LEWISTON - Cecil Andrus likes old-school politics and says both the nation and the state could use a good dose of leadership that used to be common in his heyday.

Politicians at both levels are too concerned about perpetuating themselves in office and not willing enough to make the tough decisions to solve real problems.

"The leadership at the national level is almost zero for both political parties," he said. "They are more concerned about (raising money) and being re-elected than what is best for the American people."

The four-term Idaho governor was on hand for the Cecil D. Andrus Statesmanship Award banquet Saturday at the Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston. David Adler, the director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, was the keynote speaker at the banquet that honored Marguerite McLaughlin of Orofino, who served two terms in the Idaho House and nine terms in the Senate.

In Idaho, Andrus laments the state's slide into one-party rule where Republican leadership crushes even its own members for daring to go against the grain.

"It has become a one-party system controlled by a small handful of allegedly powerful individuals who dictate the message," he said. "They don't even allow members of their own party to disagree with the leadership and vote their own convictions."

He notes former Republican Rep. Tom Trail of Moscow was stripped of his leadership position on the Agricultural Affairs Committee and Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, lost the chairmanship of the Transportation Committee after the men dared to challenge House Speaker Lawerence Denney on procedural votes.

"That kind of garbage has got to end if we are ever going to have true Democracy," Andrus said.

He also said both state and national legislators give themselves too many perks like health care and pensions, which the voters back home don't have. Term limits would solve the problem, Andrus noted.

"I would give them two terms in the Senate and an equal number of years in the House and then they are gone," said the longest-serving governor in Idaho history.

But the Idaho Legislature overturned a term limit initiative and a constitutional amendment would be required to institute the concept in Congress.

Andrus also doesn't exclude the press from criticism. He hosted former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., at the Andrus Center in Boise recently to speak about the national debt and his plan, co-authored by Erskine Bowles, to bring it under control. Andrus said the event, centered on arguably the nation's biggest long-term threat, was ignored by the media.

"You people have to step up and participate in the education of the American people," Andrus said of the media. "They don't even know how much $14 trillion is."

Lacking term limits, Andrus said it will take a resurgence of leaders with conviction. One need look no further than the career of McLaughlin to find an example of leadership and integrity, he said. They both started their political careers in Orofino and have known each other for more than 50 years.

"She was without question one of the hardest-working individuals in either political party," he said. "She always ignored the political labels."

Andrus regrets he failed to convince McLaughlin to run for governor.

"I thought she was better prepared than any other person to be governor," he said. "Had she run and been elected she would have been one of the top two or three governors the state has ever known. She has wisdom beyond her years. It takes a unique person to come from a little older lumber town like Orofino to raise to that level. She is a jewel."