Let’s delve into the Governor’s Mansion brouhaha, which of course is not a big issue in the grand scheme.
But it may be revealing of attitudes, both the first couple’s and ours.
I find it interesting, for example, that Hillary Clinton wanted in the late 1980s to have a swimming pool installed at the mansion. Political consultant Dick Morris told her it was a blamed fool notion politically.
That’s the same person of tin political ear — the one who wanted to build a swimming pool at the governor’s residence in Arkansas and the one who kept her emails off the government server as the federal secretary of state.
So let’s examine the latest.
The Hutchinsons, Asa and Susan, hold the view that the Governor’s Mansion is their home for a while, and is a mess.
They accept that other first families have left their admirable mark — Janet and Mike Huckabee by getting built that spectacular great hall and Ginger and Mike Beebe for acting as gracious hosts in turning that hall into the state’s leading, indeed hyperactive, charity function venue.
But the Hutchinsons say the facilities are beset by rats, wiring problems and leaks. They would like the unilateral authority to make the place ship-shape without having to deal with a Mansion Commission including disagreeable political appointees left over from the last administration.
It’s politically risky to undertake improvements at one’s taxpayer-provided residence with yet more taxpayer dollars. That’s probably why other governors have not undertaken them. The Hutchinsons say they are willing to do the job not only for themselves, but for the good of occupants who come after, indeed for the good of us all.
Critics, on the other hand, say repairs and improvements are fine, essential, but that the very idea of the Mansion Commission is to balance the public role of the building and grounds with the first family’s private needs. They say the commission can and should insulate the first family against criticism for what otherwise would be unilateral expenditures seen as self-serving.
So critics say the Hutchinsons ought to identify repair needs and other improvements, prioritize them with the urgently basic ones first, put any strictly personal and optional preferences at the bottom, then deploy the same kind of political skill that Asa used to pass the private option to get the Mansion Commission to sign on as a partner.
But by gutting the Mansion Commission, critics say, Hutchinson deprived the public of any rightful say in decisions about a public facility. They say it smacked of arrogance. They say it was a case of political power being used to assert personal control over public property.
So that’s pretty much the size of it, except that, at the risk of gender stereotype, we ought to stipulate that this is not Asa’s deal.
He has other things on his mind. This is his wife Susan’s thing. But that makes it his thing.
I’m told the governor was directly involved only to the extent that he asked the Mansion staff to slow its rate of spending from the monthly allowance. The Beebes always turned back money from that allowance. Susan’s staff has been running through it like the bus in the movie Speed.
Susan is said to be stressed by the prospect of the pace of public-event hosting engaged in by the Beebes. And she is said to be not as adept as her husband in deflecting criticism and responding to resistance.
She doesn’t want that great hall used for constant weekend events. She wants family time. She may not be altogether a “people person.”
So here is one man’s attempt at a fair and balanced judgment:
• The Hutchinsons are right that repairs and structural improvements are needed, and they are to be commended for tackling the problem.
• They should have prioritized those needs by urgency and enlisted the Mansion Commission as a shield and valuable ally, not stripped it of power.
• The Hutchinsons should respect the public appeal and service of the great hall and keep it busy, in part because events raise money for the mansion.
• The Hutchinsons absolutely should not have sought and accepted a state grant of a million-plus dollars that included a 72-inch flat-screen television and a thousand-dollar commode. A rat infestation is one thing. But presumably you’re not going to flush rats down a designer toilet or invite them to watch the Hog game.
Finally, regarding the first lady’s taking a shine, so to speak, to a donated sculpture that was so bright it ignited mulch on a hot and sunny day …
Only as the last priority, after everything vital has been done, should the first lady undertake even the notion of spending more than $100,000 in state grant money to suspend the sculpture over a new reflecting pool, and then only if a majority of the commission could be persuaded the project wasn’t so tacky as to command the expense of removing it when the next first lady moves in.
The public space should never be given over to anyone’s singular personal taste.
If Susan wishes to display the sculpture in the Hutchinsons’ upstairs bedroom, that would be fine.
Absent any of that, the only other option would be to relocate to a secure condominium or gated neighborhood any first family finding the mansion unsuitable, then to open the mansion to public gatherings and meetings and historical tours under the supervision of a professional manager who would reside on the property.
John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was inducted into the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame in 2014. Email him at [email protected]. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.