Weird, what sticks in your head when you’re trying to tune out news.
Off work a few days, about all that resonated with me was a comment from Chuck Norris, the “Walker, Texas Ranger” star and informercial pitchman for a gizmo called the Total Gym.
He’s hardly the first person I’d turn to for expertise on presidential politics, but we’re stuck in a celebrity-driven world. Monday, there was no escaping “news” of the martial-arts tough guy’s opinion that Sen. John McCain — at 71 — is too old to handle White House pressures.
Perhaps it slipped the action hero’s mind that muscle mass doesn’t matter most at the White House. Anyway, McCain’s mind seems plenty quick. According to the Reuters news agency, the Arizona senator shot back: “I’m going to send my 95-year-old mother to just go over and wash Chuck Norris’ mouth out with soap.”
Forget red or blue, GOP elephants or Democratic donkeys. And forget all the talk swirling around Sen. Barack Obama that it’s time for Generation X to grab the reins from the boomers — although at 46 and born in 1961, Obama is lumped in with the baby boomers himself. Forget all that.
Is 71 too old?
“I grew up watching Chuck Norris movies, so like anyone else, of course I am scared of him and have nothing but respect for his legendary martial arts skills,” quipped state Sen. Steve Hobbs, a Lake Stevens Democrat. “In respect to the age of presidential candidates, I feel compelled to defer to the Constitution, and respectfully submit that anyone 35 years and older is qualified to run for the office of the president.”
Hobbs is 37, a bona fide Gen X-er. The 44th District lawmaker made clear that he supports neither McCain nor 52-year-old Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Norris was hosting a Huckabee fundraiser at his Texas ranch when he said Sunday, “I didn’t pick John (McCain) to support because I’m just afraid that the vice president would wind up taking over his job in that four-year presidency.”
Elected to the state Senate in 2006, Hobbs said Tuesday that in Olympia “I enjoy the unique opportunity to work with elected colleagues ranging in age from their mid-20s to their mid-80s.”
“It’s been my experience, both in the armed service and in service to our state, that it’s less a person’s age that matters and more the quality of their character,” said Hobbs, who served in the U.S. Army and is in the Army National Guard.
For Washington state employees, two categories are subject to mandatory retirement ages. “For judges, it’s 75. And for the State Patrol, the mandatory age is 65, with the exception of the chief,” said Dawn Gothro, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Retirement Systems.
For Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Thorpe, retirement is just a year away. His last day on the job will be Jan. 9, 2009, “20 years to the day when I was sworn in,” Thorpe, 73, said Tuesday.
He has decided not to seek re-election this year. If he did, he’d turn 75 at the end of the first year of his next term. “Some people are too old to do the job at 68, others are perfectly capable in their 80s,” Thorpe said.
Federal judicial positions are lifetime appointments, Thorp said. He believes mandatory retirement at 75 makes sense. During years of practice in Seattle, he said he heard “horror stories” about some District Court judges.
Unlike lifetime judicial appointments, including those to the U.S. Supreme Court, Thorpe said the White House has the built-in insurance of term limits — and voters. “It’s up to them if they want to put a septuagenarian in there,” he said.
Voters have done it before. President Ronald Reagan was 69 when he first took office in 1981. Similar concerns were raised then. Were McCain to be elected, he’d be the oldest man to assume the presidency.
Marion Parks, 82, of Everett, sees age as an asset.
“Not knowing Sen. McCain, I do think that 70 would be a very good time” to be president, said Parks, a retired nurse. “The longer you’ve walked this earth, the better your perspective,” she said.
Health matters. Judgment matters. Age alone? I don’t think so.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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