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 jkanelis@amarillonet.com. His column appears regularly in the
Sunday News-Globe.