Wild Pitch
Clift, Eleanor
Wild Pitch by Eleanor Clift George Will strikes out against term limits No one brings more zeal to a cause than a recent convert. George Will, once a foe of term limits, is now firmly on...
...He calls Bush a "stammering cipher" whose ineffectual handling of domestic problems dramatizes the danger of excessive reliance on one man for leadership...
...Their predecessors, the 1988 Orioles, lost their first 21 games, a record, and went on to lose a total of 107 for the season...
...The opening chapters are a reprise of recent congressional scandals, an outpouring from the Nexis database...
...George F. Will...
...Unlike most of his conservative friends, Will says he is not a "scorched-earth, pillage-andburn" type who spends his weekends fuming about the evils of the Democrat Congress...
...Bush is the most narrow-gauge president in living memory, and even his narrow interest and supposed competence is ill-suited to his moment on center stage...
...He resorts to the dubious theory that spreading power around is better than the public "putting all its eggs in one basket...
...Much of what Will says has appeal no matter what your party and ideology...
...Nobody is better at Bush-bashing than Will, and his soliloquy on Bush and leadership is a high point of Restoration...
...Will does not match his enthusiasm for term limits with a rigorous examination of opposing arguments or with a comparison of alternative remedies (like campaign finance reform...
...A handful of legislators from wool-producing states keep the subsidies alive just as farm-state congressmen protect the honey subsidy, another wartime grant...
...shouted by American officers during the successful British siege of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1779...
...Through a combination of defeats, retirements, and reapportionment, a third of House members will be new in January...
...Will's tone is more sorrowful than angry...
...George Will's most creative argument for term limits spins off his disdain for President Bush...
...What Will brings to the term limits argument is a measure of intellectual detachment...
...He blames the "dangerous careerism" of today's lawmakers for Congress' collective failure of nerve...
...George Will, once a foe of term limits, is now firmly on board the bandwagon...
...Early in his career, Will spent three years working as an aide to Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, where he acquired "a lasting love of the Congress...
...Yet Hatcher was defeated in Georgia's July primary, one of nineteen House incumbents dumped by voters in this year's primaries...
...The two things that matter most in his district are peanuts and tobacco...
...Who can forget the emptiness of Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" second term...
...Wool subsidies granted during World War II to spur the production of uniforms continue today even though soldiers wear synthetics...
...He ridicules the media's expectation that Bush would have something uplifting to say after the Los Angeles riots in May...
...Everyone agrees that Congress is beholden to special interests and that big money drives the process...
...But it is a big leap to argue that a revolving door of rookie legislators would cause Congress to spurn parochial pressures and do what's best for the country...
...Restoration: Congress, Term Limits, and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy...
...Eckart will be missed, but it's a big Milky Way out there...
...Will asks imperiously...
...As a board member of the Baltimore Orioles, he oversaw a "throw the bums out" campaign that made the 1989 Orioles major league baseball's youngest team—and the one with the smallest payroll...
...He begins his book with the cry, "Long live Congress...
...Will assumed Hatcher was safe because he chairs the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Peanuts and Tobacco...
...Then he found that conception of the presidency suddenly anachronistic...
...In six of their twelve years, they might think of something— the national interest, perhaps—other than buying votes with the voters' money...
...The timing of this book suggests that Will wants to capitalize on the citizen anger that has made 1992 the year of protest politics...
...One of the arguments for reelecting George Bush is that he would be free of electoral pressure and could make tough decisions...
...Wild Pitch by Eleanor Clift George Will strikes out against term limits No one brings more zeal to a cause than a recent convert...
...Will paints an unrelievedly negative portrait of public service...
...But that's the fancy window dressing...
...And he concludes that the cure for Congress' "hyper-responsiveness" to a selfish and demanding electorate is term limits...
...A former professor of political philosophy, Will presents his case for term limits with the same scholarly patina that coats his journalism...
...Be serious...
...When one of the fastest-rising stars in Congress' firmament decides he would rather not try to twinkle any more, his decision is apt to be an index of that institution's stresses...
...Will underestimates what aroused voters will do when provoked...
...But was he in trouble back home...
...All this and more has been said by lesser lights...
...Lame-duck behavior, however, is usually disappointing...
...Other supposed untouchables who were dealt surprise losses after Will's deadline included Rep...
...Even the most principled senators elbow their way to the federal trough to get goodies for their constituents...
...or concern for their future employment...
...Will touts term limits as a "surgical remedy" for congressional tenure, but voter wrath is effective and more democratic...
...They were somewhat like today's Congress—expensive and incompetent," Will recalls, and "the Orioles' management had a thought: Hey, we can lose 107 games with inexpensive rookies...
...Eleanor Clift is the congressional and political reporter in Newsweek's Washington bureau...
...Instead of intellectual fiber, there is loftier-than-thou prose...
...Election to Congress is "tantamount to being dispatched to Washington on a looting raid for the enrichment of your state or district, and no other ethic need inhibit the feeding frenzy," Will writes...
...The author of Men at Work, a best-selling book on baseball, Will seems to have been born again at the ballpark...
...Term-limit initiatives are on the ballot in 14 states, and many challengers have made attacks on incumbents' longevity their primary theme...
...Mickey Edwards, a member of the House GOP leadership...
...Yet they came within a few pitches of winning the American League East...
...Dennis Eckart...
...Will captures the dynamic of Capitol Hill protectionism...
...What explains this strange turning toward a man who, in 67 previous years of life, had never shown noticeable interest in, or the slightest aptitude for, saying helpful things about the great questions of justice that should drive discussion of domestic policy...
...In his new book*, Will conjures up so many arguments for curbing congressional terms, the reader wonders how he justifies ever having been on the other side...
...Applying the same principle to Congress could produce a winning season...
...In a section that recaps the reasons several members of Congress resigned this year, Will gets sappy lamenting the departure of Ohio Rep...
...He prepared thoroughly for most of his adult life to play the role of conductor of the West's side of the Cold War...
...Only a vigorous Congress, he argues, can fill the space opened up by a vacuous presidency...
...That is not my type of conservatism," he writes...
...No wonder cynicism has replaced a sense of civic responsibility among voters...
...Indeed, short-termers might be more beholden to special interests, either out of naivet...
...Will's argument, simply, is that they would do it less if they were limited to two terms...
...When not dealing with foreign policy—when trying to look interested in the domestic questions that are of most interest to most Americans—Bush was a blank...
...Patriotism properly understood simply is not compatible with contempt for the institutions that put American democracy on display...
...Guy Vander Jagt, a 20-year veteran who headed the GOP's congressional reelection committee, and Rep...
...Will believes the end of the Cold War should free the country (and the media) from its obsession with the presidency...
...Perhaps because of deadline pressure, Restoration is rambling and seems to have escaped a sharp editor's eye...
...There are passages, for instance, that read like vaudeville for conservatives: "The Rockies may crumble, Gibralter may tumble, they're only made of clay, but federal programs are here to stay...
...This theory is not new...
...George vs...
...Free Press, $19.95...
...But it could just as easily encourage the election of "Bob Roberts" clones— millionaire fascist yuppies who can afford a sabbatical in Washington...
...Will is less clear about how a collection of citizen legislators would actually assume national leadership...
...There are the predictable pages detailing the Framers' original intent and the true meaning of republicanism...
...To make his case that some congressmen are lifers, he cites Charles Hatcher, a six-term Democrat from Georgia who was among the top 22 House bank abusers named by the Ethics Committee...
Vol. 24 • November 1992 • No. 11
