Huckabee’s final grade
Posted on Monday, January 15, 2007
An editorial last week bore such a
somber tone, with such effusive
praise and highly ornamented language, I was afraid for a moment that we might have lost the former governor. Fortunately, it was just another gushing hymn of boundless adoration. Mike Huckabee, Arkansas’ poster child for clean living, is doing just fine and ready for his final evaluation. The Huck gets high marks for education reform, although that is not entirely his doing. The state Supreme Court held a loaded judicial revolver to the head of lawmakers and chief executive alike. The situation is very much like that in the days of former Gov. Bill Clinton when the Alma School District sued on the theory that state education money was not fairly distributed. The special session of 1983 created new standards and imposed a 1-cent sales tax for public schools. In the Clinton era, there also was the specter of a rapidly improving Mississippi, which had just enacted its own school reform package. Arkansas must never cede 49 th place to our neighbors across the Big Muddy.
Today we have Lakeview, and Huckabee had plenty of help in the General Assembly. Still, for the most part, he stuck to his guns.
There are today fewer than 300 districts, which, in the longer historic perspective, is a significant accomplishment. The late former Gov. Sid McMath used to tell about the early 1950 s when there were more than 1, 200 school districts in 75 counties.
Public school policy is one of those things best judged over a long time line, and today Arkansas is approaching the national average in many measurements. Huckabee is not the only person responsible, but he must get a share of the credit. Give him a good old-fashioned A for the schools. Let us hope Gov. Mike Beebe does half as well.
McMath was also heard to recount his 1948 campaign for governor in which he claimed that some small communities could be reached only on horseback. Highways are a continuing priority in this rambling, rural state. Because of Huckabee’s intelligent leadership, our interstates have gone from among the worst to some of the best. Transportation is his highest grade, A +.
Huckabee loves to brag about ARKids First, and there is congratulations to go around there, even for some legislative Democrats. The former governor will probably not be bragging about the new state computer system, but everybody is entitled to one costly blunder.
Then there is the troubling matter of Wayne DuMond, which is Huckabee’s Watergate. The lack of veracity in this case is the scandal. Heck, why will Huckabee not just admit that he, like most of us at the time, thought DuMond had been railroaded by that colorful and controversial character of Arkansas politics, the late St. Francis County Sheriff Coolidge Conley ? The infamous Conley kept DuMond’s testicles in a jar on his desk, and Huckabee led the charge to get some leniency for what appeared to be an innocent man. I am right there among those who have been stunningly deceived. Huckabee’s unwillingness to take responsibility for this well-intentioned error in judgment is a mark against him.
The former governor’s numerous acts of executive clemency, especially in the instance of convicted murderers, did a lot of harm. How are jurors to sentence known killers to life without parole when “life” may end up meaning something vastly different ? He gets a D in criminal justice.
It would, however, be a mistake to overlook the strength of character it must take to lose more than 100 pounds. Huckabee compounds his “man of steel” status by running marathons. He makes us fat boys look bad and earns an A in physical education. We also must consider the frequent, peevish, petulant fits of pique, and there is that awful tangle of PACs, gifts, contributions and cozy financial relationships, which are indicative of a careless disregard of public trust. The current governor should note that it is not enough to be merely honest. Huckabee is certainly not corrupt, but the people have an absolute right to expect their officials to scrupulously behave in such a way as to inspire confidence. The nuns used to call this last line on the report card “Conduct,” and Huckabee gets a D. So Mike Huckabee, former governor and current presidential hopeful, has earned, for his composite score, a solid C. That’s no more than average.
—–––––•–––––—Free-lance columnist Pat Lynch has been a radio broadcaster in Central Arkansas for more than 20 years.
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