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I agree with you John accept for Watt. Take a look at his I-85 gerry-mandered district and you will see why no one runs against him. Also the incumbents get all the party money if they played the "game" the way the party-heads told them too. This is why term-limits need to include ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS to give the TAX-PAYERS a real choice of representation and not the puppets we've always had.

Skinsluva, you mention one of the real problems--gerrymandering--but then you claim that term limits is the answer to the problem. In a gerrymandered district, you'll never have a choice. The answer is do stop gerrymandering.

Something else that must be done is to remove rules which rig the elections for Demopublicans. No one but Democrats and Republicans are allowed on the ballot right now, and no write-in votes are allowed unless previously approved by the regime. Any unapproved write-in votes are thrown away.

That's got to stop if we ever want any real choices.

What a strange letter. Sounds like he wants as little in the way of democracy as possible. Even if the districts were drawn rationally, wouldn't challengers be a good thing?

But of course, the districts aren't drawn to produce contests. It's not just the 12th, although that one tortures the map to an extreme. Look at the 6th -- it used to be competitive, then it was redrawn not to be.

Again, it seems like challengers are a good thing no matter what -- but this letter is just clueless.

Skinsluva,
Coble needs to go because he is nothing more than a mouthpiece for Bush. The one time he spoke out against the lack of "exit strategy" he was whipped back in line by DeLay, Hastert, and McConnell. He is a lackey for the administration. Sure he's been scandal free so far, but who doesn't remember him prancing around leading the impeachment movement! He and Bob Barr battled for the camera at every juncture. Coble is a joke now, and should consider retiring.
If you don't think he's entrenched, give him a serious, viable, opponent, and watch the money flow in to him from special interests groups.
Coble should play the Uncle Charlie role in a remake of "My Three Sons"!

The "you just do it to sell papers" routine has been out there forever, but it's worth repeating why we don't approach things that way. Forget ethics; it's BAD BUSINESS.

Aside from 9/11 -- which, God willing, is unique -- the most extra copies of the paper we've ever sold in one day because of breaking news was about 1,000 on the first day of Gulf War I. At the time, the paper sold for a quarter, so that was $2,500 of extra revenue -- less than we were getting, even at the time, for a single, black-and-white, full-page advertisement. If you don't want to believe in our ethics, fine; believe this: That little extra money, in an operation this large, is nowhere near worth what it would cost in the financial value of lost public trust.

That trust, intangible though it is, is recognized as a legitimate financial asset (typically called "good will") when one is calculating the value of a newspaper business.

Demon Deacon. Coble has been around a lot longer than Bush. He tends to think more independently than many other congressmen. Towing the party line is part of being in a party. They all do it. Yeah, it kinda sucks but you make it sound like Coble is the worst offender. That's just not true.

Yellowdog,
Why doesn't Coble exercise his ability to be independent then? He can continue to get re-elected, so why doesn't he become a statesmen by loosening the apron strings with Hastert, DeLay (formerly), and others in leadership? The truth is, he is just too complacent, old and tired.

The voters don't agree.