
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990                   TAG: 9007110401
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BOB BAIRD
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SET LIMIT TO TERMS IN CONGRESS

IN HIS 1840 classic, "Democracy in America," Alexis de Toqueville said: "If I were asked, now that I am drawing to the close of this work, in which I have spoken of so many important things done by the Americans, to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply - to the superiority of their women."

At that time, women in America enjoyed greater freedom than women in any other nation. Today, that contrast has faded, as described in a recent report on how hard it is for women and minorities to be elected to Congress. This, however, is not the problem itself, but merely one symptom.

The problem is what can be termed the "permanent" Congress - that is, a Congress with a 98 percent re-election rate for incumbents. This situation makes for 50-1 odds against anyone, regardless of race or gender, to be elected. Placing limits on the number of terms legislators could serve would allow women, minorities, and anyone else to compete fairly in an open system of free elections.

The atrocious practice of professional lobbying has flourished simply because special interests have found it easier to bribe incumbents to do their bidding than to participate in the democratic process of electing someone else. Limited terms for legislators would take the power from the lobbyists and give it back to the people.

Today, multimillion-dollar election "campaigns," i.e., a series of 30-second television spots devoid of substance, take place only because that much money is required for the 2 percent who do defeat incumbents. Removing the powerful incumbents with their deep pockets of special-interest money would once again bring public office back onto a level playing field within the reach of the average American. In this land of opportunity, the superiority of our women, our men, and our minorities should be the single criterion for public service, not a candidate's advertising budget.

Limited terms might also mean that public office would once more become a place where one served one's country. Benjamin Franklin said that "in free governments the rulers are the servants, and the people are their superiors and sovereigns. For the former therefore to return among the latter is not to degrade but to promote them - and it would be imposing an unreasonable burden on them to keep them always in a State of servitude and not allow them to become again one of the Masters."

We have a two-term limit on the presidency, and in Virginia a one-term limit on the governorship. If this is such a good idea for those offices, and it is, isn't it time we applied it to the Congress and the Virginia legislature as well, and let most of them once again enjoy the privilege of being a Master?

by CNB