LITTLE ROCK — That arrow column a couple of weeks ago went over so well that I’ve decided to reach into the quiver a tad more frequently during this spectacle of a legislative session.
So let us proceed.
Gov. Mike Beebe-You would have to say that he had a good Tuesday.
He announced that the federal government had told him it would go along with just about any danged thing by which those legislative yahoos in Arkansas would extend health insurance to poor people.
So we’re going to put all these poorest folks into these new exchanges, comprising fully subsidized private health plans, rather than on Medicaid.
It could well cost the federal government more for three years, and cost the state more after that.
No matter. These Tea Party types can go home and say they blocked government insurance. (And unwittingly embraced the central tenet of Obamacare, which was mandated private insurance.)
Also Tuesday, Beebe got mad and showed it.
This was at Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Darr, who pulled that silly stunt while Beebe was at the National Governors Association meeting.
Technically the acting governor by antiquated constitutional nonsense, Darr signed a concealed-weapon bill that the governor was going to let become law without signature.
On the downside, Beebe may be forced to take his traditional post-session golfing vacation inside Arkansas for fear of Darr unlocking prisons.
Oh, and the governor vetoed an abortion bill and got cheered in the Capitol corridors by liberals.
Being term-limited, he can survive that.
Lt. Gov. Mark Darr-If you’re going to do an end run, don’t stop. Keep going.
He should have signed that antiabortion bill-the one that Beebe vetoed-while he was engaging in mischief.
But what he ended up doing was pulling a pointless publicity stunt on a little bill while losing his nerve on the big bill.
Yes, you say, but the sponsor, Rep. Andy Mayberry, wanted Darr to let the real governor handle the bill. So Darr’s priority is obliging a colleague rather than protecting a 20-week-old fetus when he had the chance?
What are the Republi-baptists and church ladies to think?
House Speaker Davy Carter-He’s showing leadership. He’s the best hope for enactment of this new variety of Medicaid expansion.
But in order to remain conservative and politically viable in the contemporary Arkansas Republican Party, he will embrace cutting taxes on rich people to the point that colleges and universities likely will suffer.
Oh, well. We’re lucky to have him where he is.
Asa Hutchinson-He can’t be absolutely certain of a free ride to the Republican gubernatorial nomination until we see what kind of magic Carter, who is ambitious, might produce at the session.
Labor and Bill Halter-Both the steelworkers and the communications workers have endorsed Halter for governor already.
But he has not filed for governor.
No one has. No one could, as the ticket is far from opening.
Reasonable and fair-minded people and groups might want to examine the full field and query the candidates before offering endorsements. This may be why people aren’t taking the labor movement and Halter all that seriously.
Halter is going for broke in a contracted and more liberal Democratic primary.
Mike Ross-He polls 11 points better than Halter against Hutchinson in a new Talk Business-Hendrix College poll.
People say he is about ready to announce for the Democratic nomination for governor.
But he still won’t return my calls.
He did send a text the other day to a man I was talking with at the time. So there is indirect evidence of life.
Bret Bielema-He got quoted the other day relating some of his culinary talent. It had to do with cutting pieces of sirloin steak and stuffing these pieces with feta cheese and marinating them in olive oil and garlic, then flash-frying them.
I suspect Bubbas across Arkansas will now try this.
Rural volunteer fire departments should stay on the alert.
John Brummett’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.
Editorial, Pages 15 on 02/28/2013