Politics 2000: Nethercutt, term limits, and Bill Armstrong

Nethercutt; Term Limits, And Bill Armstrong

By far, one of the most intriguing U.S. House races anywhere is taking place in Washington State's 5th District (Spokane area), where Republican Rep. George Nethercutt faces spirited opposition both from some in his own party and from Democrats in his bid for a fourth term.

It wasn't supposed to work out this way. In fact, Nethercutt (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 91%) wasn't supposed to run for reelection this year. In 1994, Nethercutt made national headlines when he unseated House Speaker Tom Foley (D.)-the first time since 1862 that a sitting speaker of the House had lost reelection in his district.

Although Nethercutt raised more than $1 million and' had assistance from campaigners ranging Charlton Heston to Ross Perot, pundits and pots almost universally agree that the pivotal factor in his dramatic 51% to 49% win was the GOP nominee's signing of the U.S. Term Limits pledge not to serve more than three terms-a dramatic difference from 30-year House veteran Foley.

But this year, the 56-year-old Nethercutt has abandoned his "three-terms-I'm-ouY' pledge and is running again. He is the only Republican left in the House from the "Class of '94" not to stick with his pledge-in contrast to the "termed ouY' GOP Representatives Helen Chenoweth-Hage (Idaho), Mark Sanford (S.C.), Matt Salmon (Ariz.), and Tom Coburn (Okla.), all of whom are exiting.

U.S. Term Limits (USTL), the group that helped put Nethercutt in Congress, has blitzed his district with commercials splicing a film of him pledging to retire after three terms with those of Richard Nixon proclaiming, "I'm not a crook!" George Bush saying, "Read my lips-no more taxes," and Bill Clinton declaring, "I never had sex with that woman!"

USTL head Paul Jacob dropped by the HUMAN EVENTS offices two weeks ago to unveil his group's new "movie" poster: "George Nethercutt as Pinocchio." It features a caricature of the Evergreen State congressman as the puppet whose nose grew whenever he told a lie, with the good Jiminy Cricket admonishing him to "Keep your word, George." The movie is rated "DDD" ("Dishonest, Deceitful and Disingenuous"j, with "Screen Play by Benedict Arnold" and "special appearance by the voters of Eastern Washington who bring Pinocchio back home." Nethercutt, in turn, has responded with ads attacking USTL and Jacob by name.

Another term limit advocate so upset with Nethercutt's reversal that he is supporting Nethercutt's opponent is former Republican Sen. Bill Armstrong of Colorado, a familiar figure to national conservatives.

'Sense of Betrayal'

"I would like to clone the Congress in the form of Bill Armstrong," Coalitions for America head and veteran conservative activist Paul Weyrich often said in the 1980s. Indeed, the highly principled, articulate senator from the Centennial State was one of the premier heroes for conservatives during his years in the House (1972-78) and Senate (1978-90). Even a decade after Armstrong left Washington for his hometown of Littleton to engage in a variety of enterprises, conservative admirers this year tried to drum up support fora "Draft Armstrong for President" movement.

"As you know, term limits is something I strongly believe in and I limited my own terms in the House and the Senate," Armstrong told me last week. "So, when I first read about the race between George Nethercutt and Tom Foley in 1994, I contributed to Nethercutt-not because I was mad at Foley, but because I felt there was no place in the world where the issue of term limits was more neatly framed. To my surprise, he won, and the principal reason was term limits."

But with Nethercutt's decision to break his pledge, Armstrong explained, "I was appalled and felt a sense of betrayal" So the former senator made a $500 donation to Republican Richard Clear, a popular radio talk show host in Spokane who is challenging Nethercutt for renomination in the September 19 primary. (Term limits advocate Clear actually helped dramatize the issue on the air six years ago, assisting Nethercutt's initial candidacy. The winner of their upcoming showdown will likely face Democrat Tom Keefe, a former congressional starter, in November.)

When reporters chronicled the former senators dropping his support of Nethercutt, his campaign admonished them to check their information, indicating that Armstrong had not been a contributor to their man in the first place. Armstrong responded by politely producing the canceled check from 1994. He also issued words of praise for Clear, adding that his primary bout with Nethercutt this year is "all about integrity."

Armstrong's actions in the Washington State contest have had reverberations in his home state as well. An article on his contributions by Pete Blake of the Rocky Mountain (Colo.) News sparked reminders that conservative Rep. Bob Schaffer (R.-Colo.) had made a Nethercutt-like pledge to retire after three terms when he was elected in 1996.

A group of Republicans in his 4th District have publicly urged Schaffer to break the pledge. They argue, as do many Nethercutt supporters, that since Congress has not passed a national term-limit measure-as was thought likely back in '94-'96-their state would be hurt by losing the incumbents seniority in Congress. Schaffer himself told me last week: "I am running for a third term this year, but I haven't thought beyond that. I am not planning on running for a fourth term, but it is true that all of the party leaders back home are pusing me to do that in '02."