The root of all problems in Miami Dade county...

Before we start today, lets take a look at this quote from Thomas Jefferson regarding term limits where he urged the limitation of tenure...

"...to prevent every danger which might arise to American freedom by continuing too long in office..."

Brilliant and I must say rather obvious for extended terms in office breed cronyism and institutional corruption.  The other day when we began discussing former Miami state attorney Richard Gerstein, I had no idea that Mr. Gerstein was first elected state attorney back in 1956, that's 57 years ago.  Consider for a moment how many presidents have come and gone since 1956, I think this collage of presidential photos will illustrate my point the best... 

In case you missed it, that's eleven presidents since 1956, starting with Ike all the way to our current president.  With each change in presidents we get a change in administration, change in staff, change in policies, etc, for lack of a better term a sort of cleaning of house.  In many instances the change in presidents have brought about reversal of bad policies or practices that have shifted the course of our country, unfortunately in some instances the changes were for the worse as well.

Now, let's take a look at the situation over out the Miami office of the state attorney, once again we'll use a pictorial guide to show just how many state attorneys have been elected to that office since 1956 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States...

That's right!  Just three state attorneys over the last nearly 60 years!  WTF?!

How does that make any sense?  Whenever you have someone in office for decades, the results are never good, like I said before, institutional corruption, cronyism, incapable employees not dealt with because they may know where some of the skeletons are buried, etc.  Employees sort of like that character from the movie Office Space...

Anyone whose been around the sao for more than five minutes can name at least a few career Reno era prosecutors that fit this bill.  If you have some time to waste, google "Bill Kostrzewski" for a perfect example of one such career prosecutor that has no business being a prosecutor.

Another problem with state attorneys who are around for decades is the political favoritism and cronyism that develops, former City of Miami Police chief said it best...

“The problem I have with her is that she is very aggressive against certain politicians or government workers, yet with others she takes the soft approach. She gives you all the reasons in the world to not go after them,”

Precisely.  We've all noticed that there are some local politicians and business people that no matter how damning the evidence, never seem to get in trouble?  Perfect example, David Rivera or our very own Tomas Regalado who both seem immune from prosecution despite the mountain of evidence of wrong doing against them.

I obviously have my own issues with our state attorney, for what it's worth thought, I'll admit that her office does a decent job of prosecuting the overwhelming majority of cases that go through their hands.  With that said though, there's no reason for any state attorney to be in office for two decades and be in such a powerful position that qualified candidates are afraid to run against her.  So tell me, why the hell haven't we put term limits in place for our state attorneys job?  Doesn't it make sense?  Two terms seems to be more than enough in my opinion?  What do you guys think?