I was reading the text of Lamar Alexander’s speech on the house floor today, you know, like you do, and noticed something interesting.

Alexander was an aide in the Nixon White House early on in his career, and his speech today compared President Obama to President Nixon, in unflattering terms  (Colson is Chuck Colson, a Nixon staffer):

What was different about Colson’s  effort, though, was the open declaration of war upon anyone who seemed to disagree with administration policies. Colson later expanded his list to include hundreds of people, including Joe Namath, John Lennon, Carol Channing, Gregory Peck, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Congressional Black Caucus, Alabama Governor George Wallace. All this came out during the Watergate hearings. You could see an administration spiraling downwards. And, of course, we all know where that led.

Now the only reason I mention this is because I have an uneasy feeling, only ten months into this new administration, that we’re beginning to see symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama administration.

Alexander goes on to give examples of Obama’s Nixonian acts.  It’s a great speech.  You should read it.

Anyway, at one point Alexander goes through another list of Nixon’s enemies, and names Congressman John Conyers from Michigan.  Wait a moment, I thought to myself…  isn’t John Conyers a current congressman?  Surely that can’t be the same guy that was on Nixon’s enemies list.

Yep.  It is.

John Conyers has been representing Michigan in the House of Representatives since 1965.  He’s the second longest serving incumbent member of the House.

The guy that beats him?  Another Democrat from Michigan, John Dingell, who has been in the House since 1955.  Dingell’s story is even better, since he took the seat from his father, who held it from 1933-1955.

Now, I am not generally a proponent of term limits.  I do think that there is a benefit to having some “old-timers” around that know how the process works.  You won’t even get me on the bashing “career politicians” bandwagon.  Usually.

But I’m thinking that I’d support some type of term limit.  Say, 30 years?

As a bonus, feel free to examine the list of current members of the House, and sort by the date they took office.  There are some real class acts there.  Only a handful have even ever been indicted!