Constitutional Convention

FOR THE first time in more than 30 years, Ernie Kent won't be around when the General Assembly convenes. She'll be a "snowbird," taking in the warmth of Florida while wondering how her old colleagues in government and the Maryland Chamber of Commerce are doing. Ms. Kent isn't a household name. But she has played a quiet role in and around Maryland government for three decades. She's one of those silent heroes with an institutional memory and a grasp of government detail who makes the process work.

ZIMBABWE is going downhill as though plunging over its own Victoria Falls, but it has a chance to get a grip and stop the slide. That is this weekend's parliamentary election and depends on the willingness of President Robert Mugabe to let the popular will prevail. But there is little sign that he will. Opposition politicians have been murdered, voters intimidated, half the foreign observers banned. The 76-year-old Mr. Mugabe, in power since 1980, seems bent on destroying his country to perpetuate his possession of it. Known previously as Rhodesia, the landlocked country of 12 million people attained recognized independence two decades after most of Africa and gained majority black rule before South Africa.

NEW YORK -- What's it all about, this brawl in Washington? Some think it is about punishing an adulterous and mendacious president. Others think it is about protecting the democratic process against a vengeful attempt to undo a presidential election. Perhaps a historical perspective may have its uses -- not that historians are wiser than anybody else (they aren't), but they are more professionally inclined to look at the long-term impact on our constitutional order.The Framers reserved impeachment for officials charged with "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Less SmokeEven with exemptions from the compromise bill announced March 28, Maryland has taken a giant step toward safer work places free of involuntary exposure to second hand smoke. Gov. Parris Glendening came out smelling like a rose. He demonstrated real leadership by taking a position that was not politically easy -- because it was the right thing to do.We know the governor got the best deal he could from this General Assembly, which threatened a veto override.Marylanders are upset with legislators, primarily because they insisted on including restaurants among the list of exemptions to the smoking regulation.

There is a lightness in his step as former state Senate President James Clark Jr. walks about his Ellicott City farm these days.The goal he has pursued for 20 years -- passage of a federal balanced budget amendment -- seems nearly within his grasp. "It's center stage, isn't it?" he says proudly.Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time passed a bill calling for the amendment. The measure goes to a Senate vote today, and a close vote is expected.Even if the measure fails today, it is considered to have a good chance of passing later.

Philadelphia, 1787 -- THE SUMMER-long Constitutional Convention ended Sept. 15, and now it's up to the states to decide whether to ratify the document that sets up the government. However, this momentous event is being upstaged an unprecedented probing by the media into the personal lives, finances and other matters related to many of the key players of the fledgling government. Following are just some of the stories reported during and after the convention:* Evangelist Pat Robertson's Christian television news service reported that 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin had intimate relationships with French and English ladies -- both inside and outside the nobility -- during the inventor's stint as an envoy for the young revolutionary government.

A federal district court judge in Seattle ruled this month that Washington state may not enact a law that would, in effect, limit the terms members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate could serve.Voters in the state approved an initiative in November that would forbid the state from listing on the ballot a candidate for representative who had served for six of the previous 12 years. The same initiative forbid the listing of a Senate candidate who had served in that body 12 of the previous 18 years.

"THE CONGRESS, . . . on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments to this Constitution." -- Article V.The Montana legislature is expected to vote this week on such an application for a Constitutional Convention.Some Montana journalists say they think the legislators will kill the resolution. A number of individuals testified during hearings that the state shouldn't be a party to calling a convention. Though the resolution before the legislators says the constitutional convention could only consider a balanced budget amendment, some people are afraid of a "runaway convention."

This is the 52nd presidential election.The first was held in February, 1789. It was unlike presidential elections today. There were no parties, so no party nominees. In fact there were no presidential candidates. There was no campaigning, and there were very nearly no voters.Then as now, electors cast the actual votes for president. But unlike now, only four states allowed ordinary citizens to choose those electors. The other states gave their legislatures all or most of the power to select electors.

THIS IS NOT just Memorial Day. It is also the 215th anniversary of the opening of the first Constitutional Convention.First? Yes, now that the Archivist of the U.S. and Congress have validated the proposition that state actions to amend the Constitution are everlasting, the second Constitutional Convention is a certainty.What the archivist said and Congress voted overwhelmingly to endorse was that state ratifications of congressionally proposed amendments to the Constitution never expire.