THROWING THE RASCALS OUTnby Odie B. FaulknN’note September 18,n1990, as a historic date.nOn that fateful Tuesday, peoplenin the Sooner State stuckntheir heads out their windowsnand, in that great line fromnNetwork, shouted at politicians,n”We’re mad as Hell,nand we ‘re not going to take itnanymore.”nThe object of this angernwas politicians entrenched innoffice and seemingly impossiblento dislodge through thennormal election process, politiciansnwho use lobbyist dollarsnas well as numerous self-voted tax monies to push theirnreelection campaigns. According to numerous sources, 98npercent of congressional incumbents seeking reelection arenreturned to Congress every year, and those holding statenoffices are not far behind.nThat percentage will change for politicians in the statenlegislature of Oklahoma thanks to oil man Lloyd Noble II.nHe spent thousands of his own dollars to finance an initiativenpetition to limit Sooner legislators to 12 years in office: sixntwo-year terms for members of the House and threenfour-year terms for senators. The 12-year limit begins onnJanuary, 1, 1991, meaning anyone serving on that date willnhave to retire from office by December 31, 2002.nThose who volunteered to circulate these petitions werennot partisan; Democrats vied with Republicans for thenhonor. These hundreds of volunteers fanned out across thenstate last spring — to find that getting the necessary signaturesnof more than one hundred fifty thousand voters wasnremarkably easy. One angry citizen gave voice to thenfeelings of thousands when he said about politicians, duringna “man on the street” interview for a television news show,n”It’s time to send them all home.”nNaturally those politicians long entrenched at the statehousenin Oklahoma City, as well as those who aspirensomeday to win office, thundered that this initiative wouldnbe bad legislation. “Experience counts,” was the gist of theirnargument, but a majority of Oklahomans seemed to agreenwith another angry voter who shouted at one political rally,n”Experience counts in learning to feather your own nest.”nDespite cries about the value of experience and seniority,nOklahomans by a vote of 436,347 to 212,318 passed thisnlegislation that, because it originated through the initiativenprocess, was not subject to the governor’s veto. Thenmorning after the vote State Senator Ben Brown (D-nOklahoma City) told a reporter, “This is an effort by thenrich and powerful to take away the rights of the ordinaryncitizen,” explaining that this law denied voters the right tonchoose their legislators regardless of the number of yearsnthey had served. John P. Keast of the Free CongressnFoundation in Washington, D.C., viewed the outcomen24/CHRONICLESndifferently. When informed of the vote, he said, “This isndemocracy in action. Oklahomans recaptured their legislature.”nSince that fateful vote on September 18, various punditsnhave waxed in print about this legislation. David Broder ofnthe Washington Post argued in a nationally syndicatedncolumn that the result would be an increase in the power ofnlegislative staffs, those faceless bureaucrats who haunt thenhalls of power and who work their own agenda. Thus tonlimit the terms of congressmen and senators would bringnabout less democracy, not more. Others have said that statenlegislators should not be the object of such time limitationnbecause most of them do not serve long before aspiring tonhigher office. A political scientist making this argumentnnoted that two-thirds of the legislators in Oklahoma havenbeen in office less than 12 years.nYet a start must be made somewhere to “throw the rascalsnout,” and the Oklahoma vote is a beginning. It doubtless isntrue, as some critics argue, that this law is imperfect.nHowever, it is inspiring movements in other states. Moreover,nthe Free Congress Foundation is trying to do at thennational level what Oklahomans did at the state level. It isncoordinating an effort to limit congressmen and senators ton12 years — and polls conducted for the Washington Post andnABC News show that 70 percent of Americans support anlimitation on congressional terms.nPerhaps on September 18, Oklahoma’s voters metaphoricallyntossed a few bales of tea into a presently murkynlegislative harbor, the start of a revolution to throw outnlife-tenured politicians and to return to the Jeffersonian idealnof citizen-lawmakers. nOdie B. Faulk is emeritus professor of history atnNortheastern State University in Oklahoma. He lives innWaco, Texas.n’TIS THE SEASONnby Harold O.J. BrownnnnIn late September, withneighty-degree temperaturesnand the foliage still almostntotally green even in northernnIllinois, it is hard to thinknChristmas thoughts. And asnNebuchadnezzar’s would-bensuccessor — or reincarnationn— raves about imitating thatnenergetic neo-Babylonian empire-buildernand destroyingnJerusalem, the approach ofnthe Jewish High Holy Daysnreminds one of the fact thatnanother Arab nation, 17 yearsnago, took advantage of YomnKippur to launch a surprise war against Israel. Will thenseason be jolly this Christmas? Well, that depends on quite an