Term limits and related issues

I don't support them. Many other people whom I respect have run for National elective office, promising to term-limit themselves. Most of these people have kept their promises, and I suspect that many of them left office at a time when their constituents and their States needed them most.

In a way, it's like the comic who wouldn't want to join a club that would admit him as a member, or a young couple so serious and circumspect about childrearing that they feel they aren't fit or conscientious enough for it and remain childless.

Somebody running for elective office on the plank of term-limiting himself is fooling somebody, either himself or the voters.

I suffer no such disability. If you think I've been corrupted by the office, I'm counting on you to remove me when you get the opportunity, every six years. No doubt I'd get tired of living in Northern Viriginia, shuttling back and forth between Colorado and there, so I'd stop running for reelection anyway.

Of course, I believe that it was a serious mistake to amend the Constitution to elect Senators by popular vote---Senators were not intended under our brilliant system to represent voters, but the States directly, to keep the system of dual Federal/State sovereignty in balance. States had the power to appoint and to remove Senators. If I thought such an effort would have a snowball's chance in Hell, I'd support a return to this arrangement, even if it meant I'd be kicking myself out of office.