Sunday, January 26, 2025

Andy Ogles Serves Up a Nothing-Burger on a Paper Plate

 
by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Andy Ogles, a Republican member of Congress from Tennessee, has apparently decided that Congress has too much time on its hands, and to help eat up some of that time, he has proposed an amendment to the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution.  (The 22nd Amendment is the one that limits a President to just two terms in office.)  Ogles, or more likely his staff, has carefully crafted the new proposed amendment so that it applies to only one individual - Donald Trump.

The text of the bill that Rep. Ogles introduced in the House reads as follows:

"No person shall be elected to the office of President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than twice."

In other words, nothing would change except in the case of a President who was elected to two non-consecutive terms, something that has only happened twice in the entire history of this nation, and that lucky person could run for a third term.  Grover Cleveland has been dead 116 years, so Rep. Ogles must be talking about America's self-proclaimed and whiniest victim, Donald John Trump.

The United States currently has three former US Presidents who have served two consecutive terms:  Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.  All three are younger than Trump - and Barack Obama is fifteen years younger!  Yet, Grandpa Don is the one Ogles wants to empower to remain in office.

There is really no point in getting worked up about Andy Ogles and his silly bill.   Every Republican leader worth his salt seems to be knocking each other out of the way to be the next in line to kiss Dear Leader's ring - or whatever.  The good news is that the proposed amendment stands almost no chance of passage and enactment.  It takes a two-thirds vote in the House and the Senate to send a proposed amendment to the states for ratification, and right now neither chamber has anywhere near that level of GOP membership, and three-quarters of the states would have to vote to ratify the new amendment, something that is also unlikely to happen.

So the Ogles' amendment is just a loud show of fealty to Trump, a nothing-burger served up on a paper plate.  More lip balm, please!

Andy, there was a deadly school shooting at a high school in Nashville this week.  Perhaps your time would be better spent focusing on the killing of innocent school children.  

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