Our View - Monday

Huffing and puffing

Activists rely on government to advance agenda

Ever since Ronald Reagan slammed Jimmy Carter with the words, “There you go again,” to counter one of Carter’s distortions, the phrase has been used as a put down in political debate. It’s used so often that it is almost a cliche. We don’t much care for the phrase because it’s been used and abused so much that it has lost the punch it once had. So it pains us to have to say it, but there they go again.

Anti-smoking zealots in Washington state chalked up another victory in last week’s election when voters approved one of the most restrictive statewide anti-smoking laws in the nation. The law bans smoking in bars, restaurants, bowling alleys (bowling alleys!), casinos and nearly all other businesses in the state, according to an Associated Press report. It wasn’t even a close race — 63 percent of the voters apparently believe it’s appropriate for the state to regulate the use of one’s private property to exclude use of a legal product.

Of course, that’s not the way the issue was presented to voters. “People saw how their friends and families were going to be protected,” said Mike O’Sullivan, spokesman for the American Cancer Society. “It’s an easy measure for them to support because they understand the health impact.” No mention there about trampling property rights in the futile quest for a zerorisk society. Couldn’t those “friends and families” be equally protected by not patronizing businesses that allowed smoking? Apparently, it’s too difficult to expect citizens to be proactive in protecting their own health; it’s easier to have the state bully property owners.

A far better approach would have been for supporters of the law to work with business owners to establish smoke-free areas or businesses. Owners of businesses, particularly those that rely on consumers’ discretionary spending, tend to do what’s best for the bottom line. If they see patrons abandoning their smoke-filled eateries and taverns for those with clear air, they’ll clean up their own acts.

Employees can be proactive, too. They can lobby their employers for smoke-free workplaces and show them how going smoke-free could result in fewer lost days due to illness.

For those who think such ideas come from the ivory towers of free-market idealists, the AP story noted that backers of the ballot issue were celebrating at a pub that had recently gone smoke-free after owners conducted a poll on the pub’s Web site. The poll showed 85 percent of patrons wanted the pub to be smoke-free. The owners reported no drop in revenue after the change.

If this business didn’t require the heavy hand of government guiding its actions, why do others? They don’t. It’s just that some people would rather rely on the regulatory power of the state than the free will and choices of their fellow citizens.

Amtrak drops Gunn

You have to feel for David Gunn. The Amtrak president was fired Wednesday for what the passenger rail line’s board said was Gunn’s resistance to necessary changes in the operation of the financially beleaguered company. We’ve had our differences with Gunn’s policies during his three-year tenure, mostly because his answer to most of Amtrak’s problems was more federal money. But in all honesty, Gunn was charged with an impossible task.

Amtrak was formed more than 30 years ago by Congress as a way to save passenger rail service in the United States. Its mission is to provide that service while making an operating profit. That sounds simple enough, until we factor in the congressional meddling that has plagued the venture from the beginning.

No elected official in Washington wants to be the one to have passenger service stripped from his or her district, so taxpayers continue to subsidize rail passengers to the tune of $1.2 billion last year. Congress is still hammering out funding for 2006, but it’s likely to be at least that and probably more.

Rather than throwing good money after bad, we would like to see the “company” split into smaller regional lines that would be more responsive to local demand. The Northeast Corridor is the only section of Amtrak’s service area that is doing well. If it could be spun off as a regional line, it could be successful. Other runs possibly could as well. Japan did something similar with its national rail company and the regional lines have been successful. With a new person driving the train, perhaps the nation can make some headway toward weaning this steel monstrosity from the federal trough.

Let’s get Washington back to basics

We continue to be surprised at people in Washington who have sworn to uphold the Constitution but seemingly have no idea what it says. Top Democrats sent a letter to President Bush asking that he promise to not pardon Lewis Libby should he be convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges. Perhaps Sens. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer missed the part of the Constitution that gives the president the authority to grant pardons.

Although we understand their concern that the promise of a pardon might keep Libby silent about the possible involvement of administration officials in the Valerie Plame affair, it smells of partisan grandstanding to demand assurances before Libby is even tried, let alone convicted.

“We want to make sure that the truth comes out,” Schumer said. But we doubt it’s the truth he’s looking for. More likely, Democrats are trying to make Bush look bad if he refuses to satisfy their demands.

We’d prefer to see both parties stop hounding one another in their quest for power and go back to their constitutional duties. That would solve a lot of the problems in Washington.