Our buddy Mike Bayham, a Republican Louisiana House member from St. Bernard Parish, has a good bill filed for the upcoming legislative session…

A New Orleans-area lawmaker has offered up a proposed constitutional amendment for the upcoming legislative session that would place a lifetime limit of two terms on a person who has served as governor. St. Bernard Parish Republican Michael Bayham’s legislation would mean that former governors Bobby Jindal and John Bel Edwards could not serve as governor again.

“There’s no shortage of political talent and ability in this state. And I believe this will help try to encourage new leadership across the board,” Bayham said.

Bayham says this legislation is not targeting Jindal or Edwards — or possibly current Governor Jeff Landry, if he’s re-elected to a second term.

“This isn’t about going after any politician that may have served as governor two terms and looking to get back in. This is something I think, is a new standard we need to set going forward,” Bayham explained.

Bayham says Louisiana should not have to “recycle” its governors.

“We’ve got enough good people in this state, across the board, to choose from, rather than having them go back to a former governor,” Bayham noted.

The late Edwin Edwards served four terms — the Cajun Prince served two terms in the 1970s and was subsequently re-elected two more times after leaving office following his first two terms. Earl Long served three terms in the mid-1900s.

We have a hard time imagining  why anybody would oppose that bill. Giving somebody eight years to make their mark on Louisiana politics as governor is plenty enough time at the trough.

But what we’d like to see is an amendment on that bill.

We’d be happy if it would impose a two-term limit on all the other statewide elected offices, too. While we have some very solid people in those statewide elected offices at present, what we know is that Lord Acton was correct when he said that power corrupts. Some of the people in those jobs are capable of moving up into more important positions but don’t want to give up a safe seat to run for something else – and while that’s rational, it doesn’t necessarily serve the interests of the people of Louisiana.

But more importantly, we think Bayham’s bill needs to address the state legislature.

We impose a three-term limit on House members and a three-term limit on Senate members. But we don’t make that limit permanent, which is to say that after you’ve served your three terms in the House you can serve another three terms just by sitting out. And so we now have legislators who served in the House, then in the Senate, and are now back in the House.

That completely defeats the purpose of term limits.

The permanent two-term restriction on governors is good and necessary. We’re glad he brought it. More, please.