Sen. Jim DeMint lost a symbolically important vote last week during debate on the Stock Act banning insider trading by members of Congress and senior congressional aides. DeMint offered an amendment in the form of a “sense of the Senate” resolution backing a constitutional amendment limiting senators to two terms and representatives to three terms in Congress. As expected, DeMint’s amendment was defeated decisively, 75-24. A check of those voting for the amendment revealed they had an average of six years seniority, compared to 13 years for those who opposed the DeMint proposal. Probably nobody is surprised that career politicians oppose measures like term limits, even though the idea has been supported for decades by two-thirds of the American public.

After being left for dead in 1995, the term limits issue has been revived more recently, thanks to DeMint and the recent endorsement of Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney. “I would love to see term limits for congressmen and senators. We have one for the president. It’s a good idea,” Romney said. With congressional approval ratings in the low teens and a recent Fox News survey finding huge majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents favoring term limits, long-serving senators and representatives in both parties might want to think twice about their lack of enthusiasm for this idea.