Pubdate: Sun, 10 Sep 2000
Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Amarillo Globe-News
Contact:  P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo, TX 79166
Fax: (806) 373-0810
Website: http://amarillonet.com/
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Author: John Kanelis

JOHNSON TAKES EXPEDIENT COURSE

I am not a big fan of term limits.

However, I am willing to acknowledge at least one positive effect of this 
law: It liberates politicians who, when freed from the task of seeking 
re-election, tell their constituents what they really believe about 
controversial issues of the day.

Take drug legalization, for example.

Just across our western border, in New Mexico, Republican Gov. Gary Johnson 
has found the backbone, which was contained in a law limiting him to just 
two terms in office, to proclaim his belief that all drugs - not just 
marijuana - should be legalized.

Give the lame-duck Johnson credit: He has energized the drug-legalization 
debate in this country. To what end remains to be seen.

The other morning on National Public Radio, the liberal columnist and 
commentator Matthew Miller - whose work I have admired for years - offered 
a sappy paean to Johnson. Miller gushed over Johnson's "courage" and his 
commitment to calling a halt to the nation's seemingly futile "war on 
drugs." But nowhere in Miller's three-or four-minute radio essay did he 
mention that Johnson summoned the guts to speak out about drug legalization 
only after he entered his second - and final - term as New Mexico governor.

That acknowledgement would have put Johnson's "courage" in its proper 
perspective.

Granted, Gov. Johnson isn't the first politician to use his lame-duck 
status as a shield against his political adversaries. In 1990, the 
legendary Bill Hobby announced his retirement after 18 years as Texas 
lieutenant governor and declared his support for a state income tax. Hardly 
anyone noticed, given that Hobby would be in no position during the next 
legislative session to make a state income tax a reality. Hobby's 
successor, the late - and equally legendary - Bob Bullock, said much the 
same thing shortly after announcing his own decision to retire from public 
life after the 1998 election.

These men knew then what Johnson knows now. It is political folly to walk 
the point on some issues with political opponents ready to scatter land 
mines along the campaign trail. Hobby or Bullock couldn't talk about a 
state income tax in Texas while they still had viable political careers 
ahead of them - and Johnson wouldn't dare propose drug legalization while 
he prepared to face New Mexicans at the next election.

I am not suggesting that Gov. Johnson is a gutless wonder on all issues. He 
fought for welfare reform, cut the state's budget unilaterally, vetoed 
nearly 400 bills, reduced the state work force by 1,200 employees and 
limited state budget growth - all during his first term.

But drug legalization was nowhere on his or anyone else's radar.

The governor's idea to legalize pot and other drugs isn't going over well 
in the Land of Enchantment, no matter how vehement his support appears to 
be in other parts of the country. In politically conservative Eastern New 
Mexico, one is hard-pressed to find any public official willing to jump 
aboard Johnson's drug-legalization bandwagon.

Many lawmakers from the far eastern reaches of the state aren't about to 
touch drug legalization with a 10-foot pole. Some New Mexico Republicans 
have urged Johnson to cease and desist in his quixotic effort. He thumbs 
his nose at them. He doesn't have to run again, remember?

It is said that Social Security is the "third rail" of American government. 
Touch it and you die.

Touch the issue of legalized drugs in the same manner, and you're sure to 
suffer the same fate. Term limits, however, inoculates "courageous" 
politicians against certain political death.

Gary Johnson isn't demonstrating his own brand of courage so much as he is 
demonstrating that he is just like any other politician.

Gov. Johnson might be speaking from his heart, but given the mandated term 
limits his state imposes on his high office, he certainly is no hero.

John Kanelis is editorial page editor for the Amarillo Globe-News. He can 
be contacted at the Globe-News, P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo, Texas 79166, or 
via e-mail at  His column appears regularly in the 
Sunday News-Globe.
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