IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR …
GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE. He completed another marathon (so did Janet Huckabee), this one the Marine Corps marathon in Washington, D.C., smack in the middle of the media-industrial complex. So what if taxpayers paid to fly him up on the State Police plane (see the Arkansas Reporter).
BILL HALTER. The potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate really has raised $500,000 for a race, mostly from out-of-state pals from his days in the Clinton administration. Still, it portends a primary battle for Attorney General Mike Beebe.
The HOGS. They didn’t lose a football game. OK, they didn’t play a football game. Still.
IT WAS A BAD WEEK FOR …
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. As they seek more money from the state Supreme Court, two embarrassing stories were published by the Democrat-Gazette. One described the growing penchant for high-dollar high school football facilities around the state. The other tallied the surplus funds that many school districts have amassed. There are some extenuating circumstances in both cases, but, on balance, it was terrible PR for superintendents with their hands out.
ASA HUTCHINSON. The Republican gubernatorial candidate proposed a sales tax exemption for power used by steel manufacturers. Oops, they’ve had one for years.
GRADE INFLATION. A UA professor named 42 high schools where, year after year, more than half the students with 3.0 or better grade point averages require college remedial work in reading and math.
STUBBY STUMBAUGH. The Democrat-Gazette rounded up the booze-flavored, profane record of the bumptious Cabot mayor, who is the Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Marion Berry. A couple of divorces and a bankruptcy are one thing; multiple suspensions for misbehavior as a Little Rock cop are quite another. GOP stooge Clint Reed decries this report as the “politics of personal destruction.” Sounds like Stubby is doing the destroying himself, a la his doppelganger, Tommy Robinson.