PEA RIDGE — Recently I read an interesting article written by an individual who made a name for himself in the political arena, but one who I remember as an athlete. Because he lives in Oklahoma and was a member of the House of Representatives representing his Oklahoma district in Washington, you may know more about him than I do. His name is J.

C. Watts, a black athlete who played quarterback at the University of Oklahoma and was elected to the House in 1994 and served from 1995 to Jan. 3, 2003.

The topic of his article was Congressional term limits - something I strongly support.He had promised to limit his term to a specific period of time if elected and he walked away from his position after increasing his Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District margin of victory from 52 percent of the vote in his first victory, to 58 percent in his second term, 62 percent in the third, and 65 percent in his final race.

These numbers are important for a number of reasons.

They impress the power base in Washington as a popular member of Congress and one whose seat is viewed as pretty secure when it come to reelection; and, both parties like to have these secure seats to keep their membership count in the majority.

This young man must have possessed a great deal of charisma - perhaps was a black Republican forerunner to Sen. Obama of Illinois - because according to Wikipedia he delivered the Republican response to Bill Clinton’s 1997 State of the Union address. Inaddition, he was elected chair of the House Republican Conference in 1998. These are “opportunities” given to up and coming new political figures who are either being groomed for higher levels or are being tested to see if they are ready for further “development” as party figureheads.

The fascinating thing is his belief that we need term limits in Congress, but also knows that the members are not going to give up power without a fight. He acknowledged the seduction process that goes with these powerful positions in Washington including how the thoughts of the possibility of someday being Speaker of the House with limousines, private jets and being in line for presidency could affect his thinking.

Not being a very good student of politics, I didn’t realize the “Contract with America” of Newt Gingrich fame included an agreement to term limits for the signers.

Representative Watts signed that agreement and apparently would have stepped down from his position one term earlier had he not been pressured to run by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. (His original pledge was to serve no more than two terms.) It would be interesting to know how many of the members who went into Congress under the Contract with America have actually complied with their promise to give up their seat voluntarily.

Several times in these articles I have mentioned my belief that term limits is the only way to correct the abuse of power which exists in Washington. This “power thing” is not a party issue since it appears the two major parties are equally guilty of abusing it to get their own agenda passed. If the Speaker of the House - third in line for the presidency - can dictate to the Air Force that they “buy” additional jet aircraft for the Speaker’s convenience, that is power. And, that power is spending money that could potentially be better spent in other areas of our economy.

Following Washington logic/ thinking it is probably quite easy for one in that position to justify the cost because “it will provide jobs to build the aircraft and may help in the area of unemployment.”

One of the things that Watts discussed was a new attempt to promote term limits using a pledge of financial assets by the candidate. The effort is being promoted by an organization called The Alliance for Bonded Term Limits.

They have a website, www.

bondedtermlimits.org which gives a bit of information on their efforts. The idea behind this approach is for the candidate (before the election) to pledge personal property to a non-profit organization if they fail to live up to their terms on the signed agreement. Whether this idea will work or not remains to be seen.

One of the most distastefulthings a politician can say, in my eyes, is “my district (state, voters in my area, etc.) has a chance to impose term limits every two or six years. What more need I do?” The politicians that leave it in “the hands of the voters” are the same ones who accept thousands of dollars (sometimes hundreds of thousands) for their campaign war chests from special interest groups, who like themselves, have their own interest at heart. Maybe the answer is for all campaign funds in a particular race to be pooled in a super fund and the money to be equally distributed between all candidates of both parties and all Independents seeking that particular position. It certainly would reduce the amount contributed by those trying to “buy” a candidate.

Term limits apply to the presidency and to state offices in Arkansas. I cannot see a downside to the application of term limits to the House and the Senate. It is difficult for me to see why the individuals who get elected cannot recognize what problems we are facing by allowing power bases to develop that coerce newly-elected members to support the system to get anything accomplished for their constituents. It would be interesting to hear former House member John Hammerschmidt’s frank, honest and detailed comments on term limits at this point in his life. We valued his opinion as our representative in the House for many, many, years, and I’m sure his wisdom is no less valuable today.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 11/04/2009