LITTLE ROCK — I do believe that businessman Jim Keet may have gone quite bonkers.
Keet is the Republican nominee for governor who one poll recently said was running only nine points behind Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe despite comparatively limited campaign funds.
Keet, a former state representative, spoke from the courthouse square in Harrison last week. I listened as he said that, if he’s elected governor, he’ll cut his own salary by 20 percent as well as the expenses of his office, and he’ll do so on the very first day in office. Yep, I heard him say it with my own ears.
He went on to say that because our state government has grown so bloated, he’d make sure that the number ofstate employees working on the day he takes office is exactly what that number will be four years later, and he’d organize a group to aggressively ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in state government.
Keet also told thecrowd that he’d sell the expensive state airplane used by the governor and put that money back into the public treasury.
Wait just a minute now. How could any self-respecting governor get by without a new, taxpayer-funded airplane at his disposal? Surely we recall how much former Gov. Mike Huckabee enjoyed his version (without ever documenting all the places to which he was flown in it).
Does candidate Keet not understand the age of governmental hyperentitlement he’s living in? Doesn’t he realize that he’s not a lawyer and has never been the state’s attorney general?
How could any red-blooded Arkansan voter even consider supporting such outlandish ideas in such an exciting era of rushing toward national bankruptcy?
To the woodshed
Elliott West, who was identified as a distinguished professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, recently took me to the verbal woodshed for reporting on an address given by Texas David Barton, the man many know as “America’s historian.”
Barton was in Little Rock three weeks back to share some black American history with a gathering of the Arkansas African American GOP Caucus. I took note of some points he made about the little-known yet vitally important contributions of many black Americans going back as far as the American Revolution. Most folks in the room seemed astonished by his revelations.
The distinguished professor took issue with much of what I reported, concluding his guest commentary this way: “I am not suggesting that in his talk David Barton was in error on anything. It would be irresponsible to do so without a clear account of what he said. Before writing about what was supposedly said, that is, I would have to check facts. Mike Masterson ought to give that a try.”
Whoa, ouchy! Such a scholarly scolding at the hands of a distinguished academician for my supposedly undistinguished column!
I feel certain that West will be tickled pink to know that because I expected just such blowback, I did infact have Barton carefully check each of his points in my column before it was published. Turns out Barton approved of my account with only a couple of minor revisions.
Somehow I just knew from the way our nation istoday that some folks would be waiting to pounce. Just look what happened. This being the case, I believe that if West has an argument with the historical accuracy of these points, his distinguished flap rests with the man who checked them, David Barton. As for me, well, shoot, I’m still just an undistinguished yokel from the Ozarks.
At long last
It took Mike Anderson about two years, but he finally got his hands on it. He received the photograph of him sharing a moment with the Dalai Lama in a Colorado hallway.
Anderson, who spends his days and nights managing the Outback Steak House in Springdale, used part of his vacation that summer to accept a friend’s invitation to join a security detail for Tibet’s most holy leader.
I always believed Anderson when he told me that he’d been photographed with the spiritual leader. The picture of them somehow had been misplaced in Colorado. But finally it turned up and arrived into Anderson’s grateful hands.
That’ll be one photograph that a Springdale restaurant guy will find worth framing.
Ponder this A thought to mull in a rocking chair on a porch with a tall glass of iced tea: Truth is readily expendable for those who become committed ideologues and therefore intent on pushing largely unpopular agendas by any means (or words) necessary.
Is that what’s meant by taking the Machiavellian approach?
Mike Masterson is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest edition.
Editorial, Pages 17 on 07/24/2010