 |
Phone (419) 448-3200 Fax (419) 447-3274 General E-Mail: adtrib@bright.net Newsroom E-Mail: atnews@bright.net | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Citizen-legislator fulfills his promise When Oklahoma Rep. Tom Coburn first ran for Congress in 1994, he vowed that he would be a citizen-legislator and promised to limit himself to a maximum of three terms in office. Coburn kept both promises, and last week Oklahoma voters selected a successor. Coburn's story is a remarkable one in an era of career politicians and quite a few broken promises of self-imposed term limits. During his time in Congress, Coburn continued actively to practice medicine during visits home and during congressional recesses. When the House adopted rules that essentially forbid members from engaging in any earnings-producing work outside of Congress, Coburn was one of a very few to defend to the last the ideal of the citizen legislator. And when his six years were up, he did not make the easy political choice of breaking his promise, as Washington Rep. George Nethercutt did. (Nethercutt upset then-House Speaker Tom Foley in 1994 primarily on the strength of his advocacy of term limits.) America needs more people like Coburn to step up and serve in office. The citizen-legislator has a different perspective and an entirely different set of incentives from the career politician. Sadly, modern politics has virtually driven citizen-legislators from the public square.
|
