SALON

Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 7:55 PM UTC

Dem: Ryan should quit the House

The seven-term congressman says he favors a six-term limit. His opponent, understandably, pounces

By

Topics: U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, Rob Zerban, 2012 Elections,

Dem: Ryan should quit the HousePaul Ryan (Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder)

Rep. Paul Ryan was elected to Congress when he was 28 years old. He’s now 42, having served seven terms in the House of Representatives; and he’s on his way to an eighth. Yet at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin this week, Ryan said he supported the idea of limiting the number of terms congressmen can serve to six, prompting his Democratic congressional opponent to gleefully say he’s expecting to see Ryan’s resignation any day now.

At the event, a man asked, “Would you and Governor Romney consider a proposal to term-limit the members of Congress? Example, two six-year terms for U.S. senators and six two-year terms for a member of Congress.”

Ryan jumped at the question. “I’ve always supported that. I’ve always believed that this should be something that you serve temporary, not for an entire lifetime … I co-sponsored that when I was in Congress,” he said. This seems like a good time to remind Ryan once again that he is still in Congress (he’s not vice president yet!), where he is currently running for his eighth term.

Rob Zerban, his Democratic opponent, is eating it up. “Rob Zerban is pleased to hear Congressman Ryan agree with him that no House member should serve more than six terms in Congress. Given that Ryan has now served seven terms in Congress, totaling 14 years, we’re confident he will drop out of the race any day now,” said campaign manager Al Benninghoff in a statement sent to reporters today.

And as the Washington Post’s Felicia Sonmez pointed out, Ryan isn’t quite right when he claims to have sponsored legislation to impose term limits. “A search of the THOMAS legislative database shows that since Ryan entered Congress in January 1999, at least 16 House measures have been introduced proposing such a constitutional amendment. Ryan does not appear as a sponsor or co-sponsor of any of the 16 measures,” said Sonmez.

Ryan has voiced support for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits — a safe thing to root for if you don’t really care about term limits because it has very little chance of actually happening — but has done little more than that, and even refused to sign a three-term pledge from the group Americans for Term Limits.

Ryan likes to agree with people, whether it’s necessarily correct or not. It’s this kind of  politician-ness that prevented him from answering a simple question about which sports team he supports in an awkward exchange with Matt Lauer this morning.

Alex Seitz-Wald

Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald. More Alex Seitz-Wald.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 12 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
219 points220 points | 7 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
163 points164 points | comment
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
127 points128 points | 34 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
49 points50 points | 8 comments
vote
With the help of Photoshop, artist Yao Lu has made shanshui — traditional ink paintings — of China's landfills
27 points28 points | 1 comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations