Office-hopping and the Ineligibility Clause

Section 6 of Article I of the U.S. Constitution restricts the ability of members of Congress to hold other government posts. This clause, sometimes unofficially called the ineligibility clause or the emoluments clause, accomplishes at least two worthy goals. Perhaps most importantly it prevents senators and representatives from seeking to draw multiple salaries for holding multiple offices; greed would likely encourage many members of Congress to spread themselves too thin and would undoubtedly make all government appointments more contentious affairs (for instance, it might be hard for a worthy presidential appointee to be approved by members of Congress if those members happened to all be hungry to hold the office in question themselves!). Because a member of Congress who also holds other government offices would wield great influence, the clause also limits the power a Congressman can wield at a given time.

Unfortunately, nothing in the Constitution effectively discourages office-hopping. Just as people climb the corporate ladder by changing positions, so too do politicians move from office to office, a process that in practice makes a mockery of the concept of terms of office. I've written previously about my concern about whether members of Congress and governors can do their jobs properly and run for president at the same time. While John McCain or Hillary Clinton would not be able to be both a senator and a president at the same time, nothing prevents them from running for president while still in office. In a particularly egregious violation of the spirit of the Constitution, Joe Lieberman in 2000 sought the offices of vice president of the United States and senator of Connecticut simultaneously, though he could not hold both simultaneously. In my opinion, members of Congress should have to fulfill their terms of office or resign their offices before running for another federal office. An expanded ineligibility clause could encourage more members of Congress to concentrate on their present jobs before seeking higher offices and, once these Congressmen had either filled out their terms or resigned, they would be able to devote themselves entirely to the important process of running for higher office. While this might encourage more Fred Thompson-like "shadow campaigning" as potential candidates attempted to gauge whether or not they should resign their present offices, I think in the long run this would lead to better representation in Congress for the citizens of the United States as well as more focused presidential campaigning.