!

Elections are term limits.
The loss of experience would put government at a standstill.
At that point you have a bunch of inexperienced officeholders and the people in the know are the lobbyists.
We instituted term limits in MO and it was a mistake of massive proportions!

[Double T]

13. And YOU don't think we have a horrendous, colossal mess..........

within our current government with all the many times over seasoned veterans of multitudes of consecutive Congressional terms running this nation. The experienced office holders have engineered our humongous current debacle.

[loyalsister]

14. I've seen what happens when you put them in place

People make the very complaints you are making and you get a bigger f--- mess than you could even begin to imagine.

[gatorboy]

8. I'm Sayin'!

Cheney, Rumsfeld...Bush SR....Isn't this the same group of clowns that were in power during the Raygun zombie era?

[Horse with no Name]

9. Yes and they are entrenched.

We need to keep out house clean.
This has to be considered.