News-Leader editorial: Time to get rid of term limits is now

In the wake of the sudden resignation last week of House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden, the Springfield News-Leader's editorial board is renewing its plea that the state of Missouri strike down its term limits law.
In an editorial in today's edition, the newspaper notes that politicians are constantly scrambling for new positions because of term limits:

Term limits gave us a House leadership that was more consumed with running for election than providing leadership, and now that leadership will be vacated and replaced by people with even less experience. This is not a recipe for quality legislative process. As we've argued before, we believe the evidence is clear that Missouri's experiment with term limits has consolidated power with the executive branch and with lobbyists, and now the lobbying industry is snatching up outgoing term-limited lawmakers as quickly as it can.

Term limits have caused the people's House to give up important power, and it's time for legislators to take some of that power back.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would be wise to come together on a policy that would take term limits back to the voters. While we'd like to see them scrapped altogether, we believe a reasonable compromise would at least extend the amount of time elected officials can spend in the House, from eight to 12 years, for instance.

I have written about the follies of term limits since before they were put into place and subsequent events have not caused me to change my position. However, I haven't seen anyone in the state media write about one bothersome aspect of this whole situation.

Isn't there anyone who believes that when the people elect a politician to serve, whether it be as a representative, senator, mayor, or whatever, that the person has made an obligation to serve the full term?