MISSOURI COMMENTARY: ANGRY ELECTORATE TURNS INDEPENDENT

We have heard all the talk about America's disenchantment with government and politicians. At first blush, it plays out politically for the anti-government Republicans, Newt Gingrich et al. Blush again. It plays out even more for Gen. Colin Powell as the Ross Perot-backed independent candidate for president.

-- Despite the massive Republican win in 1994, 57 percent of the people recently polled by Times-Mirror state there ought to be a third party to compete with the Republicans and the Democrats.

People claim to be "fed up" -- with both major parties. Now all of the 57 percent don't promise to vote for the independent, but they certainly want to look him or her over.

The anger that crushed the Democrats last November was not exclusively pro-Republican anger. It was "I dislike 'em all" anger.

Powell polls well in pre-Oklahoma City trial runs: President Bill Clinton 34 percent, Sen. Bob Dole 32 percent and Powell 23 percent.

If one assumes that Perot is burned out and was polished off in his NAFTA debate with Vice President Al Gore, then Powell becomes the rightful heir to the Perot organization and its money.

-- Third party devotees are uncomfortable with both political parties: Democrats are liberal and big-government types. The Republicans are being swallowed up by the religious right. Independents don't want to be dictated to either by Big Brother or Pat Robertson.

-- New voters. The conventional wisdom was that the more voters you registered the better it was for Democrats. One of Clinton's first legislative wins in 1993 was the Motor Voter Law that required motor vehicle bureaus, welfare offices and other public agencies to offer voter registration services.

In January and February 1994, 630,000 new voters were put on the books, with millions more yet to come. Big win for Democrats? Big defeat for Republicans? No to both. About one in three registered as independent. In Kentucky, 30 percent registered as "no party" even tough that eliminated them for participating primary elections. In Kentucky welfare offices, 40 percent registered as "no party."

The bulk of the unregistered, it turns out, are not Democrats -- they are independents. According to a recent Gallop poll, 48 percent of unregistered voters are independent.

Thus, if you make it easier to register voters you most likely will put on the books more uninvolved, unpredictable and probably more alienated voters -- voters who are "fed up with 'em all."

Democrats are beginning to wonder why they passed a law in 1993 making it easier for more people to register to vote.

-- Nothing has really changed. The Wall Street Journal writes "Capitol Hill still is crawling with lobbyists. Indeed, some observers say lobbyists have never before enjoyed as much power and prominence as they do now."

According to Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, "What's new is the garish audacity with which all the lobbying is being done. I've never seen such an open celebration of insiderdom and what it gets you."

Campaign finance reform is dead. Now that the money stream flows to the Republicans like Niagara Falls, don't expect them to level the playing field. Congressional Democrats had it their way for decades and must now wonder why they didn't correct the ugly mess when they had the power to do so in the last Congress and with a pro-reform president in the White House.

Term limits died quickly. The constitutional amendment to balance the budget failed in the Senate. NAFTA won't win the Miss America contest this year.

All of these are hot button "united We Stand" issues. Throw in some good rhetoric about the monstrous size of government and some good horror stories on government waste, and you've got a ready-made campaign for president by an independent candidate. A folk hero -- especially a smart folk hero like Colin Powell -- could play it nationwide.

At least that's what Bill Clinton hopes.

~Tom Eagleton is a former U.S. senator from Missouri and a columnist for the Pulitzer Publishing Co.