Sunshine, baby!

Why, I happen to agree.

David Brooks: I’m not sure I agree that limiting terms to 12 years would reduce the brouhaha. People fight viciously over a four-year presidential term or a two-year House term. In a country where people pass trillions of debt off into the future I’m not convinced anybody is really thinking long term.

The only solution is to crush the grip of the interest groups.

The only solution is to crush the grip of the interest groups. Say the president nominated some brilliant law professor (not from the Ivy League, please) who had written hundreds of essays on diverse topics. Say the interest groups picked out stray sentences from these essays and tried to make a big fuss about them. Say the senators on the Judiciary Committee secretly agreed between themselves that they would not allow the nomination to be killed by these fake cries of outrage. That would break the back of the interest groups and it would put a dent in the zero-tolerance scandal culture.

I happen to know the senators are sick of the power of the interest groups, especially the ones on their side. All they have to do is stuff them once, and that would send a powerful signal to future presidents and nominees. The message would be that it is possible to be candid and adventurous, and still confirmable. That would be a pretty good message to send.

Is Mr. Bork still available?