Rendezvous With Destiny

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness

The Case of Term Limits November 15, 2006

Posted by Troy Fullerton

As I mentioned in a previous post, I think a lot of the problems Republicans had at the polls last Tuesday was due to the fact they simply stayed too long at the party, became as seduced and corrupted by power as the Democrats they replaced, and lost their vision of boldness and change.

A big part of that could have been avoided, I believe, if Republicans had simply kept their commitment to term limits.In 1994, Republicans came to power in Washington for the first time in forty years on the strength of their Contract For America, a brilliant plan devised largely by Newt Gingrich—who would become Speaker with the new majority—that took aim at the public’s disgust with politics as usual under Democrat rule.

A key component of that Contract was a call for term limits, with the belief that the people were better served by a government comprised of citizen legislators rather than career politicians.

Many of that vaunted class of ’94 even self-imposed term limits on themselves, and it was that group of mavericks that did everything within their power to hold true to the Contract for America, though unfortunately they were undermined by their party leadership who decided that once they had taken power, they were far more interested in keeping it than fulfilling the promises they made to the American people.

One member of that Class of ’94 was Rep. Tom Coburn from Oklahoma, who probably did more to infuriate Republican leadership in the 90’s than anyone except President Clinton.

Dr. Coburn helped lead an attempted coup of Speaker Gingrich in 1997, mounted a de facto filibuster during the 1999 Appropriations Bills to force attention to the fact that Republicans were sabotaging the 1997 balanced budget law, and was routinely ridiculed and condemned by his own leadership as a member of the ‘perfectionist caucus.’

What gave Coburn the courage to take such stands? His 2003 book Breach of Trust recounts how many media sources speculated on that.Roll Call wrote, “Of course, it’s easy for Coburn to rebel.

His six-year, self-imposed term limit ends in 2000, so there are no threats leadership can make to dissuade him.” Mark Shields on “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer” said, “Tom Coburn took the term limits pledge when he got elected, and he’s leaving. What are you going to do? Are you going to threaten him? Are you going to tell him he’s not going to have a good office next time?

He’s not going to be here next time!” The Washington Post wrote, “Coburn has little to fear in challenging the leaders because he came to Congress promising to stay no more than three terms, and his time is almost up.” And columnist Debra Saunders opined, “Term limits set him free. Having kept his word on term limits, Coburn also is more inclined than House careerists to make Congress keep its word.”

Remember earlier this year when Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann took the rare step of criticizing his own party’s leader in Gov. Jim Doyle on campaign finance, and then lent his voice to the school choice movement in Milwaukee, again contrary to the wishes of his party.

I have no doubt those opinions were genuine, but do you believe he would have taken those stands if not for the freedom that came with knowing he was not running for office again?

Knowing your time is limited provides the ammunition to take more risks, to actually focus on solving problems instead of simply creating issues for the next campaign, and to spend more time worrying about the next generation than about the next election.

In his book, Dr. Coburn also recounts the story of the Roman emperor Cincinnatus, who was a retired general in 458 B.C., when the Roman Empire was threatened by the Aequians and the senate offered him the power of dictator, believing he was their only chance to save the Empire.

Cincinnatus was reportedly tending to the fields of his small, three-acre farm at the time, but agreed to accept the role. It took him 16 days to defeat the enemy at Rome’s gate, at which time he relinquished the role of dictator and returned to his farm.

As Coburn states, “The ease with which Cincinnatus gave up his awesome powers made him a legend. His story resonates today because the American people are longing for leaders who are not enamored with power and position but are free to govern according to their conscience.”

Coburn is right: The American people are longing for leaders. Where are they?