To say that Governor Hot Rod Blago has given the term ‘public servant’ a bad name might be the understatement of the decade. This drama will, no doubt, continue to play out in the weeks ahead. Now if only president-elect Obama would show some real righteous indignation and outrage instead of merely a sober resignation with a few obligatory expressions of sadness thrown in for good measure. Is he sad for the people of Illinois or for his crony who got busted and could still implicate him in unsavory, if not illegal, association?

This whole sordid business of corruption in government brought to mind a friendly argument I had with a good friend who is hopelessly liberal in outlook. At a party I was discussing politics with someone and advanced the case that term limits for people who serve—I use the word advisedly—in Congress might be a good idea. My friend overheard and weighed in with a scornful, “I thing that’s a terrible idea”. I took the challenge and the debate was on.

You need to understand something about my friend. While he might deny it, he’s one of those who think that it is government that makes our country great. Not the people. Not our traditions. Not evil big corporations. And certainly not the military. No, it’s government that makes America great. And the bigger and more centralized, the better. I suspect he also believes that our inalienable rights devolve from Government rather than some Transcendental Source. Our Founding Fathers, in keeping with the Judeo-Christian traditions of Western Civilization, identified such a Source or Ground of Being as “the Creator”. Again—let’s call him Wilbur—Wilbur might deny this. But I know his secular heart.

My argument’s main thrust was this: the longer people serve in government, the less likely they are to continue to faithfully serve the public which elected them. The longer their tenure, the more likely they are to be corrupted by power. The more vulnerable they remain to relentless outside influences such as evil lobbyists. It’s funny how Democrats decry lobbyists and “special interests” as demons which always seem to possess Republicans exclusively while they, the Dems, remain immune. Of course, that’s absurd.

In the formative years of our Republic, the attitude about serving one’s country was more noble and modest than it is today. The yeoman farmer who went to Washington to represent the people of his state or district did not look upon this as a career move. The idea was that, at considerable personal expense and sacrifice, one would choose to serve his country for a term or two, after which the politician would hang up his hat and return to his previous life. There would always be newcomers volunteering to fill the vacancies and refurbish the chambers of Congress.

Today aspiring politicians pay exorbitant amounts of money to procure a job which doesn’t necessarily pay all that well compared to jobs in the private sector. No wonder they never want to resign. They need all the bang for the buck they can get in order to retire their campaign debt. Of course, it turns out that these folks sooner or later discover that there are other ways to accrue wealth in Washington besides drawing their regular paycheck. That’s the problem.

Wilbur’s argument consisted in the assertion that the longer people serve in government, the more experience they accumulate and the more expertise they demonstrate. It would be a shame, for example, to force somebody like Joe Biden—who Wibur voted for in the primary election—out of the Senate because we the people would then be deprived of his amazing wisdom and judgment in matters of foreign policy. Indeed, during the campaign, Joe Biden’s tenure and experience were often touted as compelling credentials that made him the perfect choice as the inexperienced Obama’s running mate. It didn’t seem to matter that Joe regularly took his traveling clown show on the road saying really goofy things. It didn’t matter that he was expansively liberal with the “facts” in the debate with Sarah Palin. And it didn’t seem to matter that, in the past, Joe had been simply wrong on so many foreign policy issues. The only thing that mattered was that he’d been in the Senate for more than three decades—that and the observation that he rode commuter trains a lot.

I will acknowledge that, even without term limits, some congressmen and senators have their Washington careers curtailed by their constituents back home. Throw the bums out, yeah. Yet there are certain districts that become so enamored with their representative, they would never dream of voting him or her out the door. I’m convinced that if that Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, were immortal, the voters of Massachusetts would keep sending him back to Capitol Hill right up until the Universe reverted to a singularity a few billion years or so from now.

I asked Wilbur, if term limits were so bad, then why is our president subjected to them? His answer amounted to, “Well, that’s different”.

Time is both linear and cyclical. A certain amount of time is required for freshmen lawmakers to learn the ropes. And with the passage of time, I’m sure many committee members become more knowledgeable about some special issue or another. But, in nature, we also have the seasons. In the spirit of Ecclesiastes, there’s a time to serve and a time to not serve (any longer). Spring cleaning is more than a metaphor. There’s just something healthy about clearing out the cobwebs and discarding things that have outlived their usefulness.

I realize that my vision is hopelessly naïve, at least while Democrats are running the show. They will always be more committed to holding their political power in perpetuity than serving the greater good. They do believe in service. But they serve the Party and its handmaiden, Big Government, first and foremost. And the longer, the better.