I like this idea from Jonah Goldberg: More worthless Congressmen. It’s counterintuitive that more idiots in the House would help things, but I do think we’d be better off with more representation and each of the current Congressmen having less power. And more people means more chaos which means less happening which is usually a good thing.
Congress is really unpopular now, so now is the time to propose some radical change. Republicans could get a lot of backing by bringing some real change to D.C., and this or term limits would be pretty huge. Of course, it will be hard to get Congress to pass laws against itself, but the attempt is a battle worth fighting. If Republicans want more than a few more seats in 2010, they need some big ideas for people to rally behind. And I’d rather those idea target Congress than be laws against us.
Forget cloture. What do we use instead? Four words: STEEL. CAGE. DEATH. MATCH.
Get four from each party plus all the independents and throw them into a cage fight. Last one standing determines if cloture is achieved or not. This also has the added benefit of slowly weeding out those useless sacks’o’s#!t ™ without resorting to term limits.
More Congressmen, YES! Dilute the Stupid!!!!
We would only need to elect 1 more – Chuck Norris. Soon after, there would be a lot less members of congress to deal with. It’s like an automatic term limits provision without amending the constitution. And, if memory serves, a member of congress can carry weapons onto the floor and they cannot be charged with a crime while they are on the floor in session.
I’d rather have the solution presented in that great spoof, “Mars Attacks.”
I fully agree with FormerHostage. Wouldn’t that be great?
Imagine being represented by Randy “Macho King” Savage. Or perhaps a man with business experience, like Ted DiBiase.
The concept that some states have less influence than other states to justify increasing the number of Representatives is a bad one. It was precisely this problem at the Constitutional Convention between the small and large population states that resulted in creating the Senate where every state has equal power. Having two Houses of Congress was the Compromise.
There should be a rider to the health care bill requiring the deaths of all who pass bills without reading them. Since they refuse to read it, this will help clear out congress and possible the executive branch too.
We can try to judicial branch later by challenging the health reform bill in the supreme court.
WWE in the House (of Representitives). Goldddusdt for San Fran, Dusty Rhodes for the Georgia, The Sandman for New York. Imagine Prlosi ina head lock. Watch her eyes REALLY bug out !!!
Until these folks are shown that they’re public servants, not royalty, and will actually be held accountable as the average citizens that they are, more of them won’t help.
AP Washingon, DC – Today, Rep. Charles Rangel paraded a troop of disabled girlscouts onto the House floor, stripped them each naked, raped and sodomized each of them, killed and dismembered them, then proceeded to eat their internal organs. Immediately following, Rep. John Boehner (R) drafted a letter to the president stating that he was among several members of the Republican party that “strongly disapproves” of the actions taken by Rep. Rangel. However, House democrats are calling Boehner’s actions a blatant example of “partisan politics”.
A controversy erupted when Rep. Joe Wilson (R) shouted at Rep. Rangel to stop abusing and killing the children. A White House spokesperson called Wilson’s actions reprehensable, and added that democrats are drafting a bill to again censure Wilson. Rep. John McCain (R) appeared shortly thereafter on the popular Larry King Show, and when asked about the incident, replied that he was “shocked and appauled” by Wilson’s behavior and called on him to apologize immediately.
The AP spoke with a member of NAMBLA, who also voiced his disapproval with the actions of Wilson. The group is formally demanding that Wilson step down. In addition, the NAACP has issued a statement condemning Wilson’s actions, and calling for Republican leaders to “put an end to the blatant racism prevalent among the Republicans in Congress”.
Members of Code Pink did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
I’d prefer fewer, but better congress critters.
Doubling the number of Representatives, but halving their pay, stipends,and staff would be a good start.
Yes, it would be diluting the stupid, but right now we have a concentration of stupid in Congress.
I like Karen’s suggestion. Just need someone to slip it in a Continuing Resolution type funding bill.
An update from Goldberg, in The Corner (I think it is from yesterday evening; not sure about that), and I just checked and don’t see any further posts/updates from Goldberg on the subject … maybe this is what hadsil was after with the “bad one” comment … emphasizing yet again that theory is great and all (in theory? lol), but quite a lot of thought and debate would be necessary before we go and start experimenting on things like this:
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What About the Electoral College? [Jonah Goldberg]
Several readers make a very good point I confess I had not fully considered: The electoral college. If you expand the House you give the House more electoral votes. As this reader points out:
“Republicans would face a hard time ever electing a President, as the 2 electoral votes per Senator would be seriously diluted. A proportional increase in the Senate might mitigate this, but if you thought California’s 56 or thereabouts EVs were troubling, how about them having over 150?”
It’s a good point, and certainly one that should make the idea more attractive to liberals eager to give urban centers more political clout. I have some thoughts, but I think I’ll ponder it more first.
Fred Thompson represents all of us! He climbs into the Speakers chair and gavels the House meeting to order and then runs down to speak on the Democratic side and then runs over to speak on the Republican side (same speech). Then he casts his vote while running over to do the same thing in the Senate. All business is complete by 9:00AM so he can go home to romance his lovely bride! If Barry thinks about a veto he comes to the White House for a little one-on-one action and attitude “pummeling” session… Barry caves!
I hate to disrupt a perfectly entertaining waste of time by introducing facts, but you have already heard of the one and only way to fix Washington. You just didn’t pay any attention to it because it was drowned out by the “every idea is a good one” drivel. Go back and really understand why repealing the 17th Amendment is being proposed and you will see there is no other course of action that can be effective until that’s accomplished. Then some other good ideas might actually have a prayer of working correctly, but not until.
We need complete representation, go for the whole 10,000 representatives……300,000,000/30,000.
They can do the all of their work by teleconference…. votes, everything….