Age, Atrophy and Advantages

(Bloomberg View) -- Two Republicans, Senator Orrin Hatch and House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, both announced on Tuesday they would not seek re-election -- giving me an excuse for touching on three of my favorite hobbyhorses.

First of all, Hatch is currently president pro tempore of the Senate, which means that if Republicans retain their majority in 2019, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, whose health has not been good, will move up to that mostly ceremonial position. Ceremonial -- and also third in the line of succession to the presidency, after the vice president and the speaker of the House. 

At least speakers are important political players; one gets to be president pro tempore of the Senate mainly by getting old. Hatch is, by all accounts, still sharp. Cochran does not appear ready to take on the duties of the presidency in the unlikely event it came to that. He's been unable to handle his job in the Senate for much of the last year. There's really no good reason at all for this position to be part of the line of succession. But it's a bad idea to have the speaker in that position as well. The nation voted for a Republican president; there's no reason for a (potential) Democratic speaker to be that close to the Oval Office. This is a legislative, not a constitutional, provision; it's changed before, and it can and should be changed again. 

The second point is one I've written about recently, but with Mitt Romney supposedly ready to run for Hatch's vacant seat, I'll point out that the 70-year-old Romney is rather old for a new senator and, if he does win, part of what I think is an unfortunate trend toward really old newly elected senators. 

And then there's Shuster and the retirement of yet another Republican House committee chair who is about to lose his committee position because of party-imposed term limits. This is at least the fifth committee chair from the current Congress who won't be returning, at least in part because they can only remain in their chairmanships for three terms. It's an awful system that robs Republicans of expertise both because of the loss of experienced legislators and because the committees in general have atrophied, making it harder to take advantage of the talents of all their members of the House. Democrats don't have these limits, and it gives them a real and unnecessary advantage. 

1. I really liked this Dan Drezner item about how to go about persuading Donald Trump. 

2. Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer at the Monkey Cage explains why North Korea's nuclear weapons program succeeded. 

3. Also at the Monkey Cage: Danny Hayes on demographic change and voting in the South. 

4. Benedict Carey reports on a new study about fake news.

5. And Dean Baker on the Trump investment boom. 

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Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brooke Sample at bsample1@bloomberg.net.

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