John Brummett
Stories by John
Together in hypocrisy
posted: 05/23/2013 4:36 a.m. Comments 5
As you behold the human loss and heartbreak in Oklahoma, you might ask yourself a question.
COMMENTARY: Easy as pie — elect some Rs
posted: 05/22/2013 5 a.m. Comments 4
After Martha Shoffner as state treasurer, Republicans would be a big improvement.
At least for the moment: A maverick sits out
posted: 05/21/2013 4:02 a.m. Comment 1
I was moderating a panel of state legislators last Wednesday and I kept trying to prod House Speaker Davy Carter into saying whether he would seek the Republican nomination for governor.
Of fear and freedom
posted: 05/19/2013 2:37 a.m. Discuss
Most 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.
The art of compromise
posted: 05/16/2013 4:37 a.m. Discuss
“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.
COMMENTARY: Pulled back from the brink
posted: 05/15/2013 4:57 a.m. Comments 8
Just when the Tea Party was about to fade from well-earned absurdity to deserved obscurity, it received the bountiful blessing of the perfect enemy.
Anatomy of a scandal
posted: 05/14/2013 3:37 a.m. Comments 10
All modern American presidents favored with second terms get scandals or pseudo-scandals.
A mother’s essence
posted: 05/12/2013 2:26 a.m. Comments 2
Childhood memories grow a little unclear after a half-century.
Small victories
posted: 05/09/2013 4:36 a.m. Comments 11
You’re actually supposed to pay state sales taxes already on Internet purchases from sellers lacking a physical presence in Arkansas.
COMMENTARY: Hog waste? Want not
posted: 05/08/2013 5 a.m. Comment 1
Now that hogs are in the barn, state regulators are headed to Jasper to hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. today.
Troubled water?
posted: 05/07/2013 3:29 a.m. Comments 6
Central 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.
Runners to your marks …
posted: 05/05/2013 2:32 a.m. Comment 1
An epic political season unfolds in Arkansas. The year 2014 could prove seminal in defining the state’s politics for decades.
Even dressed up, it’s still crass
posted: 05/02/2013 4:27 a.m. Comments 42
If you like Nate Bell, surely you also like Tom Cotton. Both see terrorist attacks on American soil as political opportunities.
COMMENTARY: A challenge to inertia
posted: 05/01/2013 5 a.m. Comments 3
First the disclaimer: This is not an endorsement. Nor is it a testimonial.
Tactical practicalities
posted: 04/30/2013 2:55 a.m. Comments 2
On days when I’m generous, I analyze it as tactical politics.
The rhythm of legislative life
posted: 04/28/2013 2:39 a.m. Discuss
For all the lamentation among the enlightened about setting the state back decades, this legislative session turned out like all the others.
The not-as-embarrassing 10
posted: 04/25/2013 4:31 a.m. Comments 2
To 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.
COMMENTARY: Hogging their attention
posted: 04/24/2013 5 a.m. Comment 1
I’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.
A mean mound of a man
posted: 04/23/2013 3:35 a.m. Comments 5
The greatest threat to the Republican tide washing over Arkansas is its woefully simple-minded and irresponsibly mean-spirited element.
How history is made
posted: 04/21/2013 2:13 a.m. Comments 4
It’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.
New champion for women?
posted: 04/18/2013 4:18 a.m. Comments 10
At 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.
COMMENTARY: Avoiding an apocalypse
posted: 04/17/2013 5 a.m. Discuss
The real challenge all along for the historic new Republican majority in the Arkansas General Assembly has been to avoid apocalyptic meltdown and govern competently.
Transact or transform?
posted: 04/16/2013 2:41 a.m. Comments 2
Former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross will fly around the state tomorrow announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2014.
Where to draw the line
posted: 04/14/2013 2:19 a.m. Discuss
The weirdest legislative session got weirder Wednesday night.
New dog, new tricks
posted: 04/11/2013 4:23 a.m. Comments 4
It was the ablest and strongest performance of policy command and communication I can recall in an Arkansas legislative chamber.
COMMENTARY: The Iron Lady, version 2.0
posted: 04/10/2013 5 a.m. Comments 10
Once 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.
Man, this bill is bad
posted: 04/09/2013 4:23 a.m. Comments 3
I 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.
A tale of two pols
posted: 04/07/2013 2:07 a.m. Comment 1
Other than a gooey and smelly mess, Mayflower presents a couple of political case studies.
Puzzling it all out
posted: 04/04/2013 4:23 a.m. Comment 1
It’s Tuesday morning at the state Capitol, and everyone seems to be warming up for winding down. Metaphors are rampant.
COMMENTARY: Futility, with side of possibility
posted: 04/03/2013 5 a.m. Comments 17
Once, the Equal Rights Amendment’s profound simplicity had momentum.
The value of silence
posted: 04/02/2013 4:24 a.m. Discuss
U. 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.
For 9,031, it’s do or die
posted: 03/31/2013 2:12 a.m. Comments 27
If 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?
High (income) on the agenda
posted: 03/28/2013 3:07 a.m. Comments 16
Here is a simple and straightforward account of an illustrative vignette from your state Legislature on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY: Pryor aims to please
posted: 03/27/2013 5 a.m. Comments 10
We may rest assured that U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor will not fall on his gun for gun control.
A little weekend futility
posted: 03/26/2013 4:20 a.m. Comments 5
For a cold and misting Saturday afternoon outside the state Capitol, a woman had re-engineered her umbrella.
Nipping at his heels
posted: 03/24/2013 2:03 a.m. Comments 7
Be assured that the metaphor is offered by a confirmed dog lover.
You’re doin’ fine, Oklabama
posted: 03/21/2013 4:31 a.m. Comments 6
I 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.
COMMENTARY: Pryors pick the right fight
posted: 03/20/2013 5 a.m. Comments 20
It's Saturday night in Little Rock and U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor's re-election campaign is netting a million dollars at a fundraiser.
Courting the vote
posted: 03/19/2013 4:01 a.m. Comments 9
Mike Ross walked into the Hillcrest neighborhood home of lawyer Nate Coulter last week and faced more than a dozen liberals for nearly three hours.
Who knows? Not us
posted: 03/17/2013 2:16 a.m. Discuss
It’s not sophisticated research. Feel free to try it at home.
Naïve or knowledgeable?
posted: 03/14/2013 3:20 a.m. Comments 19
His 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.
COMMENTARY: More arrows landing
posted: 03/13/2013 5 a.m. Comments 3
Arrows have proven uncommonly useful and popular in this ongoing tragicomedy at the state Capitol.
Cutting in on tax cuts
posted: 03/12/2013 4:09 a.m. Comments 5
Given 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.
Life in the echo chamber
posted: 03/10/2013 3:35 a.m. Comments 29
“Come get my gun if you wish. But don’t dare try to take my slave.”— Thomas Jefferson.
Abusing the system
posted: 03/07/2013 4:01 a.m. Comments 5
Not all issues at the state Capitol are black-and-white.
COMMENTARY: Yum … pretzels of progress
posted: 03/06/2013 5 a.m. Comments 5
We have discovered the mother lode of irony. It runs under the Arkansas state Capitol.
Trinity upgraded to quartet
posted: 03/03/2013 2:16 a.m. Comments 6
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Jason … Why does the Vatican need a new pope when Bigelow has Jason Rapert?
Arkansas all aquiver
posted: 02/28/2013 3:39 a.m. Comments 2
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.
COMMENTARY: Not necessarily futile, maybe
posted: 02/27/2013 5 a.m. Comments 15
Gov. Mike Beebe did the right thing Monday, if for the expedient reason, on abortion.
