It was the outrage of the year when the insiders in the Legislature snuck it onto this year's ballot under false pretenses--ethics reform, which always makes good cover. So now it's the smelliest proposition on the ballot facing Arkansas voters election day. There oughta be a law against this kind of fraud on the public. There is such a law for private business: the fair-labeling requirements.
But when it comes to public business, the very officials who are supposed to guard against sneaky operations like this--state legislators, for example--don't just collude in sneak plays like Issue No. 3 but originate them. For their own self-serving purposes.
WARNING: Buried deep in this approximately 22-page proposal (along about its 16th page) is its key clause: an extension of the term limits that voters of Arkansas adopted by a decisive margin and have proudly supported ever since--for the good reason that term limits rein in the kind of career politicians who devise ploys like Issue No. 3.
Term limits are about the best thing that ever happened to the Arkansas legislature and maybe Arkansas politics in general. Just look at the turnover that term limits have inspired in the Ledge, all the promising newcomers they've given a chance, and all the deadwood that no longer burdens the legislative process in this state.
Then look at Issue No. 3--a near-perfect illustration of how public service becomes just self-service for pols who know the well-greased ropes. Pols like Warwick Sabin, a Democratic state representative from Little Rock, and Jon Woods, a Republican state senator from Springdale. Here's one moral of this story: Nothing inspires bipartisanship like the self-interest of politicians in both parties.
Both of these movers-and-shakers, and expert manipulators, should be ashamed of themselves, but unfortunately shame is a scarce commodity indeed among a certain kind of politician--the low kind. And these types always seem to find one another, don't they? And soon enough they're teaming up with at least equally self-serving pressure groups and special interests who rush to support them, and so expand their influence in the Legislature, where in contrast with the state's motto, it is not the people who rule but the politicians.
So much for Regnat Populus--that Latin phrase, proudly emblazoned on this newspaper's front page every day. Maybe it should be changed to Regnat Politicus. That may not be as elegant or inspiring, but it would have the advantage of accuracy. Indeed, of brutal candor.
Oh, the stuff that gets passed in the closing hours of a legislative session in the Great (and unnoticing) State of Arkansas . . . . There's no telling what some of our shiftier legislators will try to put over on We the People while we're diverted by the happy prospect of the Ledge's finally closing up shop and going home at last--so the whole state can breathe a sigh of relief, and the women and children can come out again.
Last year, under cover of the usual last-minute rush to adjourn a regular session, our solons agreed to put a little ol' constitutional amendment on the ballot, one that won't do much of any importance (Quick! Look at that horse climbing the marble steps inside the Capitol!) except, uh, ahem, extend the term limits for state representatives from 6 to 16 years and for state senators from 8 to 16 years. The total time each could serve in both House and Senate combined would then be 16 years, rather than the current 14 years.
But no need to bother your pretty little heads about that minor detail, dear naive voters. You just leave it to the honorables to look out for your interests (or at least their own), and you good people go on about your business. Move on, folks. Nothing to see here. Surely you've got pressing matters to attend to at home . . . .
What an outrage. Also an act of insolence, arrogance and general sneakiness. To top it off, the honorables (that's a title, not a description) wrapped this power grab in a grab-bag of a proposed constitutional amendment called the Elected Officials Ethics, Transparency and Financial Reform Amendment. Talk about unfair merchandising.
There's no telling what a piece of legislation is by its mere title. The more noble it sounds, the more ignoble its aim can be. For when Doctor Johnson, he of the English dictionary, defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, he overlooked the rich possibilities for chicanery offered by words like Ethics, Transparency and Reform.
If this slick maneuver is an example of ethics, transparency and reform, what would trickiness, opacity and a return to the Bad Old Days be?
Even the official name of the proposal on the ballot is misleading, for after disguising its rotten core with a lot of good-government, ethics-reform verbiage, it adds almost as an afterthought that among its many high-sounding purposes is " . . . and establishing term limits for members of the General Assembly." Note the tricky gerund "establishing"--not extending term limits, mind you, but only establishing them. Uh huh. As if they hadn't been established years ago.
Yep, never give the suckers an even break. Never risk letting the public become all too well informed before it votes on a scam.
Naturally enough, like birds of a feather flocking together, namely vultures, Issue No. 3 quickly attracted the enthusiastic backing of those career pols who must yearn for the bad old days when the Ledge was dominated by characters whose word was law--think of Knox Nelson, Paul van Dalsem, and the ever corruptible Nick Wilson, not to mention all-too-colorful eccentrics like the inimitable (thank goodness) Napoleon Bonaparte Murphy.
All those figures from a well-forgotten past threatened to stay in office forever or till the end of the world, whichever came last. And in a time without term limits, they just might have done so.
But at least the state's rising Republican Party, true to the reform legacy of Winthrop Rockefeller, has come out against this attempt to pull a fast one on the people of Arkansas.
But there are still too many self-infatuated pols who oppose not just the present term limits but any at all--like Davy Carter, the speaker of the House, who at least deserves credit for saying so forthrightly.
Sneakier types like Representative Sabin say they accepted the extension of term limits as part of a deal to get the other part of this proposal, all that nice window dressing about ethics reform, on the ballot. Is there no principle, like keeping the public trust, that the Warwick Sabins of the all-too-political world will not betray? He's certainly betrayed this one.
But happily, in a state where We the People still have the final say, the voters are to get the last word come Tuesday, November 4th. So mark your calendar and your ballots (early voting begins Monday, October 20th) and remember to vote AGAINST Issue No. 3. It's the biggest swindle on this year's ballot.
Editorial on 10/12/2014