Democrat intros bill that would allow Bush 2 more terms

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Note, this bill that would repeal the 22nd amendment was sponsored by Steny Hoyer, Democrat!


http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/06/319395.shtml


Bill Summary & Status for the 109th Congress

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NEW SEARCH | HOME | HELP | ABOUT COSPONSORS

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H.J.RES.24
Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.
Sponsor: Rep Hoyer, Steny H. (introduced 2/17/2005) Cosponsors (4)
Latest Major Action: 4/4/2005 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution.

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COSPONSORS(4), ALPHABETICAL : (Sort: by date)
Rep Berman, Howard L. - 2/17/2005 Rep Pallone, Frank, Jr. - 2/17/2005
Rep Sabo, Martin Olav - 2/17/2005 Rep Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. - 2/17/2005


http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HJ00024:@@@P

[Sanity Claws]

1. The only terms he should get are jail terms

Life jail term.

[marmar]

5. LOL. So true!

If that happened, I think the EU, Canada, China, Russia and Brazil would unite and declare war on us. It would be the humane thing to do.

[AllegroRondo]

2. If its repealed, there is no term limit

[derby378]

3. What's that smell?

I know what it is - it's treason.

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. NOOOOOOO...

Is this some kind of friggin JOKE??

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/665903

[politicaholic]

6. Yup, it's true...pretty wild huh?

It makes you wonder what he got out of it. New roads, a few museums, or perhaps:

http://www.hoyer.house.gov/
Congressman Hoyer has been the lead advocate for Southern Maryland’s military installations at the federal level and was instrumental in preserving 9,000 jobs at Patuxent River Naval Air Station while adding over 5,000 new jobs; protecting 3,000 jobs at Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center; and securing the future of Webster Field, St. Inigoes and retaining more than a dozen local contractors including 200 federal jobs and 1,400 private jobs.

[EC]

15. Well, I think we just found one of the Democrat

infiltrators.....

[CoffeeCat]

7. Is this real???

I'll wait to freak out, until I knowt his is legit.

In the meantime--maybe I'll take up airplane-glue sniffing.

((((((going nuts in a BushCo world)))))

[Richard D]

8. It would also allow . . .

. . . the Big Dog to run again! Wouldn't those debates be fun.

[KingFlorez]

9. Bush wouldn't win anymore

If we ran Clinton, he'd win in a minute.

[longship]

10. Double-edge sword

I agree that this seems omminous, especially from a Democrat.

But if Big Dog was President, the Repugs would be foaming at the mouth. The big question is whether the 22nd Amendment should be repealed, not when it should be repealed.

I would think that it would take 2-3 for the states years to ratify such a change, if it was even possible to get it out of Congress. I doubt that it will be successful.

I feel strongly that no Constitutional Amendments are going to get out of this Congress alive.

[Emit]

11. Hoyer says it wouldn't allow Bush another term...

I posted a question about this the other day here, and it seems there is a historical/non-partisan aspect to this issue--that it pre-dates Bush & Co. and such.

Personally, under the current political climate and until a handle can be gotten on electronic voting machine ownership, I think it's a bad idea, but others seem to think that it is beneficial in the long run.

From thomas.loc.gov remarks section:
<<snip>>
SPEECH OF
HON. STENY H. HOYER
OF MARYLAND
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2005
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing today a joint resolution to repeal outright the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. The 22nd Amendment requires that no person who has served two terms or has served two years of another President's term be permitted to serve another term of office.

The time has come to repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, and not because of partisan politics. While I am not a
supporter of the current President, I feel there are good public policy reasons for a repeal of this amendment. Under the Constitution as altered by the 22nd Amendment, this must be President George W. Bush's last term even if the American people should want him to continue in office. This is an undemocratic result.

Under the resolution I offer today, President Bush would not be eligible to run for a third term. However, the American people would have restored to themselves and future generations an essential democratic privilege to elect who they choose in the future.
A limitation on the terms that a President could serve was not fully discussed by the Founding Fathers. However, Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist Paper 72, recognized that one important benefit of not having term limits on the President would be:


We do not have to rely on rigid constitutional standards to hold our Presidents accountable. Sufficient power resides in the Congress and the Judiciary to protect our country from tyranny. As the noted attorney and counsel to Presidents, Clark Clifford, said:

I believe we denigrate ourselves as an enlightened people, and our political process as a whole, in imposing on ourselves still further disability to retain tested and trusted leadership. The Congress and the Judiciary are now and will remain free to utilize their own countervailing constitutional power to forestall any executive overreaching.
<<snip>>

[jmaier]

13. Yep -- this is just about right

"Sufficient power resides in the Congress and the Judiciary to protect our country from tyranny." It's been working so well of late.

[ISUGRADIA]

19. "Under the resolution I offer today, President Bush would not be ..,"

"eligible to run for a third term."

From what I saw at the thomas.gov site the amendment repeals the 22nd and says nothing that would restrict Bush from running for a third term. Maybe Hoyer is implying the amendement would not be in effect by 2008, but nothing in the language say no Bush in 2012, 2016, 2020, etc.

[Emit]

30. Good point n/t

[ProudDad]

12. It would also allow Bill Clinton

to run again...

That would be FUN...

[Hippo_Tron]

22. Clinton's health isn't exactly great these days...

He might not be up to campaigning let alone four more years as President. Granted, I think that Clinton at full strength would absolutely wipe the floor with chimp, but I don't think that, that is a possibility. Clinton really needs to take some time off and take care of himself.

[rniel]

14. Hell

I'd like to see if he could turn the economy around given another 8 years.

ha ha ha h ah a

[shance]

16. Are some of our Dems in Congress mentally incapacitated?

We already know some of the Republicans are.

This is the most self-defeating and destructive action imaginable to our Democracy right now.

Consider the very real fact that Republican owned private companies have installed under the guise of the Help America Vote Act, electronic voting machines and optical scanning equipment that is rigged and ready to steal again, and again, and again, until we stop them. It is becoming increasingly apparent nationwide electoral abuse is happening at an unprecedented level.

Do these people literally want to destroy the United States of America?

Whatever their cause for their lack of utilization of the cerebrum and/or cerebellum, they are doing a bang up job, (no pun intended).

[shraby]

17. It would take a 2/3 vote of both houses and

3/4 of the states would have to vote to approve it, and after I think 7 years if it doesn't get passed it's dead in the water.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

18. I knew Steny Hoyer stank when...

he signed the "Dear Colleague" letter authored by Congressman Bob Ney (R) to prevent Rush Holt's bill HR 2239 to be passed.

If Holt's bill had passed, there would have been alot of recounting going on in 2004.

Steny Hoyer and Chris Dodd are fake democrats.

[FreedomAngel82]

20. A democrat did this????

:crazy: I don't understand. WHY?!

[cobaindrain]

21. because of this

[Hippo_Tron]

23. See my post above re Clinton's health

[cobaindrain]

29. he'll be fine

he had a triple bypass, Letterman had a quintuple bypass and he's back working

[Hippo_Tron]

32. President of the United States and late night talk show host...

Are two very different jobs.

[Rainscents]

24. I know... I am cookoo over this. Democrats should know, we need

to get rid of Diebold first, before we can put this bill in place.:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[Hippo_Tron]

25. Current scenarios aside, I think that presidents need to be term limited

I'm generally against term limits because there are good men and women serving in elected office that should be allowed to continue to serve so long as the people choose to re-elect them. Of course I think that we need campaign finance reform so that incumbency doesn't include such a huge money advantage, but that's another story entirely.

The one exception to this rule is the presidency. My reasoning for this is that the modern presidency is an incredibly powerful office. George Washington only served two terms for a reason. If a President becomes an entrenched incumbent and serves for a ridiculously long period like 30 years, he could easily start to disregard the law and if the people continue to re-elect him, then there is very little that can be done to stop him.

The constitution only works if everybody follows it. The branch that we have to worry most about not following it is the executive branch. If the President ignores a decission from the supreme court, what exactly can be done about it? The President controls the Justice Department, all federal law enforcement, and the entire military. The only thing that can legally stop him is removal through impeachment and that's not enough. If the President is popular enough, impeachment isn't a possibility.

I could go on and on. The bottom line is that the President of the United States is the most powerful person on the face of the planet. The job needs to be term limited or the power of the office will be easier to abuse without fear of retribution.

[genius]

26. Hoyer doesN'T have a very good voting record

He has voted with the Republicans on a great many key votes. I wouldn't be surprised if he were rooting for Bush.

[AntiCoup2K4]

27. He's definitely rooting for PNAC

Bigger Likud whore than Lieberman :puke:

[JRob]

28. Another DINO! It's time people, they're either with us or with...

the terrorist... I MEAN the Republicans!

[radar]

31. What am I missing?

Do these guys(congressmen) just pull stuff outta their collective a$$ to avoid working on anything that helps the people improve themselves in this country?

* Didn't notice when skimming the thread - any ammendment to the Constitution requires 2/3 or 38 states to approve it. I seriously doubt that many local governments will drop what they are doing to take up this "issue" within the next year & a half; so the repubs have their candidate by campaign season.

...authority to amend the Constitution of the United States is derived from Article V of the Constitution. After Congress proposes an amendment, the Archivist of the United States, who heads the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is charged with responsibility for administering the ratification process...
...The Archivist submits the proposed amendment to the States for their consideration by sending a letter of notification to each Governor...
...A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States).
Constitutional Amendment
http://www.virtualology.com/virtualpubliclibrary/hallofthehistoricarchives/CONSTITUTIONALAMENDMENT.COM/

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Article5