Globe editorial: Term limits are great

In an editorial in today's edition, The Joplin Globe credits term limits as being the greatest idea since sliced bread:

We don’t agree that the revolving door for legislators is a bad thing. Nor do we believe that Missourians are electing nincompoops who spend their first year or two in Jefferson City looking for their own offices and the restrooms.

The catalyst for term limits was House Speaker Bob Griffin, who became the most powerful politician in Missouri who had not been elected to a state office. He held sway over the fortunes of legislation and exerted enormous influence on policy. The theory was that limiting terms would bring an end to such strangleholds on power by forcing every legislator out of office within a specified number of years and would weaken, if not break up, powerful legislative cliques. We believe that it has worked.

As for losing historical memory on how the General Assembly goes about the public's business and seeing legislative experience walk out the door, well, that’s also part of what term limits intended.

The professional politician has not been eliminated, but term limits have forced opportunities for new faces with fresh ideas. And it has ensured there will be no more "Mr. Permanent Speaker of the House."

As regular readers of The Turner Report and the columns I wrote during my time at The Carthage Press and the Lamar Democrat are aware, I am totally against the concept of term limits. Perhaps if the Joplin Globe did a better job of covering the influence that lobbyists and firmly entrenched bureaucrats have on our state government, it might have a better understanding of the issue.

Since that is not likely to happen, I might suggest that we consider term limits for Joplin Globe editorial writers.