Congress - Going Broke Selling Liquor & Women.

The thing I love most about liberals is how quick you are to point the finger outward not realizing (or willing to admit) the finger points right back at you. How many of these same clowns and chimps (Republicans AND Democrats) were around prior to 1999? Most of them? At least have the decency to own up to part of the responsibility for this mess. Then I'll start to take you seriously. Otherwise just keep blaming the other guys, 'your guys', Bush, whatever else you can. The problems we're in in this country today stem from people not taking resposibility for their own actions and having no sense of accountability. That's not a Republican OR Democrat problem - it's ALL of our problems. You'll take it from here? That's what's got me worried. No sense of reality.

Richard - you get it. It's not just a Republican OR Democrat issue. THEY - collexctively, can't sell booze in a whorehouse and make a living yet we're letting Pelosi & Reid build cars, run banks, sell houses. It's a horror show and liberals only want to blame everybody else for the problems.

I've gotta tell ya I'm really conflicted about term limits. I used to think they were the answer to our prayers - to get rid of bums we'd had in office forever and who had the whole process locked up. California enacted term limits in 1996 largely to get rid of a long running character we had named Willie Brown, so you can only run for 3 X 2 year assembly terms or 2 X 4 year senate terms. So now we have people run thru their term in one house and get elected to the other for a total of 14 years. We're making some changes to that too so they can serve out a longer term in one house or the other without the need for crossover.

The conflict in me comes from this very basic fact - in some ways it is even more difficult to accomplish anything. These people are elected for a finite period of time and come into office with a definite agenda. And because of the way our state is districted their agenda is usually very left leaning or very right leaning - moderates don't get elected much so there's not much common ground for them to work on. Second - there is a steep learning curve. The myriad of laws and committees is daunting - and nobody really builds any seniority. A senior member of the assembly is in his or her 2nd term - 3 or 4 years. They spend a great deal of time running for re-election and raising cash and trying to figure out which gig they can get appointed to after their term is up. Finally, because they know so little coming in and have so little time to learn, many have come to rely on lobbyists for their direction. It has created a whole new level of dependency on lobbyists and their influence has been greatly expanded in our state. Far too many new legislators spend every evening going from lobbyist party to lobbyist dinner to lobbyist entertainment every single night ferryied about in their state driven vehicle so they don't get a DUI.

So-no. I can't say categorically that term limits are the answer. I used to think so but have seen the downside as well. I wish we could just rely on the integrity of the individual but far too many get into politics for all the wrong reasons so that is out too. I don't have a magic answer but I do know that both Republicans and Democrats are about equally to blame and if you don't understand that simple fact you are part of the problem.

Ricardo - I just saw an article yesterday where the average age of our legislature (federal) is 63+ while the average age of our citizens is 34+. Deveral of our incoming committee chairs, based on seniority, are over 70, a couple over 80. And since many of them have been sitting there for 20 or more years, there is a real disconnect from the people they 'represent'. I wish the American people would take responsibility for throwing the bums out as needed but while most people think the congressmen are bums, their own is OK so they don't vote them out. I still think term limits has unanticipated consequences but it can't be much worse than the consequences we have right now.

Terry - and I'm not blaming everything on Democrats either. After all, it took us years to get to this point and many of those years have been under Republicans who, like our Governator in California, have sadly oost their way. Had that not happened they would not have suffered the significant defeat they did 2 years ago only to have it compounded this year. And this year I have an even greater concern that the veto stamp is not ready. Obama doesn't have the stature to stand against Pelosi & Reid and there's a very real chance some very damaging legislation will get passed. Nobody is willing to give the free market economy a chance anymore - everybody is too eager to step in and bail it out, take short cuts and tax and spend our way to prosperity. I hope the Democrats surprise me. I'm not optimistic that will happen.

See - a little thinking outside the box (no pun intended) and they could have balanced the budget inside 2 years. We'd be running a surplus right now with a positive trade balance. Detroit could still be making money building big old flashy Cadillac pimp-mobiles and housing would be flourishing. But noooooo.

Trish - I honestly hadn't though of that problem but given our elected leaders predilection for boozing it up and hiring high priced hookers, that may well have led to the demise of this great institution. (The whorehouse I mean,  not Congress).