Words to Live By Since 1993 A SPIFF Publication Vol. 3, No. 21 Professionals built the Titanic. Amateurs built the ark. Is This Necessary? Last Friday, the Tennessee House of representatives joined the state Senate in changing the laws that have governed primaries in Tennessee for twenty years by making the 1996 primary a winner-take-all for delegates to the 1996 conventions. Until now, delegates have been proportional to the amount of vote a candidate received in the primary. Why the change? And why now? Silly readers! It's because we have our very own, home-grown presidential candidate. To insure Lamar Alexander a unified Tennessee Delegation at next year's Republican National Convention, members of the State Legislature passed the change in the current law, contingent on approval of the State Republican Executive Committee. House and Senate Democrats, only too happy to help Republicans tear each other up in one of these little disputes, joined in to pass the change. We at Spiff have an oh-so-small problem with all of this. It smacks of good-old-boy, lockstep politics to deny Tennessee Republicans the right to choose their candidates, campaign for their candidates, and represent their candidates as delegates if their candidates are not from Tennessee. Make no mistake. This is what has happened here. In a effort to squash dissent among Republicans, supporters of the Alexander campaign have attempted to cut supporters of other candidates out of the electoral picture. This may come as an overwhelming shock to some in the Alexander camp, but this is a big state with, as November 8 proved, a lot of Republicans. And they don't all support Lamar Alexander. Bob Dole has been a national candidate three times and has a base of support in Tennessee. In 1992, Pat Buchanan collected 22% of the vote against President Bush, and many of his same people have come together again for 1996. Several prominent lawmakers, county party officials, and long-time activists_ including Tennessee's National Committeewoman, Alice Algood, have endorsed Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, and we are sure there are one or two people in the state who will support Arlen Spector (although why, we are not sure). In straw polls in Putnam and Williamson County, Senator Gramm polled over 70% of the vote. The simple fact is that this state does not stand unanimously behind Lamar Alexander. If it did, he wouldn't have any need for this law. His support runs deep among some, but not all. Flash forward to the Republican Convention in 1996. Will our state deny someone as highly respected as Alice Algood a place as a delegate to the national convention? We certainly hope not. It is a shame that fear of the slightest dissent would drive a seemingly smooth national campaign to pull something this petty on the people of its home state. Should Lamar Alexander be the Republican nominee, every Republican will, of course, support him against President Clinton and Bill. However, many in Tennessee think that there are better men for the job. It would be a shame if the State Executive Committee followed the same spineless path as the legislature and allowed the people's voices to be silenced in San Diego next year. Here We Go Again! Haven't we been here before? Once again, we are witness to the helplessness that engulfs this White House in the midst of an international crisis. This time we travel back to Bosnia for the latest travesty to occur in that ravaged land. After we supported the U.N. bombing of Serbian positions, we didn't bother to think about what could happen_ and it did happen. Calling the U.N. bluff (Isn't that redundant?) again, the Serbs took several hundred peace-keeping troops hostage and chained them to potential bombing targets. Now, with no mission and no goal laid out beforehand, we are steaming 2,000 marines to the area. Why? No one knows. We have been told repeatedly that American troops will never set foot in this instant quagmire (just add American troops) and have their lives put at risk in an area that holds no national interest_you know, like Somalia. We don't need to remind you of our misadventures with The Warlord. For some reason, we are headed down this path again. With a president who does not understand the military or the prudent use of American power in the White House, this will always be the case. Before any Americans are committed to this area for any reason, we should have a plan laid out, a goal determined, and a plan to leave quickly. The Balkans are known for their hostility to outsiders, and we are just asking for a disaster. What will the reaction be when it is an American chained to a bridge? The lesson the Clinton Administration should have learned by now should be, "look before you leap." The motto of this administration is, "look, leap, get stuck, and blame someone else when someone dies." It is a sad and wrong-headed policy. The not-so-simple but best solution is to get everyone out and let the Bosnians fight for their home on equal terms, with equal arms, and give them some dignity. Well, So Much for the Supremes! Remember a few weeks ago when you read words of praise coming from the Spiff Executive Plaza, towering over beautiful downtown Donelson, Tennessee, toward the Supreme Court? We hoped we would be able to do it again, but not now. Last week, the court bungled a decision by declaring state-imposed term limits unconstitutional. They used the line of reasoning (?) that because the Constitution does not say that states can limit terms of their own members of Congress, then they cannot. We know and you know and justices Thomas, Renquist, O'Connor, and Scalia know that the 10th amendment says exactly the opposite, but oh well... It didn't really surprise us, but it was interesting that every news report we saw described the indecision as "a blow to term limits." Ha! Like the Clinton administration itself, this stupid ruling, although a temporary setback, is the best thing that could have happened. (A history lesson for our newest subscribers: we at Spiff have never been satisfied with state-imposed term limits. Not that they're bad; they just aren't enough. Tennessee doesn't need to protect itself from Our Congressman Bob Clement. We can do that ourselves by voting him out in 1996. (Please!) We do, however, need protection against Sam Gibbons, Pat Schroeder, Barney Frank, and Maxine Waters, about whom we can do nothing. Only a constitutional amendment will do that.) Now, the only way to get term limits, which nobody opposes, (and yes, Tom Folley is nobody) is by amending the Constitution. No more will we hear spineless excuses from congressmen who oppose the amendment "because it would override the states' term limits." A few suggestions have been made to get around the ruling. One is for Congress to pass a law allowing the states to set term limits. Knowing full well that the law will be struck down, it's just another way to let congressmen lie to their people, saying they supported term limits. Don't do it! Another is for Congress to pass a law defining state residency. It would effectively make Congressmen residents of Washington, Virginia, or Maryland after a certain time of living there. Since the Constitution requires that congressmen be residents of their states, it might work, or the court might kill it, too. Why mess with it? Pass an amendment, limit terms, and get lives! Quote of the weak: "Had term limits been in effect...Les Aspin, who spent 22 years in this House, would not have been able to do the things that we were talking about today." Pat Schroeder Quote of the strong: "For the first time in 25 years, the grown-up leadership of America is going to say, 'We're going to pay our own bills.'" Pete Domenici Words to Live By is published every week at about this time by Spiff. You can send a fax to us here in the Spiff Executive Plaza, towering over beautiful downtown Donelson, Tennessee at 615-883-0435.