Shenanigans continue in Alaska, and the main thing we take away from them is that, in the minds of politicians of all stripes, a Senate seat is not an elective office — it is a Dukedom if not a Principiate, to be passed on by primogeniture and the Laws of Inheritance. It’s not a matter of Left vs. Right or Republican vs. Democrat; the Murkowski Seat is no less a property right than the Kennedy one, in the minds of our self-appointed Betters.

This inspires me to propose a really strong version of term limits: Anyone elected to a third term, whatever the office, should be executed by firing squad upon leaving that office, whether by expiration of term, retirement, impeachment, or anything else — the said execution to take place on the Mall, against the east face of the Washington Monument, with the Press and the largest possible crowd of onlookers on hand, at dawn so that the sun’s in the asshole’s eyes. Once a team of medics has determined that, absent Divine intervention, the decedent won’t be bothering us any more, his or her assets, down to the broken set of nail-clippers in the back of the desk drawer, should be confiscated, liquidated, and placed in the Treasury.

Opponents of the death penalty protest that it does not provide a deterrent. That misses the point. Hangmen don’t get many repeat customers. The particular individual won’t be repeating the particular crime, or any other, and that itself is a worthy goal.