City Council Shocked And Horrified By These Newfangled Things Called “Term Limits”
You could argue that City Council‘s lack of term limits has kept Council chambers the kookiest spot in town for centuries now, and the very thing that has given us folks like Thacher Longstreth, who became more like movie characters than politicians after a while. (R.I.P., Thach, we still rock the argyle in solidarity with you.) Just the same, you could also point to the lack of term limits and blame Philly’s deeply fucked ward fiefdoms for the fact that nothing has gotten done around here since, oh, about 1953. In either case, it was only a matter of time before someone brought up, you know, the idea of term limits, and it has finally happened: Wilson Goode Jr. proposed it and then the rest of the gang pissed and moaned like these City Council seats were their birthrights and not an elected office. Joan Krajewski made gravelly throat sounds! Brian “Eighth Term” O’Neill used this old canard: “We’ve always had term limits — they’re the old-fashioned kind: the voters decide when you’ve been there too long.” And good old Thacher rolled over in his grave. A good time was had by all.
