WASHINGTON WATCH: TERM LIMITS? GOP FRESHMEN SHOW WHY

One of the arguments against national term limits is that they would create a Congress bereft of institutional knowledge. Representatives, naive to the ways of Washington, would be at the mercy of conniving lobbyists and self-serving staff. So the theory goes. Or, perhaps, it is better to say, (ital) went, (unital) before the freshmen of the 104th Congress arrived.

Freshmen in this Congress -- especially in the House -- have come on like gangbusters in the first few weeks, carrying the banner of reform in their fists and daring anyone to get in their way. Old guard lobbyists, used to being catered to, are finding themselves rebuffed, and the permanent staff has been replaced with eager young firebrands. Not even Newt Gingrich, who did much to herald in these new members, can control them.

The first sign of the new times came during the House debate over the balanced budget amendment. All but one of the new Republicans backed an amendment that required a three-fifths vote to raise taxes. When GOP leaders Gingrich and Dick Armey signaled that this would kill the bill with moderate Democrats, the freshmen held strong."They've told us with smiles and without smiles" that voting against a more moderate amendment would harm the party, said Indiana freshman Rep. Mark Souder. "But while I'm respectful, I'm also principled."Not until the freshmen were promised a separate vote on the supermajority requirement, to be held on tax day in an election year, did they throw their support behind the eventually passed balanced budget amendment.Freshmen voices also headed the criticism of President Clinton's bailout deal with Mexico. When Speaker Gingrich came to Clinton's defense, he too met the freshmen's wrath. Before Gingrich had signed off on the Clinton plan, they said, he should have brought the matter before the Congress."This is why we were elected," said one of the new members, "to make the hard choices."Finally, under pressure, Gingrich agreed to hold hearings about the propriety of the bailout plan. Included in this examination will be the origins of the peso collapse and whether the administration deceived the Congress about the matter earlier in the year.Gingrich has faced the measured wrath of Republican freshmen on another issue too. When he hinted that term limits may not be necessary since American voters had shown last fall that they knew how to throw the bums out, he was met by a solid wall of freshmen denouncing any break from a Republican commitment to term limits. Gingrich quickly backtracked. Still, he maintained that three two-year terms for the House, the length most popular in the nation, was too ambitious."It took me six years before I knew how things worked around here," said the speaker. Ironically, the freshmen, which Gingrich endowed with unprecedented leadership positions, are proving that that need not be the case. They've taken the reigns of subcommittee and task force chairmanships and not looked back. In fact, other than losing their way in the labyrinthine halls of the capitol itself, the new members seem to known exactly what they are doing and where they are going.Not surprisingly, the latest area the Republican freshmen have muscled into is government reinvention. Last week, while many of their more veteran colleagues remained on the sidelines, a group calling themselves "The Federalists" abandoned conventional political wisdom and began designating areas of the budget that should be cut. They started by focusing on the cabinet, urging that the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development all be eliminated."On the whole, they do not have essential functions within the government," said Rep. Sam Brownback, a GOP freshman from Kansas. He and other Federalists will announce additional budget cuts in the coming weeks.

It isn't just by happenstance that these freshmen Republicans are so determined -- and powerful. There are 73 of them, more than one-sixth of the House and nearly one-third of the GOP caucus. And so far they have shown remarkably similar agendas: to balance the budget, reform welfare, cut government and cut taxes. In short, this class of freshmen, half who had never run for elected office before 1994, mirror the deep-seated frustration with out-of-control government that is prevalent throughout the land."We're not into the system, that 'OK, you trade vote A for project B in your district,'" said Kansas' Brownback. "We ran because we were upset about how things were going here. You don't look at this as a profession, but as a calling."Compare this spirit of government with those learned elders who have made a handsome living out of defending the status quo, and opponents of term limits will either have to rethink their arguments or get out of the way. The freshmen are coming!Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.