How long is too long in Congress?

Would you go to an 87-year-old surgeon to take out your appendix? Would you hire an 87-year-old lawyer to sue some drunk who had smashed into your car? Would you choose an 87-year-old plumber to repair your toilet? Probably not.

They would have had a lot of experience, but age catches up. That may be why in developed countries around the world, the normal retirement age is around 67, although not in the United States Congress.

Members come eagerly, minimum age 30 in the Senate, 25 in the House. Once elected, most stay on and on. Sen. Chuck Grassley, for example, has served in Congress for 51 years. His oldest colleague is Diane Fwinstein at 87. She was recently convinced to step down as a committee chair. Today, the average age is 72 with seven senators in their 80s, a bunch in their 70s.

Generally, it is not that they have to earn a living. It is estimated that a third of senators are millionaires. They stay for ego as much as service. They like being called senator, quoted in newspapers, appearing on TV, invited to speak at high school graduations.

Some grow old gracefully and productively, of course, as Sen. Grassley has. President Joe Biden is another. (He left the Senate at 67.) Buy a tipping point unavoidably comes.

Why should we in Iowa hire an 87-year-old senator to conceivably work until he is 93? Chuck Grassley has his own measure of why he should stay. He runs five miles a day several days a week. When he no longer can do that, he says he will retire.

He is not alone in his machismo without relevance. Democratic Senator Pat Leahy scuba dives on his birthday, doing a deep underwater somersault. That qualifies him to be a counselor at a Sea Scout camp, just as Grassley qualifies as a track coach in a nursing home.

Both are still pretty good senators, but there is no political Viagra and they are not the men they once were.

When I worked for liberal members of the House and Senate years ago, I thought term limits were ridiculous, discarding vital legislative experience. After all, they all were bright, dedicated to doing public good, and had the many years of service. I also worked for three who ran for president. They were 52, 57, and 53.

There is a time for going. There is time to say goodbye. It is true for doctors, lawyers, plumbers. It should also be true for senators, both genders, both parties, and both good and bad legislators.

Grassley is 87 and says he may run again in 2022. Leahy is 80. Their skills on land and sea are impressive. But their talents in the Senate chamber are not what they once were and will diminish rapidly as they get closer to 90. I speak with some authority. I am 93, healthy and bicycle eight miles a day. But I am not the man I was when I retired at 72, or even when I was 87.

Since members of both parties hate to leave standing up, we should help them out before they are lying down. There should be term limits. Senators should be limited to four terms, House members to ten. That would leave Congress free of octogenarians and we would all be better for it.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey's press secretary, and authored a memoir 'From Nowhere to Somewhere.”