Maximum age for president amendment: 70 when term starts.

There is already a minimum age for president: 35.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Why not a maximum age also?

70 when the elected term starts on January 20.

As a practical matter, voters want to consider their candidate serving two terms. So to be eligible for a second term, the candidate would need to be younger than 66 when the first term starts.

That leaves plenty of practical room. Who really wants to elect a president older than 66? What organization would select a chief executive 66 or older?

People can start collecting Social Security payments at age 62. Why elect a president who should be retired?

Is Tucker Carlson biased against Catholics and/or Italians?

A year or two ago on his TV show I saw Tucker Carlson mock Dr. Anthony Fauci with a drawing of Fauci dressed in a religious outfit that might be worn by a Catholic cardinal.

This week I went to Carlson's website to find a way to send him a message but there was none. His home page is ... judge for yourself:

https://tuckercarlson.com/

Featured at the top is a merchandise item that can be seen here:

https://tuckercarlson.com/product/lord-fauci-patron-saint-of-wuhan/

Lord Fauci Patron Saint of Wuhan

$25.00

The coffee mug has a photo of Fauci dressed in a Christian sort of  religious outfit ... again.

Why? If Carlson wants to mock Fauci, why make it religious? If Fauci were Muslim, would Carlson even consider doing something like this?

Or is it that Fauci is Italian? Or does Carlson see the two as one?

Carlson may protest his innocence with displays of his appreciation of Christopher Columbus or even Amerigo Vespucci. America gets its name from Amerigo.

I first became aware of Carlson when he was a regular young obnoxious panelist on the weekly TV show The McLaughlin Group on the original series: 1982-2016.

During the early days of the COVID pandemic I noticed Carlson again even though he had eliminated the bow tie. His essays were especially well written and he even made some sense. But he couldn't remain that way and increasingly regressed back into his obnoxious ways.

The Fauci mug isn't even funny. It's in really poor taste and juvenile. Carlson seems to be oblivious to his anti Catholic and anti Italian bias. I just learned that Carlson is a member of the Episcopal Church.

Speaker of the House options: elect Trump, Ryan, six Republicans vote for Jeffries, ...

There have been six votes in two days. 218 is the majority needed with all members of the House of Representatives voting. The Republican party has 222 members, the Democratic party has 212 members. Five dissident Republicans could, and have, denied the Speakership to their party's leader. Why? Who knows? Who cares? That number is currently 20 dissidents: 9.5% of Republicans.

Results of vote number six:

Republican Kevin McCarthy 201 (90.5% of Republicans)

Democrat Hakeem Jeffries 212 (100% of Democrats)

Republican Byron Donalds 20 (9.5% of Republicans).

Donalds is the most recent fill-in-the-blank NOT McCarthy.

The Speaker does not need to be a member of the House of Representatives. Strange but true.

In round one, one dissident Republican vote went to Lee Zeldin, 42 year old House member since 2015 who lost the November election for governor of New York State. Zeldin did not also run for his House seat, so he is not a member. His running for governor of a large state suggests that Zeldin would consider an executive position. Also:

https://pressgallery.house.gov/member-data/salaries

Salaries

Executive, Legislative, and Judicial

January 2015

Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Officers		114/1
President……………………………………...		$400,000
Vice President………………………………..		$230,700
Speaker of the House………………………...		$223,500
House Majority & Minority Leaders………...		$193,400
House/Senate Members & Delegates………..		$174,000
Chief Justice, Supreme Court………………..		$258,100
Associate Justices, Supreme Court…………..		$246,800

_____________________________

Zeldin might like the $223,500. But this got me thinking about other non members as compromise alternatives.

Paul Ryan is the most recent Republican Speaker: Oct. 29, 2015 - Jan. 3 2017. Ryan was vice presidential running mate for Mitt Romney in 2012. Ryan is 52 years old.

The Democrats have been having fun voting 100% for their recently appointed young leader Jeffries but it must be getting tedious and reality must be setting in: Democrats will only do a lot worse than Kevin McCarthy if the nut cases get their way. They have even rejected an appeal for them to knock it off from their favorite former president Donald Trump.

Hey, they could nominate Trump. What would Democrats do then other than become apoplectic? If the Republicans suddenly rally around Trump for Speaker, it would be too late for Democrats to take action.

Presumably options were discussed last night by Republicans and maybe even Democrats are considering a resolution.

Democrats could tank the election by not showing up. It's my understanding that the winner needs a majority of those members who vote. This would likely be in exchange for concessions that McCarthy made to Jeffries.

But consider this: six Republicans retaliate against the dissidents and threaten to vote for Jeffries. That's all Jeffries would need to reach 218. Another death wish group of Republicans who resent the original dissidents and blow up the Republican majority. Depending on their alphabetical order, imagine the tension as the roll is called. If one dissident does not vote for McCarthy, it triggers the doomsday six who start voting for Democrat Jeffries.

Now that's entertainment.