Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Arkansas Politics Open line: Who's trashing Arkansas?
Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 4:10 PM
The line is open. Finishing up with the latest Obama ad on Romney's riches and:
* THE TRASHING OF ARKANSAS. WHO'S PAYING FOR IT? Gov. Mike Beebe didn't back off remarks last night highly critical of the new TV ads by Americans for Prosperity, the Koch Billionaires-founded conservative lobby that is spending a huge sum from undisclosed sources to defeat Democratic legislative and congressional candidates and, now, to run ads depicting the sorry state of Arkansas. By making Arkansas look bad, the ads make Gov. Mike Beebe look bad, a counter to Democratic ads wrapping candidates in the popular Beebe poll numbers. Here's a report on further remarks today in which the governor says this outside group is trashing Arkansas and its people. The central question is unanswered by Teresa Oelke and others paid by the Koch-created organization to help Republicans with their corporate agenda: Who gave the money to pay for these ads? She won't say. She did say the latest TV is a $175,000 in the three congressional districts with Democrats on the ballot. But that's just this buy. And it doesn't count the mail. And bus tours. And social media effort. And paid staff including Reactionary Republican Nate Bell's wife. Again, THE question of the year in Arkansas politics is whether the Kochs are about to buy the state lock, stock and legislator.
* TRAFFIC SNARL ON I-40: In case you wondered, a tractor-trailer rig left westbound I-40 and rolled into Lake Conway overnight. Westbound traffic was routed to a single lane during the afternoon to clear wreckage and that backed up traffic for five miles into the early rush hour. The truck drive didn't suffer serious injuries.
* ARKANSAS'S BOLD MEDICAL PLAN: Stateline, which covers state governments, has one of the deepest explanations I've seen of Arkansas's plan to remake the way reimbursements are made for Medicaid. It enjoys significant support of both insurance and health providers and would put private pay and government pay patients on more or less equal footing. Doctors' fears are noted. Worth a read. Kicker quote from Medicaid director Andy Allison:
Americans have the mistaken idea that more medicine is better medicine. The very clear objective of this initiative is high quality care. Overtreatment is not high quality.
* UPDATE: SPLIT IN REPUBLICAN RANKS: Rick Green of Van Buren, who lost a bitterly fought Republican primary to Bruce "Fireball" Holland in a race for state Senate, tells me today he'll be voting for Democratic Rep. Tracy Pennartz of Fort Smith in the general election. A primary reason, in addition to a number of examples of what Green believes to be Holland's resume padding, was posted this week on Green's Facebook page. Green was unhappy with an endorsement Holland received from a local coach he considered a friend because, Green said, Holland had spread nasty and untrue personal rumors about him during the primary campaign.
I know that politics can be dirty but do we really find it necessary to go that far to discredit someone and their spouse? I hope you we think twice before voting for Bruce Holland for State Senate. By his actions he has proven himself to have little respect for the law and that he will stoop to sickening levels to win a race all of which do not reflect the decent, moral values of the people of Senate District 9
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