Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is hell-bent on leaving office under a cliché. “Well,” he told reporters on March 6, “we have term limits now. They’re called elections.” 

That is what Mr. McConnell said when asked whether he supports term limits for the Senate GOP leadership position.

Previously he had been asked about supporting Trump. He was very careful with his words, and, with all the style and panache of a constipated robot, he explained that he had answered the question in 2021 — after, mind you, “the attack on the Capitol” — and that he had not changed his mind.

He was asked again about it, and he repeated his answer. Yes, he would support any nominee of the GOP. And he admitted that Trump was going to be that candidate.

Headlines have made much of this, but it’s old news: old-school politician supports his party’s candidate is not exactly groundbreaking. 

But the old power politician looked almost human when the subject changed to term limits. He smiled. Almost. I couldn’t quite capture it with a screenshot. But the hint of amusement was there. It’s almost as if regards the cliché about term limits as a truth of sly wit.

It isn’t. People serving in government do so in a range of ways: under unlimited tenure; limited by terms, requiring a vote for a new term; and limited by a strictly limited number of terms. Requiring a vote is not a “term limit.” It is merely a term. Terms in office is a basic republican feature. Term limits is a stricter republican feature.

Aristotle liked term limits, but politicians tend not to, so they pretend the first, basic limit on tenure in government is the same as the second, additional stricture.

“We already have term limits” is not so much wit but a fraudulet swindle.

Not worth the tiniest of Mitchy smiles.

twv