And there are illegitimate ones like the way Professor Larry Sabato suggests.
For those that don’t know, Sabato is a Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. He was, at least according to his Wiki page “The Most Quote College Professor in the Land” by the WSJ in 1994.
Apparently, interest in his highness has gone down in recent years, because he is now posting over at the dKos Animal Farm and Petting Zoo.
If you click the above link, you will find his first post in a series that will tell the idol-worshipers at the dKos why he thinks the US needs another Constitutional Convention, but I’ll sum it up really quickly for you here: There are Republicans in the Legislative Branch.
Here is a quote as to what Sabato wants. I think you’ll see why he doesn’t think any of it will ever get through Congress
I would expand the size of the Senate to ease the dramatic disparity in representation among states—the massive inequality from a population perspective that directly impacts the legislation passed or killed daily in the Senate. I will make the policy case for an admittedly difficult political alteration: Each of the 10 most populous states would receive an extra two senators, and each of the next 15 most populous states would get one additional senator. The District of Columbia would also receive representation in the Senate.
The most far-reaching reform that I propose for the executive branch is a dramatic redistribution of war powers, restoring the Congress’ original co-equal Constitutional role. This shift is not only achievable; it almost certainly has broad support among the American public after the experiences of Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq.
For the judiciary, under my plan, all federal judges would face a 15-year term limit, without renewal, and the Supreme Court would be expanded to 12 members from its present nine.
Ahh, yes! Give all the power for the nation’s Legislative decisions to New York, Massachusetts and California. Give DC an unearned spot at the table and Alaska and Wyoming would just have to deal with it.
I can plainly see that Mr Sabato’s studies never quite got so far as to differentiate WHY the Senate is not the House.
Next up, give Congress the power of foreign policy. We may as well just shut down the Executive Branch and have a Prime Minister. It would sound reasonable to me if Hillary takes the oath in 09, but how quickly do you think this idea will die if that happens? Yep, no one on that side of the aisle will have ever heard of it.
I could go for the 15 year term limits on federal judgeships, but the expansion of the SCOTUS is an old FDR trick, and for the same reasons. If Bush was looking at another 4 years worth of SCOTUS nominations, how much do you want to bet that this idea would have stayed with the first draft?
For a Professor, this guy just cannot seem to grasp the brilliant simplicity of the original founding documents. Earlier in his dKos post he states
The Constitution remains brilliant in its overall design. The Founders devised a political system that separated the powers of government, placed mutual checks on the powers each branch held, and ensured certain civil and human rights. Any new Constitutional initiatives must steer clear of infringing upon these bedrock principles of American government.
And then he goes and suggests a half a dozen changes that would strip points one and two of his above statement.
Personally, the second that that a Constitutional Convention got together would be time to lock and load for me. However, I would hold my boogerhook off the bangswitch until I heard ideas such as these coming out from the halls.
This dork has nothing new. All these things were suggested during FDR’s first term, and at least one was done – “packing” the Supreme Court. My Mama used to say that “FDR packed an Ass”. For a gentle lady, that was quite a double-entendre.
My counter to suggestions like this is that we combine a bunch of those tiny states into states such they have similar number of square miles as normal states like those in the mid-west and the west. We already have representation on the basis of population in The House. Combining most of New England into two or three states would cut their Senatorial influence back to something tolerable.