Let's begin with a disclaimer. Occasional reader responses accuse me of getting tiresome with my diatribes of dislike against our governor.
My response is that it's not a matter of dislike, but of relevant public commentary. My essential diatribes will stop when Sarah Sanders' outrageousness stops compelling them.
For example:
She decided last week she needed to veto some bills to show she was holding the line against intrusive government and big spending. She isn't doing that at all generally and is barely doing it at all with these four silly, spiteful little vetoes.
They're for show. They're all about her essence, which is talking-point facade.
And they're to show who is boss. She flicked away a couple of Democratic legislators uppity enough to propose helpful small-focus laws. She saved fewer dollars than legislators get in per diem for driving to Little Rock to drop by legislative committee meetings between sessions and scan an agenda before heading to lunch.
Let's take a look at Sanders' four vetoes and the pointlessness at the heart of each, bearing in mind that, to get passed in the first place, these now-nixed bills needed to appeal to scores of Republican legislators. And you know how they are.
Sanders vetoed a bill by Rep. Nicole Clowney of Fayetteville, a Democrat, which would have established a state licensing process for behavior analysts who assess and provide services for those with disorders such as autism. The bill was borne of interim study and based on a stated need to bring licensure and services closer to home rather than force those with complaints to take their cases to a national licensure agency. Sanders said the bill duplicated the regulatory process with its red tape. Clowney said the bill emphasized local convenience and responsibility rather than national. Until now, that had been a stated desire of the governor.
Sanders vetoed a bill by Rep. Andrew Collins of Little Rock, a Democrat, to establish a heart attack task force in the Health Department, which was agreeable, to focus health improvements on a disproportionate killer in Arkansas, much as an anti-stroke initiative was undertaken a few years ago, heart attack and stroke being the main ways Arkansans get seriously ill and die much too early by national comparison. There was no new spending, just a greater focus. Sanders cited more duplication, which is a word she seems to confuse with improvement.
We should not say that these vetoes indicate that our governor does not care about heart attacks and autism. That's surely not so even if it kind of looks like it.
Sanders vetoed a Republican-sponsored bill to increase by a few dollars the stipends paid to members of the state Corrections Board for meetings and state business. It's a comparative pittance in the context of the state government treasury. This one doesn't offend so much meritoriously as in its insignificance. It's like saying you've drawn the line on household utility bills by checking for pennies beneath the cushions.
Finally, Sanders vetoed an unfunded appropriation on prison covid costs, declaring covid over and herself committed to individual responsibility on dealing with such things. So, she stopped dead in its tracks spending that wasn't happening. And she seems to be saying that, should a covid variant arise that is the deadliest yet, Arkansas citizens, certainly those in prison, should breathe away on each other.
If only she'd been around back in the day to veto sneeze guards on salad bars. And hairnets for chicken-plant employees. And targeting penalties in football.
Sen. Bart Hester, the president pro tem of the Senate, says there'll be no effort to override these vetoes. He's on record saying his job is to make sure Sarah gets everything she wants because legislators are afraid of her. But, in a real legislative assembly with competent independent people in it, no legislative leader could speak for everyone in saying no override attempt would be made.
Legislators in many other states are covered by the federal constitutional right of free expression.
No override effort would pass--that he could say.
Here, then, is my sincere hope that our governor will go on a civic club tour giving the same speech over and over and holding a few staff or cabinet meetings to give the appearance of attention to business.
If she'll do less, I'll write about her less. And all of us will be better off.
John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.