Adele Ferguson: Old timers lament departure of citizen legislators

I WAS INVITED to a luncheon meeting the other day of the WGAS group, which stands for Who Gives a (Darn.). Figure it out for yourself.

It was a small crowd of old timers, retired legislators, judges, lobbyists, staffers. I knew most of them, having covered the legislature since the 1960s, although I didn’t recognize some at first. They were all friendly to me, despite the fact I didn’t shake hands with any of them, following my rule of not shaking hands during the flu season which apparently is still with us, according to the newspapers.

And despite a nice mix of Democrats and Republicans they were all friends with each other, something they commented on as missing in today’s legislature. They don’t socialize with each other today the way we used to back then, said one.

“It was common back then to argue over a bill on the floor and go out together later for a drink or dinner,” he said. “You didn’t get very much done if you didn’t get along with people.”

I REMEMBERED the time Sen. Sam Guess from Spokane filibustered nearly all one day into the night to keep a bill from coming up I believe it was. He never repeated himself as the hours went by and he described the transit systems in various cities throughout the U.S. and the world. Sam was a Republican and after he had been at it for a while a note was sent to him from Bill Gissberg, one of the savviest Democrats on the floor.

The note said if you need to take a bathroom break, I will rise and ask a question long enough for you to be off the floor and return without being called out of order. Sam shook his head. We learned later that Sam was wearing one of those tube things with a rubber bottle attached to his leg. I don’t recall where Gissberg stood on the bill, just that he was a gentleman.

ONE OF THE MEMBERS commented during the luncheon how we missed a lot of old timers who were part of our political lives years ago. We had a lot more real citizen legislators then, and I don’t mean non working or retired people We had people who ran for the office because they sincerely and honestly wanted to serve the public.

They were lawyers and farmers, businessmen and salesmen, people who shared their time of earning a living to serve the public. It was a richly varied pool of talent that was slowly replaced by the demands of time. Lengthy sessions, special sessions and monthly committee meetings diminished the quality of lawmakers

The day of the citizen legislator is just about over and the professional legislator has become the norm. It’s mostly the legislature’s fault. It doesn’t have to take four months to pass a budget and legislators are deliberate procrastinators who drag things out in order to know how much money they can spend. Many bills are intertwined with the budget and used as trading stock for votes.

NO MATTER WHAT kind of time schedule they set for themselves, they can always find a way to get around it. The camaraderie of the old days is gone and good ideas from the wrong side of the aisle are seldom heeded by the power brokers. They’re all decent folks, I don’t mean to say otherwise. The late great John O’Brien, onetime speaker of the House put it like this: “A successful, hardworking businessman will be a successful, hardworking legislator. A bum and a failure in private life will be the same as a legislator.” So choose your lawmakers carefully.

One of the WGAS members gave a little speech in which he said he felt the ghosts of the oldtimers gone but not forgotten were there in the room with us. So did I.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)