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Narcissists in the Senate

By Jack M. Balkin

I note that 86-year-old Sen. Frank Lautenberg has just been diagnosed with stomach cancer. I wish him a rapid recovery, not least, I confess,
because the Governor of New Jersey is now a Republican who would, I assume, not hesitate a second before appointing a Republican to fill his seat should the worst happen. (He ran for re-election in 2008 and received 56 of the vote from New Jerseyites grateful for his long and honorable service.) There is also a report that the geniuses in the White House, led, no doubt, by Rahm Emanuel, offered Rep. Joe Sestak a job to induce him to drop his challenge in Pennsylvania to now- Democrat Arlen Specter, who turned 80 on February 12 and who has had a variety of serious diseases in his 70s. And, of course, there is also Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who is 92 and frail. He was re-elected with almost 2/3 of the vote in 2006. Senator Byrd is the President pro Tem of the Senate, which means, under our lunatic Succession in Office Act, that he is third in line to succeed to the Presidency behind Vice President Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. No serious country would take such a risk, but, then, it's been long established that we're simply not a serious country when it comes to some very basic issues of governmental design.

But enough of attacking the Constitution and statutes like the Succession in Office Act. I want to attack narcissitic senators (assuming that's not simply a redundant phrase) who are unable to hang it up. Whether or not the Constitution should establish age limits on holding public office--we could also discuss Justice John Paul Stevens, obviously--is something reasonable people can certainly disagree about. But, equally obviously, we do depend on what Madison and his 18th century friends called "virtue," i.e., an internal compass and sense of self-restraint to know when the public good requires stepping down and letting other (and younger) citizens take over. Must we really pretend that age is irrelevant and that 80 is the new 50? No doubt there are inspiring exceptions, such as the late Sam Beer, who at 90 had a mind I would trade for straight up. But, of course, he really was exceptional, and that is the point.

I know very little about New Jersey politics, though I lived in Princeton for four years, but I find it hard to believe that the Garden State lacked any attractive Democrat who might have proved a capable successor to the then 84-year-old Sen. Lautenberg in 2008. With regard to Specter, I think it is over-determined that it's time for him to go. Why the White House is so determined to pander to this backboneless narcissist (who voted for the MCA while stating that it was unconstitutional because the then-Republican Sen. Specter wanted to keep his Committee Chairmanship) is beyond me. Sestak strikes me as an able public servant who would bring some new perspectives to the Senate--he is, among other things, a former admiral, I believe, and, with Sen. Webb, could take on the hysterical and fear-mongering. (If this post were only on the White House enablement of narcissistic senators, without attention to age, one might ask why President Obama is so insistent that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have no opposition in the Democratic primary in New York.)

Perhaps in another post I'll confront the issue of university professors, the only other people in our society, save for self-employed persons and owners of family businesses, who have "full-life" tenure. But, surely, no law professor, however narcissistic, is capable of doing anywhere near the harm to the Republic as narcissistic senators.

Full post as published by Balkinization on February 19, 2010 (boomark / email).