Term Limits Aren't Appropriate in "Tough Times"?

But consider the Times' supposedly alarming example of Tacoma Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg.

Now in her second four-year term, she advocates something that the Times presumably considers visionary and not a bit small-bore -- a $2 million pedestrian and bike trail. Ladenburg lamented to the Times that she thinks "this is crazy" because, "If I go away, and it's not completed, what will happen?" Well, either the trail will be completed or it won't. Presumably, if the good people of Tacoma want it, it will be, in which case she will not have been indispensable, which will also be true if they do not want it completed.

Term limits should be imposed by the voters but the voters are reluctant to "throw the bums out" because they have become accustomed to receiving the stolen goods the senior lawmakers can provide. Seniority equates to power, power which politicians use to buy the votes and retain their positions of dominion over their flock. Thus we see senescent lawmakers such as Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd continue to loot the treasury until they ultimately die in office.