Term Limits

Folks, the lobbyists are not the problem. Their excesses are but a reflection of the choices you and I make each election year.

If you have attended an important K-State basketball game lately, you have no doubt seen the university president entertaining Kansas politicians. They get the very best seats at Bramlage Coliseum. While longtime season ticket holders sit near the rafters and are "honored" with $10 gift certificates to the local Phillips station.

Saturday, Senator Sam Brownback and party were front and center for the KU game. Last week it was Representative Jerry Moran. And before that it has often been the governor and her husband.

Now do you suppose the politicians pay for those game tickets? I doubt it. Do you think they may have a free meal with K-State's president? Probably do. Do you think they talk K-State matters - maybe even financial stuff? Yep. Is that lobbying? Sure it is. But is it wrong? Nope!

Citizens have every right to petition their representatives. To take that away would isolate those who serve from the very people they are supposed to represent.

What's wrong is when old pols spend too much time in office and as a result get too close to the bad guys. Like California's Randy "Duke" Cunningham who was serving his eighth term in the U.S. House until recently. Cunningham was forced to resign after admitting to taking $2 million in bribes. The details of his wrongdoings are mind-boggling: a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, homes, travel, and even some cushy $40,000 Persian rugs. He's now serving his first term in the pen.

As a result of this and other Capital Hill malfeasance, Congress is again grappling with lobby reform. So is Topeka for that matter. We wish them well. But it won't work. Not as long as voters continue to elect career politicians into office.

Let's face the brutal facts. As much as we love them, career politicians naturally attract bad people from time to time - they always have and always will. So the only real fix to the lobby problem and a number of others as well is term limits. And voters alone control that lever. Consider the wisdom of using it come November.

First published in the Manhattan Free Press, April 9, 2006.