COMMENTARY Is It SNL Or Arkansas Politics?

— Columnist’s Note: This is an adapted and briefly postscripted version of a post I made last week on my blog at arkansasnews.com. It got enough response, both favorable and unfavorable, to compel me to want to share it with newspaper readers.

Ihappened upon the secretary of state’s debate last Thursday night on the Arkansas Educational Television Network. I found myself transfixed.

It could have been an old Saturday Night Live skit with the late Chris Farley playing overwrought and over-emotive Republican candidate Mark Martin;

Kevin Nealon portraying smug Democratic candidate Pat O’Brien; and Craig O’Neill playing Craig O’Neill.

For some odd reason, O’Neill, the television personality and state toastmaster, was a questioning panelist. He told the candidates he was going to “bring the cheese,” or at least I think that’s what he said, and then he asked each candidate to say something good about the other.

O’Brien, the clerk of Pulaski County, replied that he admired that Martin, a state representative from Prairie Grove, had passion.

That was a quality indeed evident in Martin in this debate, though it was unclear what the passion was for, exactly.

Martin’s answer was brilliant, probably unintentionally. He said he was brought up in a poor remote environment and didn’t have any selfassurance about his politics. He said he envied O’Brien’s self-assurance.

What Martin said, essentially, was that he came from humble beginnings but that O’Brien was an arrogant know-it-all.

They got into it over “leadership” and “management,” as to whether one was better than the other and whether one of them emphasized one and the other the other. But I found as I listened that I did not give a flip-fly what they were talking about. Mainly I was fascinated by O’Brien’s arrogance and Martin’snervous earnestness.

Martin kept saying things that made no sense.

He said the secretary of state needed a “vision of humility.” I think he meant that the secretary of state needs to be humble.

O’Brien has big plans for how to run elections. But our elections are run by county clerks and county election commissions. So I think O’Brien needs more of a vision of humility on that.

Here’s what I’d like to hear from my candidate for secretary of state:

“My job will be to keep the Capitol grounds looking nice and the Capitol building looking nice. So I vow to buy the best lawn equipment and the best cleaning fluids at the best price and to keep the place looking spiffy.

“We also will have responsibility to keep a lotof records. It appears to me the people doing that right now for Charlie Daniels are doing a pretty good job of it, at least to the extent that they’re staying off the front pages, so, unless I see any reason otherwise, I’ll keep ‘em where they are.

“I’m not going to take any state car because I have a personal car that I’m kind of attached to, and, anyway, I really don’t have anywhere I need to go.

“At the first opportunity, I will ask the Legislature to refer to the people an amendment to abolish my office as an elected one and let State Building Services take over the physical maintenance side of my job and let Finance and Administration take over most of the record-keeping and let maybe the Ethics Commission take over some of these election and campaign records I keep.

“This is my vision of humility.”

The postscript: O’Brien plainly has a record of competence as Pulaski County clerk and, his grating mien aside, is the far better choice. But Martin would advance more urgently the case for abolishing the office. He also would bring the more famous name to an office held for many years byCharlie Daniels.

A second postscript: I should apologize for endorsing vehicle-abusing Mark Wilcox over O’Brien in the Democratic runoff for this office. It was my second worst endorsement ever, topped only by recommending Courtney Henry over John Fogleman for the state Supreme Court. JOHN BRUMMETT IS A COLUMNIST FOR THE ARKANSAS NEWS BUREAU IN LITTLE ROCK.

Opinion, Pages 7 on 10/24/2010

Upcoming Events