What are the Qualifications for Being a Member of Congress?

Article I, Section 2 — The House
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. — U.S. Constitution

Article I, Section 3 — The Senate
No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. — U.S. Constitution.

According to the U.S. Constitution the qualifications for a member of the House of Representatives are:

• Must be 25 years of age (when seated, not when elected).
• Must have been a citizen of the United States for 7 years.
• Must be an inhabitant of the state from which elected.
• (NOTE: custom, but not the Constitution, requires that a representative live in the district that he or she represents.)

Qualifications for a member of the U.S. Senate are:

• Must be 30 years of age (when seated, not when elected).
• Must have been a citizen of the United States for 9 years.
• Must be an inhabitant of the state from which elected.

There is no mention of intelligence, experience, moral character, amount of wealth, race, gender, sexual preferences, religious beliefs or even criminal record.

When a Tea Party ‘extremists’ like a Christine O’Donnell runs for a senates seat according to Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution she is perfectly qualified to take her seat in the Senate if elected.

According to the mainstream and even conservative press she is not qualified due to some teenage antics, a tax problem with the IRS, unverified statements about her academic achievements and late mortgage payments on a house she sold right before it was foreclosed on. While none of these issues are disqualifications according to the Constitution they certainly can be to the voters of Delaware if they wish.

According to the mainstream media and elite pundits here are few qualifications they look for when supporting a candidate for Congress.

Impeachment as a sitting federal judge (Alcee Hastings of Florida) impeached for corruption and perjury.

Running a homosexual prostitution ring out of your Georgetown house while a sitting member of the House — Barney Frank (D-MA)

Lying about one’s combat record in Vietnam — Richard Blumenthal, democratic candidate for the Senate from Connecticut.

Causing the death of a young woman while driving under the influence — Ted Kennedy (D-MA)

Unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam scandal in which one sitting Senator and five members of the House were convicted of bribery and conspiracy. All six were democrats. — John Murtha (D-PA)

Former Sen. Brock Adams. The late Washington Democrat was forced to stop campaigning after numerous accusations of drugging, assault and rape, the first surfacing in 1988.

Convicted of bribery and corruption —Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA)

Soliciting sex from teenage boys — Rep Mark Foley (R-FL)

I could go on and on with this list of supposedly qualified candidates but little would be gained. By now you get the point. Qualifications are in the eye of the voter. If the representative brings home the “pork” the voters and the media tend to overlook many things. I have personal experience with two such examples of borderline misconduct while holding a Congressional seat, one a Democrat and the other a Republican. To write anymore would be libelous.

So when the media and the pundits talk about qualifications they are talking about things that fit their agenda, not Constitutional qualifications. This is why term limits are very desirable. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.