The Week

■ Come now. If half of all Americans are illiterate, how come Bill Clinton only got 43 per cent?

■ The Senate will lose one of its most effective conservatives when Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming retires at the end of his current term. Senator Wallop, favored for re-election, announced that he won’t seek a fourth term because Wyoming voted for term limitation last November. Although as an incumbent he was grandfathered, Mr. Wallop decided to impose the limitation on himself, stating that his constituents “have correctly identified the problem of an arrogant, insensitive government, overbearing and ever-present and strangely unhelpful.” Malcolm Wallop is the latest advocate of limited government to limit his own term of office. In 1990, Senators Bill Armstrong, Jim McClure, and Gordon Humphrey called it quits; Senator Steve Symms followed suit in 1992. The Senate would be a more conservative body if those four senior members had returned. Currently, a third of Congress represents states that have passed term limits. We must hope that the term-limitation movement continues. Otherwise, while principled conservatives bid adieu to Washington, their liberal colleagues will sit tight and accumulate seniority.

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■ Come now. If half of all Americans are illiterate, how come Bill Clinton only got 43 per cent?

■ The Senate will lose one of its most effective conservatives when Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming retires at the end of his current term. Senator Wallop, favored for re-election, announced that he won’t seek a fourth term because Wyoming voted for term limitation last November. Although as an incumbent he was grandfathered, Mr. Wallop decided to impose the limitation on himself, stating that his constituents “have correctly identified the problem of an arrogant, insensitive government, overbearing and ever-present and strangely unhelpful.” Malcolm Wallop is the latest advocate of limited government to limit his own term of office. In 1990, Senators Bill Armstrong, Jim McClure, and Gordon Humphrey called it quits; Senator Steve Symms followed suit in 1992. The Senate would be a more conservative body if those four senior members had returned. Currently, a third of Congress represents states that have passed term limits. We must hope that the term-limitation movement continues. Otherwise, while principled conservatives bid adieu to Washington, their liberal colleagues will sit tight and accumulate seniority.