GETTING REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT TERM LIMITS
                                by John Lofton
 
I've been rethinking my opposition to limiting the terms of our
congresspeople.  I'm now for it. After pondering this matter seriously
(and watching the wretched Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill inquisition), I have
thoughtfully concluded that the ideal number should be zero. Zip. Zilch. 
 
That's right. Congress should be abolished. We should return to the much
and falsely maligned Articles of Confederation. 
 
I know. There were "problems" with the Articles, like with interstate
trade.  But, hey, they also had tremendous advantages. For example,
Congress had no way of enforcing its decrees And there were no federal
courts. Sounds good to me. 
 
I mean, look at Congress. Darwin was wrong. The fittest clearly have not
survived. 
 
In "The Scorching of Washington", Alan Lloyd tells how on the afternoon of
Aug. 24, 1814, a British column of some 4,000 troops, shipped from
Wellington's victorious army of Spain to the Patuxent River in Maryland,
routed a raw American force near Washington and burst into the capital. 
 
At the White House, the Brits helped themselves to the plenteous food and
wine which had been prepared for a banquet to be given by President
Madison. Gen. Robert Ross toasted the health of "His Majesty" with White
House liquor. 
 
Then - and this is my favorite part of this inspirational book - the
Executive Mansion's furniture was piled in the drawing room and the White
House was put to the torch. 
 
By midnight, the Capitol was also ablaze.
 
Exclaimed one British observer, without remorse: "You can conceive no
finer sight . . . Except the burning of San Sebastian, I do not recollect
to have experience at any period of my life a scene more striking or
sublime.''
 
A Mrs. Samuel Smith sighed: "The poor Capitol! Nothing but its blacken'd
walls remained." To which author Lloyd adds, in a sentence that even now,
as I type it, almost brings goosebumps of joy to my flesh: "Government
barely existed."
 
Wow. Just think of it. Our national government - barely existing, most of
Washington almost burned to the ground. Now, there's a way to really limit
the terms of our congresspeople, indeed the ability of anyone to feed at
the federal trough. 
 
Those were the good old days.
 
                  USA Today, October 25, 1991

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