Secret Powers?

I was recently listening to the Michael Medved show when he said a curious thing.

The discussion revolved around term limits. Mr. Medved is not a fan of the term limits, but that wasn't the curious thing. He went on to say something to this effect...

"What if after the term limits were up you had a bunch of amateurs in there and we had some sort of disaster?"

My question is: What exactly does Mr. Medved think politicians do?

Or, what secret powers does Mr. Medved think these fine men and women have that the rest of us lack?

I call bullshit. Those in power always want to cloak the machinery of government in mystery to make it look like what they do is really complicated, but it begs the question.

Is it?

I watch our politicians pretty closely, push came to shove I think I could manage to grandstand, bloviate, ridicule, vote on bills without reading them, over-rely on staffers, and take kick backs for votes, snipe others character hypocritically, make utterly ridiculous statements, and have a psychotic break with reality.

With all due respect, what the hell is it these people DO all day? Cuz I ain't seeing it. Even good men like Zell Miller, and no joke, I respect the hell out of him, but he seems like a reasonably intelligent, affable fellow. Does he have some special powers I'm not aware of?

Other than telling the truth.

See, to me the framers of our great country had a very clear vision for those who would serve. They wanted the best men possible, not necessarily the most intelligent, not necessarily the most highly educated. Just the best person possible. Given a choice I'll take a person with character over a super-genius all day long, or a person with a fine pedigree and no spine.

A story to illustrate. I briefly cooked the breakfast shift at a bar in Virginia, most of my clientele were lawyers, who as a rule are pricks and don't tip well (if you're a lawyer reading this why not do a little soul searching before getting all outraged, anyone in hospitality would tell you the same).

I don't recall any names, but there was a Senate race going on. The race was between a lawyer and a local owner of a car dealer or mechanics shop, something of that ilk. The local business owner won and my morning gaggle was outraged. "How will a mechanic run the government?" they asked as scornfully as possible.

Well fellas, I think that was exactly what the framer's had in mind, though it may pain your overly pampered ass. Citizen legislators, ring a bell? it should, because that is the basic model we're supposed to work from. Regular folks are supposed to go to Washington and serve for a time before returning to their regular lives.

Not exactly how it plays out now, is it?

It's all about common sense, and the last time I checked...

That wasn't listed as a class at Harvard.

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