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Show All The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION Saturday, February 27, 1999 Taps for Term Limits: Good Riddance to a Wrongheaded, Bad Idea WASHINGTON — The term-limits quiring a lawmakerto leave Congressaf- ter a set number of years is the single recent memory. So who killed it? The very same Re- publicans who campaigned onthe issue in the early'90s and,in somecases, actually took a pledge to quit Washington and go home. Republicans carry a paper-thin margin of six seats into the 2000 election for the House of Representatives. And with nine GOP congressmenstill in office who promised to retire before then, the Re- publican Congressional Campaign Committee is ardently urging them to break their word. Meanwhile, the booming economy has helped dispel the anti-Washington pay no price for backsliding. “Voters don’t care about term limits. s gists frustrated by the Democrats’ autocratic 40-year rule over the House. The termlimitsis a profoundly wrongheaded UNITED FEATURES SYNDICATE the conceptis an actof breathtaking hy- more insidious concept, that politics is and 2000 is going to be a dogfight,” makers land in Washington, Sodom-onthe-Potomac, their integrity starts to doesn’t wantto give up the advantagesof crumble. After a fewyears,goesthis ar- tages they denouncedsofuriously when gument, they're hopeless moral misfits the Democrats enjoyed them. After all, ad- erado, who was first elected in 1992, while promising to serve only “three or inherently corrupting. The minute law- pocrisy. last Novemberonly six House members To their own surprise, Republicans were defeated, and more than 98 percent of those whoranforre-election won an- took control of the House in 1994 with- There's a larger point here as well Any lawmaker, from any state, profits from experience. One example, says fessional career which requires training McInnis: Whenyoufirst get to Washington, and aninterest group deluges you andtenure. with mail, Rep. George Nethercutt of Washington, one potential GOPretiree, admits “you panic, you think the whole worldis coming downonyou. But after a while, he adds, “yourealize the mail is computer-generated, and you balanceyour decision with alittle maturity. You can’t take awaythat maturity that six years in Washington‘‘is not long As Schroeder acknowledges, the GOP incumbency — the exact same advan- whomust bereplaced do with termlimits. idea under anycircumstances, that run ning the government is a demanding pro- Whenyou havea six-seat margin, incumbency is more important than ever. mits Jill Schroederof the GOP campaign ¢ommittee.“We wantto hold our empty seats to a minimum.” s Oneof the nineis Scott McInnisofCol- Committee. “And that’s exactly what you vated by more than political self-interest. They have come to understandthat out the help of term limits. And in one sense, their decision nowto turn against win You can’t walk into this building un armed,” says McInnis, who recently won a seat on the powerful Ways and Means things people votefor.’ SomeRepublicans, at least, are moti- power of incumbercy was so vast, they But the idea was fueled by an even alwa Schroeder. “It's way down on thelist of scheme, created by Republican strate- office and create open seats. tives to acqui niority and important committeeassign ments. Under term limits, seniority is largely meaningless, sothe big states will “throw-the-bums-out” mood of the early ’90s, so Republicans reasonthat they will If you're going to serve your district,” he told us, “and you're term-limited, yourender yourself politically impotent He's right, but it’s taker Republicans a while to learn that lesson. Term limits was always a cynical reasoned, that the only way to dislodge the majority was 1o force them out of 4 mountainous re highly coveted by C other term. COKIE ROBERTS STEVE ROBERTS self-imposed retirement. worst idea to infect Americanpoliticsin McInnisrepre: gion whose major a small state like four” terms in Washington. He has now become a fierce foe of term limits, and even warns prospective GOP candidates to “learn from myexperience” and avoid movement is dead, and it should be. Re- herecalls. enough” to learn the ropes. Rep. McIn nis is even more candid, conceding that The term-limits movement is fighting he made a huge mistake when he got caught up in the term-limits craze that “seemed to be sweeping the country” in 1992. “As soon as I got back here, I thought back, pressuringthenine Republicansto keeptheir promises and go home, and a few have agreed. But thelarger fight is over. It’s timeto playtaps for termlim its, and we say, “Good riddance.”” ‘WhathaveI just doneto mydistrict? Working With the President: Credibility Problem Hangs More Heavily in the Air Than Ever WASHINGTON — At the National Governors Association winter conference here this week, Republicans and Democrats madea studiedeffort to put the recent impeachment unpleasantness behind them. The governors of both parties met President Clinton at the White House andall the talk at the governors’ conference itself was about things like educa- tion and federal-state relations, not things like DNA-stained dresses and what the meaning of the word“is” is, That does not mean, however, that the yearlong intrusion of Clinton's sexual misbehavior andlies about it have not ken toll. Even beforetheseandal first broke, manyif not most of the Republi. can governorshadat best a waryattitude toward Clinton and whether his word could be counted on in their dealings with him: At the governors’ winter meeting, an issue was spotlighted that indicated that for all the seeming willingness of the GOPgovernors to get on with business with the president, the level of confi dence in him among Republicans remains questionable at best. A matter of paramountconcernto the governors of both parties was what they saw as a blatant attempt bythe Clinton administration to grab a tidy chunk of the roughly $200 billion settlement the states’ attorneys general won from the tobaccoindustrylast year. Federal law ward waiving” the recoupment “if the money is put toward the appropriate uses,” that is the sticking point Carper protested against the federal JACK GERMOND JULES WITCOVER says the administration can seek a share of the settlement to cover Medicaid ex- government's trying to tell the states penses caused by smoking, although the administration declinedto join the states in their fight against the tobacco industry howto spend the money their attorneys general worked so hard to wring from the tobaccoindustry, especially when, he Twosenators, Republican KayBailey said, they didn’t need to be told how to fight smoking among children in their Hutchison of Texas and Democrat Bob Graham of Florida, joined the governors own states. It is the old father-knows: best argument that governors of both parties resent, especially coming from Clinton, himself a former governor. In closing the conference, Carper took by sponsoring a bill in Congress that would bar the federal government from getting its hands on anyofthestates’ tobacco money. Some36 other senators ofbothparties are co-sponsors. note of “a newstability in ournation’s capital,” and Republican Gov. Mike Lea- TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES What alerted the governors and the senatorsto the threat of the federal mon- vitt of Utah, the association's vice chair- ey grab was inclusion in Clinton’s cur- dren from it. funds fromthestates’ settlement to be Hutchison for one was not impressed Ratherthan sayingflat-outthat the pres- the governors met with Clinton at the White House the other day, they ident’s word was no good, she observed: “I think the administration spoke with its budget"’ — meaning that theinclusion rent budget proposal of $18.9 billion in spent for unspecified purposes, When squawked. of the $18.9 billion demonstrated his real intent to grab the money. If Clinton sought to reassure the gov- Democratic Gov. TomCarper of Dela- ware, the NGA chairman, reported afterward that Clinton hadtold the gover- ernorsto the point of convincing them to man, commended “‘a new periodofcivility” amongthe governors. But behindth conciliatorytalk, it is clear that Clinton's credibility problem, which existed before Monica Lewinsky becamea household name, hangs more heavilyin the air than ever now. Nevertheless, the effort made by the governors to put the year of impeachment behind them and get back to work- ing with the president rather than attacking or defending him was a moneyfor federal programs, but wanted broad parameters” set to assure himit wouldbespentbythestates for specific droptheirlegislation, he failed. The governorsof both parties are concerned not only about the money but about their right to spend it as they seefit. And al. constructive signal. So was Clinton’s first purposes he wanted, such as lowering teen-age smoking andprotecting all chil- said the administration “can work to- of both parties since mid-1997. With the next presidential campaign on the hori- nors he had “nointerest’ in taking the though the White House press secretary Bill Clinton zon next year, however, the windowof opportunity for cooperation may be a narrowone. meeting with the congressional leaders AIR DUCTCLEANING ro -& Glass cat Duct Pros g'2 355- Dear Customer: The Hottest New Decorating Ideas. n’s is taking geressive steps in a major interior remodeling of our store that will take place in the month of March. But before we begin our remodeling, WE NEED TO CLEAR OUR SHOWROOM FLOORS AND MAKE ROOM FOR THE CONTRACTORS. 1 O DOTHIS WE ARE OFFERING INCRE IBLE SAVINGS. 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