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Stories by John Brummett

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Of fear and freedom

Subscriber onlyMost weeks, my best 50 minutes get spent standing before a couple of hundred seniors in a “Behind the Headlines” class that is part of the LifeQuest program for active retirees. Continue reading...

The art of compromise

Subscriber only“Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” —Buffalo Springfield The three Republican state legislators who conceived of the private option to Medicaid expansion insist amid scoffing that their now-enacted proposal is genuinely conservative. Continue reading...

Pulled back from the brink

Subscriber onlyJust when the Tea Party was about to fade from well-earned absurdity to deserved obscurity, it received the bountiful blessing of the perfect enemy. Continue reading...

Anatomy of a scandal

Subscriber onlyAll modern American presidents favored with second terms get scandals or pseudo-scandals. Continue reading...

A mother’s essence

Subscriber onlyChildhood memories grow a little unclear after a half-century. Continue reading...

Small victories

Subscriber onlyYou’re actually supposed to pay state sales taxes already on Internet purchases from sellers lacking a physical presence in Arkansas. Continue reading...

Hog waste? Want not

Subscriber onlyNow that hogs are in the barn, state regulators are headed to Jasper to hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. today. Continue reading...

Troubled water?

Subscriber onlyCentral Arkansas likes to brag on its pristine water supply at Lake Maumelle. Residents tell stories of the local tap water winning blind taste tests over the priciest bottled waters. Continue reading...

Runners to your marks …

Subscriber onlyAn epic political season unfolds in Arkansas. The year 2014 could prove seminal in defining the state’s politics for decades. Continue reading...

Even dressed up, it’s still crass

Subscriber onlyIf you like Nate Bell, surely you also like Tom Cotton. Both see terrorist attacks on American soil as political opportunities. Continue reading...

A challenge to inertia

Subscriber onlyFirst the disclaimer: This is not an endorsement. Nor is it a testimonial. Continue reading...

Tactical practicalities

Subscriber onlyOn days when I’m generous, I analyze it as tactical politics. Continue reading...

The rhythm of legislative life

Subscriber onlyFor all the lamentation among the enlightened about setting the state back decades, this legislative session turned out like all the others. Continue reading...

The not-as-embarrassing 10

Subscriber onlyTo seek feedback, I put on Twitter the other day that I would presume in a forthcoming column to declare the top 10 legislators of the just-completed session. I threw out nominees, mostly Republican, and got feedback, believe me. Continue reading...

Hogging their attention

Subscriber onlyI’m at lunch in Rogers, a three-hour drive from the raging insularity of the legislative session. I’m standing in the Elks Lodge before not quite a couple of hundred Benton County Democrats. Continue reading...

A mean mound of a man

Subscriber onlyThe greatest threat to the Republican tide washing over Arkansas is its woefully simple-minded and irresponsibly mean-spirited element. Continue reading...

How history is made

Subscriber onlyIt’s Wednesday morning and the state Senate will vote this day on the spending bill to expand health insurance to the poor with a nationally innovative private option to Medicaid. Continue reading...

New champion for women?

Subscriber onlyAt 9 a.m. Wednesday, I was leading a class of about 200 well-informed retirees. We call it “Behind the Headlines.” I chose to begin by reading an excerpt from a text I had received only moments before. Continue reading...

Avoiding an apocalypse

Subscriber onlyThe real challenge all along for the historic new Republican majority in the Arkansas General Assembly has been to avoid apocalyptic meltdown and govern competently. Continue reading...

Transact or transform?

Subscriber onlyFormer U.S. Rep. Mike Ross will fly around the state tomorrow announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2014. Continue reading...

Where to draw the line

Subscriber onlyThe weirdest legislative session got weirder Wednesday night. Continue reading...

New dog, new tricks

Subscriber onlyIt was the ablest and strongest performance of policy command and communication I can recall in an Arkansas legislative chamber. Continue reading...

The Iron Lady, version 2.0

Subscriber onlyOnce long ago, in 1982, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Clinton sat beside me on a little airplane in flight from the Mount Nebo Chicken Fry to an evening event in Texarkana. Continue reading...

Man, this bill is bad

Just being helpful here

Subscriber onlyI have been urged not to say anything positive about the smart and noble effort led by a half-dozen or so of the state’s best Republican legislators to enact a cleverly innovative private-option alternative to Medicaid expansion. Continue reading...

A tale of two pols

Men of which people?

Subscriber onlyOther than a gooey and smelly mess, Mayflower presents a couple of political case studies. Continue reading...

Puzzling it all out

Subscriber onlyIt’s Tuesday morning at the state Capitol, and everyone seems to be warming up for winding down. Metaphors are rampant. Continue reading...

Futility, with side of possibility

Once, the Equal Rights Amendment’s profound simplicity had momentum. Continue reading...

The value of silence

Subscriber onlyU. S. Sen. Mark Pryor, doing his best Rand Paul impersonation as he seeks to survive as the last Democrat from Arkansas in Washington, is now saying gay people choose to be gay. Continue reading...

For 9,031, it’s do or die

Subscriber onlyIf you had the chance—indeed the power—to save 9,031 lives in Arkansas over six years, would you take the chance? Would you exercise the power? Continue reading...

High (income) on the agenda

Subscriber onlyHere is a simple and straightforward account of an illustrative vignette from your state Legislature on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Pryor aims to please

Subscriber onlyWe may rest assured that U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor will not fall on his gun for gun control. Continue reading...

A little weekend futility

Subscriber onlyFor a cold and misting Saturday afternoon outside the state Capitol, a woman had re-engineered her umbrella. Continue reading...

Nipping at his heels

New day, new dogs

Subscriber onlyBe assured that the metaphor is offered by a confirmed dog lover. Continue reading...

You’re doin’ fine, Oklabama

Subscriber onlyI breezed over to the state Capitol on Tuesday morning and came up with what I believe to be the latest, or near-latest, on Medicaid expansion and tax cuts. Continue reading...

Pryors pick the right fight

Subscriber onlyIt's Saturday night in Little Rock and U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor's re-election campaign is netting a million dollars at a fundraiser. Continue reading...

Courting the vote

It’s all in the game

Subscriber onlyMike Ross walked into the Hillcrest neighborhood home of lawyer Nate Coulter last week and faced more than a dozen liberals for nearly three hours. Continue reading...

Who knows? Not us

Subscriber onlyIt’s not sophisticated research. Feel free to try it at home. Continue reading...

Naïve or knowledgeable?

Subscriber onlyHis name is Tyler Denton and he is one of those bright young Arkansas Democrats who came up through the end days of the Clinton presidency. Continue reading...

More arrows landing

Subscriber onlyArrows have proven uncommonly useful and popular in this ongoing tragicomedy at the state Capitol. Continue reading...

Cutting in on tax cuts

Subscriber onlyGiven the opportunity, modern Republicans can be counted on to do three things. They will restrict abortion, or try, as we have seen in this legislative session. They will propagate guns, as we also have seen. Continue reading...

Life in the echo chamber

Subscriber only“Come get my gun if you wish. But don’t dare try to take my slave.”— Thomas Jefferson. Continue reading...

Abusing the system

Subscriber onlyLITTLE ROCK — Not all issues at the state Capitol are black-and-white. Continue reading...

Yum … pretzels of progress

Subscriber onlyWe have discovered the mother lode of irony. It runs under the Arkansas state Capitol. Continue reading...

Unconcealed anger

Subscriber onlyLITTLE ROCK — This is Arkansas, all right? Continue reading...

Trinity upgraded to quartet

Subscriber onlyLITTLE ROCK — Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Jason … Why does the Vatican need a new pope when Bigelow has Jason Rapert? Continue reading...

Arkansas all aquiver

Subscriber onlyLITTLE 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. Continue reading...

Not necessarily futile, maybe

Subscriber onlyGov. Mike Beebe did the right thing Monday, if for the expedient reason, on abortion. Continue reading...

Swimming against the tide

Subscriber onlyLITTLE ROCK — There probably is a book to be written on the perilous ongoing adventures of 38-year-old Davy Carter, speaker of the state House of Representatives. Continue reading...

The governor takes a stand

Subscriber onlyLITTLE ROCK — Yes, I’ve been rather hard on my old friend the governor the last couple of weeks. Mike Beebe’s passive, philosophy-devoid style of governing in the face of a troglodytic overthrow of reason—not to mention his throwing in on a grocery-tax alliance with the chief troglodyte. . . well, people have told me that it was disrespectfully derisive of me the other day to call him “Mikey.” Continue reading...

Calculating cuts

Subscriber onlyLITTLE ROCK — It may be that we should let sequestration happen March 1 and look for a sunrise on March 2. There, I wrote it. I actually said it out loud two days ago to a serious and indeed rarefied lunch group, one prominent and bipartisan and learned. Continue reading...

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