ThisIsCommonSense.org

Good men are not that hard to find. But you do have to take the trouble to look for them.

In September of 1999, a few months after confirming that he would step down after his third term in the House, Congressman Matt Salmon of Arizona held a press conference to endorse fellow term limit supporter Jeff Flake as his successor. Salmon stepped down just as promised and Flake was elected in his stead. After making term limits the centerpiece of his campaign, Flake defeated four competitors to win the Republican nomination. In the general election, Flake’s opponent refused to take the term-​limit pledge.

Jeff is into the Vision Thing. His interest in public policy has taken him everywhere from Washington, D.C., where he started a public affairs firm in 1987, to the southern African nation of Namibia, where he directed a foundation that monitoring political reform in the country. In 1992, Jeff returned to Arizona to run the Goldwater Institute, where he promoted his philosophy of less government, more freedom and individual responsibility.

Many observers credit the Goldwater Institute for its work on school choice and competition, ideas that have made Arizona a leader in education reform. The Goldwater Institute has sponsored a lot of path-​breaking work on one of the most exciting school choice innovations of the 1990s, charter schools. Now Jeff Flake is back in Washington. Just for a little while. Accepting a temporary trust, cementing a tradition. An honorable tradition that will show the way for other citizen legislators to come.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Sometimes candidates for office say anything to get elected. Even things they don’t really mean. Hey, try to contain your astonishment. And yes, some of them even lie when they pledge to limit their terms in office.

A few years ago, one congressional candidate pledged to self-​limit and then, just two or three days after being elected, said, “Oops, ha ha, forget what I promised during the campaign! I don’t regard myself as bound by that term-​limit pledge after all!” It’s the kind of thing that gives cynical manipulation a bad name. Thank goodness, then, that there are folks like John Thune, a South Dakota congressman elected in 1996 who has repeatedly affirmed his term-​limit pledge, following in the footsteps of honorable citizen legislators like Tom Coburn, Mark Sanford and Matt Salmon.

Congressman Thune is scheduled to leave Congress in 2002, and he’s not wavering. Thune explains it this way: “People in the country today are too cynical because of politicians who say one thing and do another,” he says. “I was sincere about [my term-​limits pledge] when I said it, I mean it, and I will honor it.” On his web site, Thune lists as part of his credo that “public policy must encourage personal responsibility.” His personal integrity shows that those words have meaning for him. A political leader who says what he means and means what he says? It can happen. On important stuff, too. It just warms my heart.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Lobbyists can’t lobby Maryland Legislators from prison. Not anymore. I’m sorry, but legislators have put their feet down this time. No lobbying from prison, period. We can all sleep better now. Wait a second what?

Well, first you have to realize that there’s a “culture of corruption created and tolerated by legislators and lobbyists in the state of Maryland.” That’s what a judge said last year after yet another scandal and yet another Maryland lobbyist went to jail. So how to change the public’s view of the Legislature? Well, legislators could begin by reforming themselves, limiting their own power through term limits, for example. Or they could legislate some feel-​good nonsense and declare all corruption healed by legislative decree. Of course, they choose the latter in triplicate.

Laws allow us to arrest folks for doing the wrong things; they can’t make corrupt people do the right thing. Arrests alone can’t bring accountability. The real problem is that Maryland’s incumbents face no serious competition for their seats. So they can abuse power at will. The bill’s prohibition against lobbying from prison comes by way of an earlier lobbyist turned convict who simply continued his lobbying practice using the jailhouse pay phone and, of course, his excellent contacts among all the Mr. Clean legislators. Maryland politicians mugging for the cameras with their latest phony Band-​Aid that’s more evidence of the problem, not part of the solution.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, I always say.

On February 27th, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of a noble event in the annals of democracy: the ratification of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment provides that no person shall stand for office for the Presidency of the United States more than twice. It ensures that no matter how much power a given chief executive may gather to his bosom, there is a definite limit on how long he may wield it. Every eight years there will be a fresh face, a fresh perspective a fresh start. But if it’s good for the goose, how about the gander?

During the 1947 debate on the 22nd amendment, a certain Senator O’Daniel suggested that ALL federal officials be term-​limited, not just the President. His proposal was rejected 82 to 1. Yet all politicians face the same incentive, the same potential to be corrupted by power, to treat their seat like a monopoly.

Congress should honor the 50th anniversary of presidential term limits by passing a limit on their own terms two terms max in the Senate, three terms in the House. In a 1951 editorial on the new presidential term limit, the Washington Post said that, quote, “power-​grasping officials are common enough in history and current world experience to warrant this safeguard.” That’s still true. And what’s good for the goose is still just as good for the gander.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

Maybe he was such a shoe-​in he didn’t have to worry about it. But still, you’ve got to admire a cabinet nominee who’s willing to tell Congress: clean up your act! … even as that body is still considering his fate. But that’s Colin Powell for you.

Not quite your typical career politician, he’s able to look objectively at the doings of the careerists and say: Hey! Slow down! Take a chill pill, guys! Powell’s advice had to do with how frequently Congress interferes with peaceful market transactions between buyers and sellers, when one party to the transaction happens to live in the United States, and the other party happens to live in another country.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, General Powell said he was shocked by the number of countries subject to partial or total economic trading bans. Powell marveled that, “There was just tab after tab in the briefing books.” He said that before imposing any new sanctions, Congress should “step back for a while, count to ten, and call me.”

The State Department is now compiling a list of all the trade sanctions on the books, some of them going back decades, imposed in retaliation for who-​knows-​what real or imagined offenses. Our careerist congressmen are an arrogant crew that impose their will about anything and everything, from international trade to how much water we’re allowed to flush down our toilets, and then they’re off to the next problem and the next dictate.

Count to ten before passing another busybody law. I love it!

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

Some people say that campaign finance reform won’t abridge freedom of speech. Just regulate how money may be spent or raised. Of course, in campaigns all you do is talk, whether on the air or in person or on billboards or balloons. That’s where the money goes. Speech. Yakking. Communication. To get folks to vote for you. It’s just a coincidence, I guess, that campaign finance regulations make it harder for challengers to talk than for incumbents.

Former presidential candidate John McCain is pushing a dangerous proposal that allows politicians to regulate those who speak against them. And it’s happening at the state level too. In many of the proposals, the link between violating free speech and protecting the incumbent is hard to miss. In Montana, one legislator wants to give office-​holders the right to review critical ads in advance. Groups would have to show their ad to the targeted politician before the ad can air. If the politician “rejects” the content and gee, what are the odds of that happening? the ad has to say so. Free speech?

In Virginia, one bill would have forced newspapers to collect ID from anyone submitting a political ad. The bill was defeated. But similar legislation is making the rounds in other states. Speech is just too scary to just let people talk, apparently. Paul McMasters, with Freedom Forum, says, “The answer to campaign speech we don’t like is more speech, not less speech.…” You can say that again. At least for now.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.