Morgan County view of Norwood
By Ruth Bracewell
June 1, 2006
Anybody remember the “Contract With America”? This was the brainchild political strategy engineered in 1994 by Newt Gingrich which resulted in the Republican takeover of the U. S. House of Representatives. Over 300 Republican congressmen or congressional candidates, including our congressman, Charlie Norwood, signed this “contract” with the American public, promising what they would do if they were elected.
One important section was entitled the Citizen Legislature Act, which stated that all congressmen would serve a maximum of 12 years in Congress and then return home to allow other “citizen” legislators to take their places, thereby ridding Congress of what appeared to be “lifetime appoint-ments” for career politicians.
Those 12 years expire this year. According to the contract which all those Republicans literally signed in 1994, we should be seeing a mass retirement of Republican congress-men this year, with hundreds of new names and faces run-ning to replace them in the November 2006 General Elec-tion. However, that part of the “Contract With America” has been conveniently forgotten by the Republicans who are in control today and who have now become the career “lifetime appointment” politicians.
The issue of term limits is debatable. We may not neces-sarily agree “with term limits,” but that was the Republican candidates’ pledge then, and it helped them get elected.
I believe that those who did sign that contract with the American people in 1994 should honor it today. The “Contract With America” was marketed with a tag line that said, “If we break this contract, throw us out. We mean it!” Now it looks like we are going to have to do just that. The only Republican congressmen leaving congress these days are doing so because they have gone to prison, like Repre-sentative Randy Cunningham of California, or have been indicted, like Representative Tom DeLay of Texas. I haven’t heard of one Republican congressman who has voluntarily said that his 12 years are up, and he’s returning to private life.
Among those candidates running in 1994 who signed this contract was our own congressman, Charlie Norwood. His 12 years are up now, but he’s running for re-election any-way. Since he can’t bring himself to honor his contract, we need to do it for him. Vote for his opponent.
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June 1, 2006
Anybody remember the “Contract With America”? This was the brainchild political strategy engineered in 1994 by Newt Gingrich which resulted in the Republican takeover of the U. S. House of Representatives. Over 300 Republican congressmen or congressional candidates, including our congressman, Charlie Norwood, signed this “contract” with the American public, promising what they would do if they were elected.
One important section was entitled the Citizen Legislature Act, which stated that all congressmen would serve a maximum of 12 years in Congress and then return home to allow other “citizen” legislators to take their places, thereby ridding Congress of what appeared to be “lifetime appoint-ments” for career politicians.
Those 12 years expire this year. According to the contract which all those Republicans literally signed in 1994, we should be seeing a mass retirement of Republican congress-men this year, with hundreds of new names and faces run-ning to replace them in the November 2006 General Elec-tion. However, that part of the “Contract With America” has been conveniently forgotten by the Republicans who are in control today and who have now become the career “lifetime appointment” politicians.
The issue of term limits is debatable. We may not neces-sarily agree “with term limits,” but that was the Republican candidates’ pledge then, and it helped them get elected.
I believe that those who did sign that contract with the American people in 1994 should honor it today. The “Contract With America” was marketed with a tag line that said, “If we break this contract, throw us out. We mean it!” Now it looks like we are going to have to do just that. The only Republican congressmen leaving congress these days are doing so because they have gone to prison, like Repre-sentative Randy Cunningham of California, or have been indicted, like Representative Tom DeLay of Texas. I haven’t heard of one Republican congressman who has voluntarily said that his 12 years are up, and he’s returning to private life.
Among those candidates running in 1994 who signed this contract was our own congressman, Charlie Norwood. His 12 years are up now, but he’s running for re-election any-way. Since he can’t bring himself to honor his contract, we need to do it for him. Vote for his opponent.
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