From
CQ Politics (via
Political Wire)
Tennessee Republican Rep. Zach Wamp this year is breaking a pledge he made in 1994 to seek no more than six terms, or 12 years, in the House.
Wamp also is overwhelmingly favored to win a seventh term this November — a fact that speaks volumes about how much the issue of congressional term limits has faded in recent years.
Wamp is far from alone. The advocacy organization U.S. Term Limits counts seven other members, all Republicans, whose personal term-limit pledges are coming due in this year: Barbara Cubin of Wyoming, Phil English of Pennsylvania, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Timothy V. Johnson of Illinois, Ric Keller of Florida, Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey and Mark Souder of Indiana.
The point of the
CQ Politics article is that these House members aren't all that worried about blowback because the term limits issue isn't on the voters' minds these days. But I think their Democratic opponents could effectively use this against them. In fact, one of them is doing exactly that:
Yet challengers to pledge-breakers are not dropping the issue. Wamp’s Democratic foe in Tennessee’s 3rd District, Terry Stulce, says he is running to “help Zach keep his word on at least one promise he made in 1994.”
Stulce — an Army veteran, social worker and first-time candidate — concedes that many voters are willing to overlook a broken term limit pledge, but he says the issue is a moral barometer. “You can’t say, ‘Okay, that was 12 years ago and things have changed and now I can’t leave even though I promised.’ I think it’s more about character,” Stulce said.
That's precisely how the Democrats should deal with this issue -- they should tie in these broken pledges with the whole failure of the so-called Republican Revolution which swept these seven Republicans into office. The GOP has clearly breached their 1994 "Contract With America," given that government spending is now out of control and the rest of the Republican domestic agenda is in shambles.
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