hooy boy. Last election, given the massive mistrust of the Democrats and the subversion of the Constitution that they engaged in, I felt that we should abandon the 1/3 6 years rule and just have an election for every member of the Senate at that point. Guess I should have pushed for it more strongly. We might be on the road to recovery already! feh.

I hope very much this will help Pat McCrory (R) become our next governor. Perdue doesn’t sound like she’s joking. I don’t suppose this was a serious proposal to suspend elections, though. Just another idiotic comment. The underlying idea is that if all those nasty Representatives and Senators would just stop worrying about their jobs and pass Obama’s alleged jobs bill, which by the way isn’t even before either house, then all would be well again. I’m delighted to see this in the national news because it was dumb.

Here in North Carolina we expect politicians to either be dumb or crooked…and that’s what we often get. Our last governor didn’t even come to work most days – and he had been attorney general too.

I think perhaps it is time to elect Episcopal Bishop Chumley “Fireball” Watts to political office…he may be a Holy Roller, but he’s an honest one!

That’s her story and she’s sticking with it.

BTW, Kelso, if he’s an Episcopal bishop, I’m sure he actually spells his name Cholmondeley.

@Kelso,

Politicians are quite adaptable. They will almost always, i.e., with rare exceptions, live down to your expectations, and are not infrequently found to fall short of even that standard.

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer

A good idea, but lets compromise. Keep the current House for 4 years, but hold the Presidential and Senatorial elections as scheduled.

Nah, I think this is a finger to the wind. I don’t remember details but at about the same time as this another politician made a similar suggestion, and the sentiment is occasionally mentioned on liberal blogs by commenters. I won’t be surprised to see it expressed more, unless they get really shot down from the beginning.

I wouldn’t be so sure about the joking, Christopher. Over here in my green little isle, we’ve had a few politicos bemoaning the fact that they have to pander to their constituents who want their medical card renewed or complain about the factory closing down and what are you going to do about getting jobs here, when said politicians would much rather prefer staying in Dublin being all statesman-like for the good of the country, internationally.

My reaction to which is generally: “When’s our next election due, because I know who is not going to get returned to their seat in the national parliament, princess”.

Some of ‘em really do have that level of feeling of entitlement and hate having to deal with the grubby business of being public servants, rather than dispensing largesse and being adored by the media.

I’m sure the dems would love to “suspend” elections so Obama can really “get some work done for the American people” without having to go before us plebs next year.

The anointed political class knows what’s best for us and we need to just shut up and accept their wisdom without question.

Here in Canada (and in Britain) the date of the next election is not known until about 6 weeks prior, when the Prime Minister goes to the Governor General and asks for one. Then we have six weeks of electioneering and then the (old or new) government gets back to work. The GG must call the election within 5 years of the last one, but PMs typically don’t wait longer than about 4 years.

In comparison, and viewed from up North, US elections seem to consume an inordinate amount of energy.

I for one do not think she was joking. And if she was a little loose in the mind from alcohol, she has been thinking this. I am afraid that as the Liberals grip on power slips, they will start doing a lot more to try to remain in power since it is rightfully theirs to rule this nation due to their amazing abilities. And maybe that isn’t so sarcastic. The year 2012 will likely be very interesting in the Chinese curse sort of way.

Kelso, dumb and crooked seems to have been the rule around here. The North Carolina Democratic party elite is over-represented in the state and federal prisons.

Michael D, agree entirely. US political campaigns are insane.

“So I tend to think that the Governor probably had an adult beverage or two and let her tongue get away from her. And that’s about as seriously as I intend to take this.”

However the increasing progressive insistence on the “we know better than you what is good for you” sit very nicely with this “fascist” governor’s call. What she is really saying is that the problem with representative government is the unpredictable will of the electors. She could just as easily have called for a One Party State.

Constitution? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution!

LaVallette, what’s worrying Gov. Perdue is that until 2010 North Carolina was a one party state. Republicans control the legislature for the first time since the late nineteenth century. She knows she’ll have a rough time being re-elected.

“So I tend to think that the Governor probably had an adult beverage or two and let her tongue get away from her. And that’s about as seriously as I intend to take this.”

In vino veritas. If she had something to drink, I suspect it caused her to say precisely what she thought: that these pesky elections stand in the way of solving problems. That she was clueless enough to not realize what a firestorm this would rouse speaks ill of her intelligence, and also probably indicates just how commonplace this view may be behind the scenes in her ideological circles.

Governor Perdue might needed to reminded that there is a thing called the Constitution that prevents her idea from being seriously considered.

I am sure that Bev Perdue would love to suspend the 2012 elections. Given the fact that North Carolina has over 10% unemployment, and that her party controlled the state lock, stock and barrel for the previous 140 years until the 2010 elections, she has got to know that despite the fact the Democrats are going to have their convention in Charlotte next year the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and his party as a whole are going to take a drubbing in this state. Bottom line, as far as North Carolina goes, both Obama and Perdue are not going to get the votes necessary to re-elect them nor will their party do well.

Perdue is a traitor to the constitution, pure and simple.

That said she is also right. The UK has managed to take far stronger austerity measures than the US, in large part because the UK House of Commons is elected once every 5 years. In NZ, our elections are only every three years — “one year to learn the job, one year to do anything, one year to worry about getting reelected”

In the US reps, it would be a year to learn the job, and a year to get reelected.

Five year terms for the reps, ten for the senate, ten years for the pres offset from the senate.

And, of course, a property qualification and loyalty qualification to ensure no D’RATS are elected. ever.

Remember (I think it was in the 2004 election cycle) how the Ds were so quick to voice suspicions that the Stupid Evil Bush was going to suspend elections, declare some sort of martial law & rule as dictator? Interesting how the shoe fits so well on the other foot….

I’ve worried a bit about that since I heard them say Bush wanted to be dictator. I’ve noticed how much projection is involved in liberals’ accusations. They always think conservatives want to do what the liberals want to do, and that’s a dead giveaway. Liberals want to control, conservatives want to be left alone. It was Roosevelt who interned the Japanese.

A question:

Texas was a one-party – the Democrats – state from Reconstruction until the late 70s. But there were conservative Dems and (relatively) liberal Dems, the result being an effectively two-party system with elections decided in the primaries.

So, is the situation in North Carolina anything like that?

Kathy C– Ditto. FW Ken or Dale Matson, among others, could articulate this better than me, but I think it must be an extension of the narcissism (or whichever term applies) so common to the type. In any case, the projection is pitifully obvious.

FW Ken, probably similar, except the Democratic lock was just broken last year. Here, as in other places, the Democratic party has become more radical left than centrist or split. I will say that Perdue hasn’t been as bad as I expected. She seems to have competently led the recent hurricane disaster effort, for instance. Even among Democrats she is not widely loved. She has, I hear, an abrasive personality.

Sinner, your proposal would make things worse. In 2008 a radical left President was elected along with a large majority of leftists in both houses of Congress. The public strongly objects to what they did. As things are, it’s going to take two election cycles (four years) to reverse this. Your scheme would leave us stuck with the radicals and their policies for ten years. That’s more than enough time to ruin us.

FW Ken: Until 1972 and Richard Nixon, NC was very much a Democratic Party stronghold. These were “Southern Democrats” though, which to untutored eyes seemed almost Republican. For instance Senator Sam Ervin (of Watergate fame) was a Democrat who opposed school integration, was for prayer in schools, and advocated a strong national defense.

These positions were pretty standard in Southern Democrats at the time. There are still strong pockets of such Democrats here, including friends of mine who oppose all change later than 1955 yet still vote a straight Democratic ticket because “Thass whut mah daddy did.”

Since then however, NC has become much more Republican and we count the Obama victory here an aberration.

The Little Myrmidon: You would be entirely correct in referring to Bishop Watts’ correct spelling of Cholmondeley (pronounced Chumley) in his name of Chumley “Fireball” Watts were he a Cradle Episcopalian.

Remember though, our beloved and entertaining Fireball came to the Episcopal Church fully formed as a Pentecostal Fire-Baptized True Vine Gospel Holiness Preacher and Overseer.

He was recruited by the PB to head up the ever-growing Holy Roller Wing of our church – once frequently referred to as “The Church of Beauty” (boy, those days are long gone).

After being ordered priest and given a parish into which he introduced the Jitterbug Offertory, he tripled his endowment after a Holy Ghost Miracle Crusade in which hundreds of seekers were “slain in the spirit”. “We’s laying ‘em out lak cordwood!” Fireball shouted at one point, and he soon attracted the attention of Her Grace.

He was assigned Bishop Spong as his “Bishop-Mentor” (head of the other large wing of the church, the Heathen Wing. Said Fireball: “I know’d raght off he was purty smart, ’cause he spent a good deal of time tellin’ me he wuz.”

The rest is happy history!

The plot thickens. The Solyandra solar deal is connected to Pelosi.

Kelso, I presume it is a happy coincidence that the snake-handling that Bishop Watts oversees so excellently can also be portrayed to the Heathen Wing as multiculturally-sensitive inclusive services invoking Damballa the Sky Father, so everyone is happy

Martha: O Martha, you’re just a dream come true! Neither I, nor Fireball, nor even Her Grace Herself could have said it better!

“…what’s worrying Gov. Perdue is that until 2010 North Carolina was a one party state. Republicans control the legislature for the first time since the late nineteenth century. She knows she’ll have a rough time being re-elected.”

Well, not to worry. I’m sure that in the nation’s best interest she and others will soon be suggesting that the suspension of elections be made retroactive to 2010.

Katherine and Kelso,

Thanks for the info. It’s as I thought it might be.

Texas is again a one-party state, Republican this time. Of course, many Republicans today started out as conservative Dems, including, if memory serves, the current governor.

Right about your current governor, and about Ronald Reagan as well.

The danger of corruption among an inner circle of elites exists with an all-Republican governing clique as well, of course. The only way that could be avoided would be if Republicans were to come through on their promises of shrinking government. If it takes less money from the populace there is less opportunity for graft.