Saturday, March 9, 2013
Dear Otus,
What’s this I read about Lt. Gov. Mark Darr cancelling daylight saving time in Arkansas? Can he do that?
Dear Shanti,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and a further pleasure to explain the arcane inner workings of Arkansas constitutional law.
The short answer to your question about Lt. Gov. Darr is, “Yes, he can.”
The longer answer is that he can do it only under certain highly restrictive circumstances as dictated by a provision in the 1874 Arkansas Constitution that dictates the lieutenant governor becomes the acting governor whenever the governor travels beyond the state boundaries.
Naturally, in 1874 the modes of transportation were far slower and means of communication were limited. The provision was inserted in the Constitution to ensure that the state would not be without a chief executive for an extended period of time.
Critics say that in this day and age, the provision is antiquated and unnecessary.
That, however, did not stop former Lt. Gov. Win Paul Rockefeller from approving in 2003 the highly controversial special license plate honoring the Boy Scouts when Gov. Mike Huckabee was out of state at a national Republican function.
And there’s the infamous 1993 affair when Senate President Jerry Jewell granted pardons and executive clemency to convicts when Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was out of state to attend Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration.
It has been a decade since governors have had to watch their backs, but now we have a Democratic governor and an ambitious, calculating, savvy Republican lieutenant governor in Darr. He’s a rising star in the party and has no qualms about taking advantage of every opportunity to keep Gov. Mike Beebe on his toes.
Beebe had no such problem with former Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, but since Darr eked out a win over opponent Shane Broadway (51 percent to 49 percent) in 2010, his aim has been transparent - the insurance agent and Mad Pizza restaurateur intends to take on Democrat Sen. Mark Pryor in 2014. Pryor is running scared.
Darr first exercised his constitutional prerogative last month while Beebe was in Washington at the National Governors Association conference. Darr, claiming Beebe “was a wuss” by not upholding gun rights, signed into law a bill closing concealed handgun records to the public via the state Freedom of Information Act.
Darr’s action took Beebe by surprise. Once he returned to the state, Beebe said Darr “embarrassed himself” and that it was “totally inappropriate for him to sign it.”
“I always thought we had a pretty decent relationship,” a visibly angered Beebe said. “Obviously, I’ll be much more careful. You can’t turn your back now … and so, people that are going to do stuff like that you have to watch, you can’t turn your back on them.”
Darr responded by saying, “Beebe’s not the boss of me.”
But Beebe turned his back on Darr last Monday when he traveled to Memphis to address a two-hour luncheon meeting of the board of directors of the Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization in the historic Hernando Desoto Room at The Peabody hotel. Beebe had hoped the meeting, dealing with the planned steel plant near Osceola, would be kept secret.But word leaked out and the crafty Darr was prepared.
You might recall that Arkansas governors are required to wear a GPS tracking device (the so-called “Clinton LoJack Law”) in a state flag lapel pin ever since it was revealed that Bill Clinton would disappear for hours on end. Every six minutes, the device sends the governor’s coordinates to the office of the lieutenant governor and the State Police.
Last Monday, once the device reported Beebe’s location at N 35 degrees 07.03, W 89 degrees 58.16, Darr knew the governor had crossed the midpoint of the Mississippi River and was officially out of the state. Darr sprang into action, called a news conference and banished by executive decree daylight saving time in Arkansas as “a stench in the nostrils of God.”
Until next time, Kalaka notes that Beebe plans tore-establish daylight saving time next spring when Darr’s measure expires.
Disclaimer Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail: [email protected]
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