"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be solved by what is right with America"

Monday, February 4, 2008

Steve Chabot's Contract with Who??


Many of you may remember way back in 1994 when Steve Chabot first ran for Congress. That was the year, halfway through Bill Clinton's first term as President, that Newt Gingrich introduced his "Contract with America". The document, loaded with acts touting "tort reform" and "budget responsibility" was designed to give the Republicans once again a majority in the house and effectively did so.

However, tucked away in one of the final paragraphs was a small section outlining the promise of term limits for elected officials. What Steve Chabot promised the day he signed his name to that "Contract" was that if elected he would limit himself to six terms (or twelve years) and then step aside. To quote the contract, this would effectively rid Washington of "career" politicians much like Mr. Chabot himself. If he would have kept his word, the six term tenure would have ended in 2006.

Steve Chabot is once again giving his constituents the middle finger and running for his EIGHTH consecutive term. Read the text of the contract below...........

Citizen Legislature Act

Summary:

This resolution provides for consideration of two joint
resolutions which propose amendments to the constitution limiting
the number of terms members of the Senate and the House of
Representatives can serve. The first joint resolution
(identical to H.J.Res. 38 as introduced in the 103rd Congress)
limits the number of Senate terms to two and the number of House
terms to six. The second joint resolution (identical to H.J.Res.
160 as introduced in the 103rd Congress) also limits Senators to
two terms, but it limits members of the House to three terms.
Under the terms of this resolution, the joint resolution with the
text of H.J.Res. 38 will be debated first and the first amendment
in order will be a substitute consisting of H.J.Res. 160.


Background:

The idea of limiting the tenure of elected officials has recurred
through our history, but it has become more popular in the last
few years. In 1992, 14 states passed initiatives limiting the
tenure of federal legislators. Two of these laws, however, have
been challenged and found unconstitutional in court. The U.S.
Supreme Court will review the ruling by the Arkansas Supreme
Court. Since there is a chance the high court will uphold the
state court's ruling, a constitutional amendment may be necessary
to limit congressional tenure.

2 comments:

WestEnder said...

Looking forward to information & updates on the OH-1 race!

(I'm pretty sure it should be "whom," not "who" in the post title. But check with someone sober).

Nathan Wissman said...

Should it be any suprise to us that the GOP won't even apply standards to themselves that they want to apply to everyone else? Look at all of these Republicans who voted against gay rights, yet are gay themselves; people such as Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, and Mark Folley. They tell voters one thing, then do something completely different. We started our clean sweep in 2006, it's time to finish it in 2008.

Search The Candidates Campaign Sites

Google