by Pa Rock
Youngster
Aging politicians are like barnacles - damned hard to remove.
Franklin D. Roosevelt had been President less than one hundred days when Dianne Feinstein was born in June of 1933. Today she is the oldest serving member of the United States Senate and is seriously considering running for her fifth full-term next fall. Should she win that election, Feinstein would be ninety-one at the end of the new term.
When the founding fathers - James Madison and the other wealthy white landowners - drafted our Constitution, they were careful to include minimum age requirements for various federal offices. A member of the House of Representatives had to be at least twenty-five years old, a senator thirty, and the President had to be at least thirty-five. They didn't want a bunch of kids taking over the levers of government. Sadly, the Constitution drafters failed to include any provisions that placed a limitation on the maximum age a person could be who held those offices.
Dianne Feinstein, the senior senator from California, is eighty-four-years-old and she is seriously considering running for another six-year term in the Senate. A new poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found that fifty-percent of that state's likely voters feel that she should not run, but Feinstein seems inclined to share her political skills with Californians for another six years, whether they want her to or not.
Currently six other U.S. Senators are also over the age of eighty: Chuck Grassley of Iowa is eighty-four (less than three months younger than Feinstein), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Richard Shelby (Alabama) are both eighty-three, James Inhofe of Oklahoma is eighty-two, and Pat Robers (Kansas) and John McCain (Arizona) are both eighty. Thad Cochran of Mississippi will celebrate his eightieth birthday this December 7th - and then there are more than twenty other senators who are currently in their seventies!
With age comes wisdom - and mule-headedness, incontinence, and senility. The United States government offers a choice of good retirement plans, and more Senators need to be taking advantage of them. Those over eighty should lead the way to the exits.
The United States Senate is a political entity that barely functions as it is. The time is overdue for a transfusion of younger blood and more vitality. The kids need room to move up - and the dinosaurs need to be put out to pasture!
Youngster
Aging politicians are like barnacles - damned hard to remove.
Franklin D. Roosevelt had been President less than one hundred days when Dianne Feinstein was born in June of 1933. Today she is the oldest serving member of the United States Senate and is seriously considering running for her fifth full-term next fall. Should she win that election, Feinstein would be ninety-one at the end of the new term.
When the founding fathers - James Madison and the other wealthy white landowners - drafted our Constitution, they were careful to include minimum age requirements for various federal offices. A member of the House of Representatives had to be at least twenty-five years old, a senator thirty, and the President had to be at least thirty-five. They didn't want a bunch of kids taking over the levers of government. Sadly, the Constitution drafters failed to include any provisions that placed a limitation on the maximum age a person could be who held those offices.
Dianne Feinstein, the senior senator from California, is eighty-four-years-old and she is seriously considering running for another six-year term in the Senate. A new poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found that fifty-percent of that state's likely voters feel that she should not run, but Feinstein seems inclined to share her political skills with Californians for another six years, whether they want her to or not.
Currently six other U.S. Senators are also over the age of eighty: Chuck Grassley of Iowa is eighty-four (less than three months younger than Feinstein), Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Richard Shelby (Alabama) are both eighty-three, James Inhofe of Oklahoma is eighty-two, and Pat Robers (Kansas) and John McCain (Arizona) are both eighty. Thad Cochran of Mississippi will celebrate his eightieth birthday this December 7th - and then there are more than twenty other senators who are currently in their seventies!
With age comes wisdom - and mule-headedness, incontinence, and senility. The United States government offers a choice of good retirement plans, and more Senators need to be taking advantage of them. Those over eighty should lead the way to the exits.
The United States Senate is a political entity that barely functions as it is. The time is overdue for a transfusion of younger blood and more vitality. The kids need room to move up - and the dinosaurs need to be put out to pasture!
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