Why Now?

In the words of George Mason, “nothing can be so essential to the preservation of a Republican government as a periodic rotation (of its members)."
Elections were generally thought to be the natural way of deciding if legislators deserved to continue their term in office, and it used to be true when it was a hassle to travel to Washington D.C., be away from family and home, and receive a very low pay for long hard work.
Over the years the legislators have increased their salary time and time again it make it a pretty easy job, but mind you that they did not get rich by holding office. Most of those who are rich were rich before they were elected to office.
The problem is that members of the legislature have convinced the American people that the only way that they can make any difference in governing the nation is to have long careers. The people don’t want to have their states to lose the power they wield with senior senators who head boards and committees.
But a study by a Harvard Law professor Einer Elhauge in 1998 published by the CATO Institue argued that term limits could simplify the legislative body and how it functions.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa328.pdf
The next election for members of the House of Representatives and Senate will be held in 2012. There will be 33 members of the Senate seeking to continue their work in the senate and 14 of them are attempting to be re-elected. The difference is that some of them were appointed by governors and the ones seeking re-election are senators that were elected in 2006 or were elected sometime prior to 2012 by state special elections either because of death or resignation.
Most of the members whose seats are up for re-election fall into the category of serving one full term or shorter. But some senators such as Bill Nelson or John Ensign are senior and junior senators that have served multiple terms and the voters of those states need to start researching their history to find out what they have done, voted for, and who they are tied in with to decide whether or not they want these people re-elected.
Right now, there is still time for people to do their research and discover what opponents to these incumbents have to say about certain issues and take action to look at patterns of past congresses that was composed primarily of incumbents.
Those who were appointed or were elected during special elections should be analyzed too but the deep analysis should be reserved for those senior and especially junior members. Senior members are extremely difficult to vote out of office so trying is almost futile, but their junior members counterparts have just enough experience and time effectively analyze their performance but not enough power to save them from being voted out.