A quick call for term limits – Stevens (R-AK) indicted

I’ve written before that I am a fan of term limits. I have no need for professional politicians that hang around forever and forever. Some say that they become out-of-touch with their constituents, some say they are simply drawn in by power.

Let’s take for example the news just released about Ted Stevens from Alaska, the longest serving Republican senator in Washington D.C. He’s just been indited by federal prosecutors for falsely reporting services he received from a company that helped renovate his home. He’s 84 and been in the Senate since 1968. Forty years in the Senate qualifies Stevens as a professional politician. He needs to retire.

Politicians are now simply measured on how much cash they bring back to their districts. When federal cash flows to the states, people really do think it’s free money.

Sure, Stevens held quite a few other positions prior to being appointed to the Senate – including a distinguished few years in the Air Force during the 1940s – but after years in a position of power I think these problems will continue to happen.

Just ask Chris Dodd.

From Breitbart.com, with an AP report…

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and a figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, has been indicted on seven counts of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.Stevens, 84, has been dogged by a federal investigation into whether he pushed for fishing legislation that also benefited his son, an Alaska lobbyist.

From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said Stevens concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.” The indictment released Tuesday said the items included: home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring; as well as car exchanges, a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools.

Justice Department officials were holding a news conference later Tuesday to discuss the charges.

Term limits will solve this problem.

Hot Air has more with the basics explained. Malkin has more.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

2 Comments

  1. Mark30339 on July 30, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    The piece at RCP on Tom Coburn lays out the model representative under a term limit plan.  If you have no ambition to chair committees (and pad your PAC coffers), you can block a lot of spending in the US Senate.



  2. Jay on July 30, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Funny that Chris Dodd had a similar offense with his sweetheart mortgage loan while heading the Senate banking committee, yet he is not facing the same scrutiny.  What gives?  Could it be that Dodd is a respected Democrat and Stevens is a Republican?  Regardless, your original point is correct.  Term limits are a no-brainer.  — Jay —  libertyalert.blogspot.com.



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