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To improve our governance, State Sen. Terry Considine has proposed that representatives and senators be limited to 12 years in office. In theory, they will be more sensitive to the needs of us commoners if they know that upon a stated date, they will lose their exalted status and return to normal life, wherein they must endure the laws they enacted.
This sounds good, but the Considine solution is based on a fairy-tale premise -- the story of Cincinnatus.
As the Roman legend goes, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus served a one-year term as consul, then retired to his small farm. A few years later, in 458 B.C., the republic faced a cricsis. Aequi invaders had surrounded a Roman army at Mt. Algidus.
Desperate for a leader, the Romans found Cincinnatus at his plow. He gained victory in one day and celebrated a triumph in Rome. He then immediately resigned the dictatorship and returned to the plow.
Although scholars agree there was once a prominent Roman named Cincinnatus, the rest of the story is deemed fanciful. You can see why. Consider the past 20 years of displaced Colorado federal office-holders. Precious few of them ever returned to the plow.
Peter Dominick was defeated by Floyd Haskell, and became an ambassador. After losing to Bill Armstrong, Haskell opened shop as a Washington lobbyist. Mike McKevitt hired on to lobby Pat Schroeder beat him. Ray Kogovsek left Congress and started lobbying. Ken Kramer wangled a high-level job in the Defense Department. Gary Hart maintains an international law practice, which means he utilizes the foreign connections he made during his senate days.
From what I could tell, only three -- Jim Johnson, Gordon Allott and Don Brotzman -- went back home to do what they did before they went to Washington. The rest either found other means of staying on the public payroll, or became well-paid lobbyists. On a local level, about 30 statehouse lobbyists are former legislators. Unlike Cincinnatus, they don't return to normal life.
Forcing people to leave office sooner will not make them
think Gee, I'll be just another grunt in a few years, so
I'd better work on some fair and sensible laws.
More likely, they will think Just another couple
years, and I can start making $500,000 for lobbying. But
they won't pay me that kind of money unless I show I can
deliver. So I'll ask the bagmen how they want me to fix
this bill so their clients get subsidies while avoiding
taxes.
The problem really isn't that people stay in office too long; it's what they generally do when they leave office -- gain a private profit as a result of public service.
There are better approaches than the Considine plan. One is that whenever someone leaves office, he should be barred for life from any contact whatsoever with his former colleagues.
That would be hard to enforce, though. So we should try the opposite of Considine's plan, and elect for life on good behavior. We might thereby get senators and representatives who are content to serve us.
Otherwise, limit or no limit, we'll continue to see hustlers who treat Congress like an $89,500-a-year apprenticeship. It gives them connections that they can use on that glorious day when they leave office and start bringing in the big money.
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