Yesterday, at remarkably short notice, a new group calling itself New Yorkers for Term Limits convened a press conference at City Hall. Their case was simple: New Yorkers decided twice, in consecutive referenda, that they want the terms of their servants to be limited to two, and that nothing short of a referendum suffices to repeal them, as a matter of basic small-D democratic integrity.

Norman Siegel in his remarks pointed out that the current mayor is only in office due to term limits, which prevented his predecessor from seeking a third term. The same applies to members of the Council. As Siegel spoke, he was surrounded by several candidates for seats that were expected to be vacant in 2009.

State Senator Eric Adams (D-SD-20) went one step further and demanded term limits at the state legislative level, saying that "there comes a time to pass the baton". That should ruffle some feathers, one would imagine.

Councilman Bill DeBlasio, the only sitting member of the Council to make an appearance - wonder how that happened - said this:

There is no way I will vote to extend the terms of current legislators. If we change term limits this way, at the eleventh hour, we can't expect the people to have faith in their democratic system. I will vote no.

Another speaker, Michael Myers, an activist with a civil rights group, decried the thinking-out-loud on term limits of the mayor and various members of the Council - in short, of the beneficiary class - as "desperate, despicable, shameless idiocy", characterized them as "an arrogant abuse of power", adding "not only are eight years enough, enough is enough".

Members of the coalition will be active in rallying the support of New Yorkers. There's a web site planned, and apparently, a Facebook group.