Senator Goo Goo Eyes

 

Wherefore take unto you

the whole armour of God,

that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,

and having done all, to stand.

                                    -- Ephesians 6:13

           

When one of our daughters was about 2, she developed a very effective way of saying "no." That's a 2-year-old's favorite thing. They say "no" a lot, and they're so darned cute that parents usually let them get away with it unless it's a life or death situation.

 

We practically made up things to ask her to do, just to see her go into her "no" act.

 

She would plant her feet stubbornly in her little tennis shoes, which we called "fop-fops."

 

Her little face would immediately transform from sunny skies to black hurricane force.

 

Her little eyebrows would knit together in one fierce frown.

 

Her little lips would stick 12 inches in front of her face as they formed the word "no" with exaggerated oomph.

 

And best of all, she'd kind of tip her head down, and her blazing blue eyes would stare at us in mock intimidation through her blonde bangs for several seconds, until one of us would finally cave, and say, "OK."

 

Poof! Her face would go right back to sunny skies. She'd go traipsing off to play, her staredown forgotten . . . until next time she needed to say "no."

 

We called that look "The Goo Goo Eyes."

 

Funny thing is, we ALL had better get some these days. We've all been saying "yes" far too much. We say "yes" to the TV too much . . . "yes" to the wrong foods too much . . . "yes" to the temptations of materialism and greed, 'way, 'way too much. And it has come back to bite our nation in the you-know-what, bigtime.

 

Saying "no" goes far beyond protecting our teenagers from the physical and emotional destruction of drugs, alcohol and sex. The inability to say "no" goes all the way to the top in the making of  national policy. Our most elite politicians have demonstrated in recent weeks that they can't say "no" to political pressure any better than Madonna, Paris Hilton and the Octuplet Mom combined.

 

Especially in our nation's economic and political arenas, we need more people with Goo Goo Eyes - self-control and common sense, exercised with passion and persuasion -- to get in there and put a stop to the excessive and outrageous government spending that is threatening our nation's future.

 

They could take a lesson from the life of the late Sen. Edward Zorinsky of Nebraska. He was in the U.S. Senate from 1977-87, and before that, he was mayor of Omaha. Of course, this happened a long time ago and I want to make it clear that I observed him from my stroller (!). But I vividly remember how excited everybody got when he had the door to the mayor's office removed off its hinges to symbolize his commitment to open government.

 

And I really liked his solution to perpetual government overspending, fueled in large part by "featherbedding." That's when bureaucrats ask for budgets that are 'way more than they really need.  It's a game: they inflate their budget requests and expect them to be cut a little, figuring they'll wind up with the amount they want in the end, which is always bigger than they actually need. Usually, though, the lack of accountability allows excessive budgets to be approved, anyway, and so they get 'way more than they need. And that's how we've been saddled with runaway government spending.

 

Zorinsky's idea would've prevented that. It's called "zero-based budgeting." Instead of collecting everybody's budget requests and then going out and getting the taxes to pay for them, the equation is flipped. Bureaucrats are told how much money they are going to get, and it's up to them to make the cuts in their spending to balance out the income and outgo.

 

Too bad Zorinsky died before he could really push zero-based budgeting through. It might've prevented the very crisis we're in now.

 

But the best thing about Zorinsky is that he had a powerful set of Goo Goo Eyes, and he could not be seduced by lobbying. He stuck to his guns despite immense political pressure. Zorinsky kept saying that he was there to represent the people in Nebraska who sent him to Washington to do what was best for them and the country, not to cut deals and try to get pork and bennies for them.

 

Sigh. Think how much better off we'd be in this country if we had more leaders like that.

 

Get this: he was a Democrat, resisting a Democratic President! How we could use that spirit of self-control in Washington, D.C., today.

 

TIME Magazine had a fascinating account of Zorinsky refusing to let President Jimmy Carter twist his arm on a big issue 30 years ago, despite the President pulling out all the stops to lobby him. Carter talked to him personally, had Rosalynn call Cece Zorinsky, and had the Secretaries of State, Treasury and Defense all lobby him, too. The President invited the Zorinskys to a state dinner, had luminaries like Henry Kissinger talk to him, and even had one high official invite Zorinsky to play tennis . . . and let him win.

 

President Carter invited 190 Nebraskans on a guest list provided by Zorinsky to come to the White House to be personally briefed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top State Department people, a heady experience for sure.

 

And after all that pressure . . . all that seduction and cajoling . . . in the end, Zorinsky still voted "no."

 

Read the story here:

 

www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915998-1,00.html

 

Here's praying for our whole country to get the cool head and strong backbone of leaders like Ed Zorinsky. We need to give our public servants the Goo Goo Eyes on all these unnecessary, unsustainable tax increases and spending hikes.

 

We need to say "no," plant our "fop-fops" . . . and take a stand. †