Grassley's Gotta Go!

On January 20, 2021, there was a transition of power in Washington DC… and no, I am not talking about Donald Trump reluctantly passing the presidential baton to Joe Biden. Rather, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Chuck Grassley of Iowa shook hands with Pat Leahy of Vermont, signifying that there was a new President Pro Tempore.

For those who may not be aware, the President Pro Temp of the Senate is the longest serving member of the majority party. As per the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, he or she is also the third in line of presidential succession after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

That means that, should something happen to prevent 78-year-old President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from serving as America’s Chief Executive, the mantle would fall on 80-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If Speaker Pelosi was unable to serve, octogenarian Patrick Leahy would become the 47th President of the United States.

My concerns about Pat Leahy serving as President are threefold. First, I despise his hard-left politics. Second, I think he is entirely too old to serve in the Oval Office (for the record, I also think Joe Biden is too old, too).

Third – and perhaps most importantly – Leahy is a consummate Swamp Rat, having served in the Senate since 1975… 46 long years ago.

To give you some perspective, on the day that Leahy was first sworn into office, Stevie Nicks had just joined Fleetwood Mac, three Watergate defendants – John Mitchell, John Ehrlichman, and H.R. Haldeman – were just beginning their prison sentences, and Wheel of Fortune was just one-month old.

In other words, Pat Leahy is as old as dirt and has been in power for far too long… and the same can be said for Chuck Grassley.

The senior Senator from Iowa was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 after having served 17 years in the Iowa State House. He then graduated to the U.S. Senate in 1981, meaning that Grassley has held political office for as long as I have been alive (and I am no spring chicken!)

Leahy and Grassley represent a combined 92 years of Congressional experience which, in my opinion as an avid term limit supporter, is at least 44 years too many.

When I ran for the U.S. House in 2008, I promised to serve no more than six terms (12 years) if elected. I made the same promise in 2010 during my second congressional campaign. I felt then and I feel now that every officeholder should be a citizen representative. In other words, they should go to Washington, do a good job, and then – after a maximum of 12 years in the House and 12 in the Senate – pass the torch to a duly-elected successor.

Each congressional district is made up of more than 700,000 people and the least populated state, Wyoming, has more than 575,000 residents… so there should be no shortage of qualified candidates.

Other members of the Washington ruling class who have long overstayed their welcome include Rep. Don Young (R-AK) – 48 years; Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) – 44 years; and Sen. Richard Shelby (R–AL) – 42 years. Two other Senators – Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and two other Congressmen – Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) have called the Capitol home for more than four decades.

To stop this insanity, I propose that the 117th Congress enact two measures. First, pass a term limit bill with the 24-year maximum prescribed above. Second, establish a mandatory retirement age of 80 for all federal officeholders.

Otherwise, we run the risk of having another Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who served as President Pro Tempore from January 3, 2007 to June 28, 2010, when he died at the age of 92. Byrd was then replaced by 86-year-old Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who held the position until his own death two years later. Of course, they were relative youngsters compared to South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond who, as President Pro Temp in 2001, was third in the presidential line of succession at the ripe old age of 98.

People who are not willing to voluntarily relinquish the reins of power even when their physical and mental abilities are noticeably failing need to be stripped of that power. To put it even more bluntly, if they won’t leave of their own accord, show them the door and give them the boot.