News
The impending Republican presidential campaign of former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson may breathe new life -- or a single breath, perhaps -- into the dormant movement to limit congressional terms.
For all the wrangling in the 1990s over term limits in Congress and on the state level, the head of steam behind the grassroots movement against long-serving incumbents appears to have dissipated, with only small puffs of interest appearing on the political horizon from time to time.
Thompson, the prominent actor most recently seen on the NBC-TV series "Law and Order" who is expected to joint the crowded field of GOP presidential candidates early next month, was a strong supporter of a constitutional amendment to impose limits of three terms on House members and two terms on senators.
In fact, term limits was a key element of the citizen-legislator image he cultivated while running for the Senate in 1994 and one of the first bills he introduced was a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on Congress.
"Never has been an idea so popular that has received so little attention by the U.S. Congress," Thompson said while introducing the constitutional amendment.
But although Thompson and other supporters managed to fight the proposal through the Senate Judiciary Committee, they ultimately could not overcome a filibuster and a 1996 cloture motion fell two votes short of success.
Of the two current GOP senators seeking the nomination, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas promises to leave the Senate in 2010 if his presidential bid is unsuccessful. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., opposes term limits, saying they throw out the good with the bad.
Thompson chose not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2002 after serving eight years and he remains an advocate of term limits, even if his is a lonely voice.
"Sometimes, I think that I'm the last guy around who still thinks term limits is a good idea," Thompson said at the Lincoln Club annual dinner in Orange County, Calif., May 4. "The professionalization of politics saps people's courage. Their desire to keep their job and not upset anybody overrides all else -- even if it hurts the country."
"He kept his word and stepped down when he said he would," said Jeremy Johnson, director of state government affairs for U.S. Term Limits, the prime group behind the term limits cause. "The record for those who kept their word is very good. Apparently the people like politicians who do what they say they will do."
Honoring his pledge to leave the Senate after two terms is Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who said in January he will not seek a third term next year, opening the way for a battle for his seat. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who term-limited himself in the House, has promised not to serve more than two terms in the Seante.
The term limits movement got momentum in the early 1990s and within a few years 21 states had imposed term limits on their state or national legislators through either initiatives or state legislative action.
But in 1994, a federal district judged ruled that Washington state's law limiting congressional term limits was unconstitutional, and in 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that states did not have the authority to limit congressional terms.
Since then, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, supreme courts in Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming have struck down term limits on state legislators. Idaho and Utah legislatures repealed their limits, leaving only 15 states with term limits on state lawmakers.
In Congress, moves to impose term limits through a constitutional amendment have fizzled and there seems to be little interest in stirring up the issue again, especially with Democrats now back in charge.
In 1994, term limits were a part of the Republican "Contract with America" credited with helping them break the Democratic stranglehold on the House, but that was one provision that was never approved.
About 22 House members agreed at the time to self-imposed term limits. While nearly all were Republicans, Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., made the pledge but is only now leaving July 1, to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Term limits have not caught fire simply because there has been no national consensus for a constitutional amendment, according to Associate Senate Historian Donald Ritchie.
"You need a constitutional amendment and that is very hard to get, and you need a national consensus," he said. "Everybody wants to limit other states' representatives' terms, not their own."
John Samples, director of the Center For Responsive Government at the Cato Institute, echoed Ritchie by saying an amendment "would be very difficult to get." He said "frustration" led to the start of the movement but the drive "really peaked with the 1995 Supreme Court decision" prohibiting state legislative moves on term limits.
"Once that happened, Republicans [the main movers behind term limits] lost their hook on term limits," Samples added.
In the 110th Congress, two lawmakers -- Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., are still holding out hope for some action on a constitutional amendment. Vitter, in his first term, and Platts, who is in his fourth term, propose six terms for House members and two terms for senators.
For all the wrangling in the 1990s over term limits in Congress and on the state level, the head of steam behind the grassroots movement against long-serving incumbents appears to have dissipated, with only small puffs of interest appearing on the political horizon from time to time.
Thompson, the prominent actor most recently seen on the NBC-TV series "Law and Order" who is expected to joint the crowded field of GOP presidential candidates early next month, was a strong supporter of a constitutional amendment to impose limits of three terms on House members and two terms on senators.
In fact, term limits was a key element of the citizen-legislator image he cultivated while running for the Senate in 1994 and one of the first bills he introduced was a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on Congress.
"Never has been an idea so popular that has received so little attention by the U.S. Congress," Thompson said while introducing the constitutional amendment.
But although Thompson and other supporters managed to fight the proposal through the Senate Judiciary Committee, they ultimately could not overcome a filibuster and a 1996 cloture motion fell two votes short of success.
Of the two current GOP senators seeking the nomination, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas promises to leave the Senate in 2010 if his presidential bid is unsuccessful. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., opposes term limits, saying they throw out the good with the bad.
Thompson chose not to seek re-election to the Senate in 2002 after serving eight years and he remains an advocate of term limits, even if his is a lonely voice.
"Sometimes, I think that I'm the last guy around who still thinks term limits is a good idea," Thompson said at the Lincoln Club annual dinner in Orange County, Calif., May 4. "The professionalization of politics saps people's courage. Their desire to keep their job and not upset anybody overrides all else -- even if it hurts the country."
"He kept his word and stepped down when he said he would," said Jeremy Johnson, director of state government affairs for U.S. Term Limits, the prime group behind the term limits cause. "The record for those who kept their word is very good. Apparently the people like politicians who do what they say they will do."
Honoring his pledge to leave the Senate after two terms is Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who said in January he will not seek a third term next year, opening the way for a battle for his seat. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who term-limited himself in the House, has promised not to serve more than two terms in the Seante.
The term limits movement got momentum in the early 1990s and within a few years 21 states had imposed term limits on their state or national legislators through either initiatives or state legislative action.
But in 1994, a federal district judged ruled that Washington state's law limiting congressional term limits was unconstitutional, and in 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that states did not have the authority to limit congressional terms.
Since then, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, supreme courts in Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming have struck down term limits on state legislators. Idaho and Utah legislatures repealed their limits, leaving only 15 states with term limits on state lawmakers.
In Congress, moves to impose term limits through a constitutional amendment have fizzled and there seems to be little interest in stirring up the issue again, especially with Democrats now back in charge.
In 1994, term limits were a part of the Republican "Contract with America" credited with helping them break the Democratic stranglehold on the House, but that was one provision that was never approved.
About 22 House members agreed at the time to self-imposed term limits. While nearly all were Republicans, Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., made the pledge but is only now leaving July 1, to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Term limits have not caught fire simply because there has been no national consensus for a constitutional amendment, according to Associate Senate Historian Donald Ritchie.
"You need a constitutional amendment and that is very hard to get, and you need a national consensus," he said. "Everybody wants to limit other states' representatives' terms, not their own."
John Samples, director of the Center For Responsive Government at the Cato Institute, echoed Ritchie by saying an amendment "would be very difficult to get." He said "frustration" led to the start of the movement but the drive "really peaked with the 1995 Supreme Court decision" prohibiting state legislative moves on term limits.
"Once that happened, Republicans [the main movers behind term limits] lost their hook on term limits," Samples added.
In the 110th Congress, two lawmakers -- Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., are still holding out hope for some action on a constitutional amendment. Vitter, in his first term, and Platts, who is in his fourth term, propose six terms for House members and two terms for senators.
