Sen. Storm Thurmond poster boy for term limits?
May 8, 2001 7:56 AM   Subscribe

Sen. Storm Thurmond poster boy for term limits? Is this more hipocracy on part of we need term-limits Republican? Why doesn't he just resign and spend some time with his family?
posted by Rastafari (8 comments total)
 
there was a recent article in the NYT Magazine (NYTimes, req. free registration )profiling the senior senator from S.C.

other than the terrific references to his "virility" (including groping Sen. Barbara Boxer) the most notable, to me, was the following quote

When I ask for an example of a significant law that would not have passed without Thurmond's influence, Thomas Mann, an expert on the Congress at the Brookings Institution, is stumped. "He's just never been a major player in the body," he says.


you'd think he would have gotten something done in 50 years. is this guy just missing something? the rebuttal in the times article doesn't seem sufficient.
posted by elsar at 8:38 AM on May 8, 2001


Strom Thurmond is legendary at constituent services, doling out pork to the people of South Carolina like there's no tomorrow.
posted by rcade at 8:46 AM on May 8, 2001


And hey, he set a record for one-man filibustering, beating out Wayne Morse (who in turn beat Battlin' Bob La Follette). Sure, he denounced civil rights demonstrators as "Negro agitators, spurred on by communist enticements to promote racial strife" and tried to physically restrain Ralph Yarborough from voting (in order to keep Yarborough from approving an anti-segregation Johnson appointee), but you have to admire that kind of stamina, right?
posted by snarkout at 9:08 AM on May 8, 2001


Gee, he was kind of a cute little cracker back in his day, wasn't he?

He needs to go. Unfortunately it won't be vertically. In any case, the whole thing about the balance of power in the Senate is moot, because Zell Miller is just champing at the bit to go GOP any day now. I say we should all just kick back and watch the longevity race run its course.
posted by Dreama at 10:29 AM on May 8, 2001


Don't forget that Jesse Helms is on his last legs, too. Even I felt a little wistful when 60 Minutes ran that puff piece on him a few weeks ago.

I'd also bet that John Breault from Louisiana is a likely turncoat to the (R) side, too.
posted by briank at 10:43 AM on May 8, 2001


I feel kind of bad because I know that if Mr. Thurmond dies then my first thought will be "Oh good, the Democrats will control the Senate."

I feel a lot less bad that I feel the same way about Jesse Helms.
posted by anapestic at 11:13 AM on May 8, 2001


Why doesn't he just resign and spend some time with his family?

Because his family likely thinks he's an asshole as well...
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 11:17 AM on May 8, 2001


Regardless of Thurmond's character or age, I think people are missing the real issue here. People call for tougher term limit standards, but they forget that this country still operates, however tenuously, on free elections. Someone had to elect this guy in the first place. And I believe you'd find the argument for term limits would swing the other way given a more favorable candidate. People need to step back and take a look at the larger picture and ask why the country appears to be so evenly divided along part lines.
posted by Oddsea at 11:47 AM on May 8, 2001


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