17th amendment

As I intimated in my previous post, I arrived way late to witness the tempest surrounding Todd Akin at the apparent zenith of its wrath. But now that friends have caught me up to speed on it…

Let’s ignore for the moment that what Akin said is not an isolated incident. That in fact ridiculous, nonsensical and downright ignorant statements seem to be a chronic malady of those in high office (how Sheila Jackson Lee is still in Congress, I haven’t a clue). It’s not even the worst thing I’ve come across said by a politician about rape: the all-time record holder for that has to be Clayton Williams who once remarked that if rape is “inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”

Now that I know what the Akin situation is about, what is most on my mind about it is that this is why the popular election of senators ...

Ya see, it’s crap like this that makes me despise the Seventeenth Amendment and everything about it.

The United States Senate is supposed to represent the states. Up ’til 1913, it was the individual state legislatures that elected their respective senators. Then the Seventeenth Amendment was passed and made the Senate a popularly-elected office.

And that was the beginning of the real modern era of dirty politics and corruption, in my book.

We had our primary elections here in North Carolina today. Incumbent U.S. Senator Richard Burr won the Republican nomination. He’ll be going against whoever comes out of the runoff set for June 22nd against Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham from the Democrat party.

Elaine Marshall ain’t happy. And she wants Cal Cunningham to drop out already… for the good of the Democrats. From WRAL’s website…