Arkansas Blog

Playing Hamlet sometimes pays off.

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Well there ya go! A friend of mine tipped me off to Halter's lack of Pryor Band Wagon joining last week and speculated that Halter is planning a run against Pryor in '08 and every sentence written above confirms it.

I'll be happy to go cast my vote for Bill Halter! Could he be the next Fulbright, McClellan, Wilbur Mills, or Bumpers we've been looking for for so long? My first question to candidate Halter will be to ask if he is FOR or AGAINST TORTURE?

My second question will be about how he feels about Joe Lieberman. And I might ask him if he's in love or in bed with the big credit card companies like Mark and Blanche are. Then I'll congratulate him and Shanti on being such loving and devoted parents and put in an early request for a big Halter for Senate yard sign.

Since the job of Lt. Governor in Arkansas amounts to lots of free whittling time, Halter is in a perfect position to launch a run for Pryor's seat. I think the guy's a winner! Go Halter!

The math simply doesnt add up.

Halter runs from the left? Thats not gonna work in Arkansas, even the primary.
This ain't CT (see Lamont, Ned)

Halter beats a Pryor? Nope. Dont see that happening either.

Halter loves reading his name in the paper? That seems more like it.

I don't think ideology would be a problem for Halter or Pryor, because both are malleable enough to shapeshift into what a pollster would advise. Halter has more experience in winning tough primary campaigns than does Pryor, but his personal finances cannot match up to the well-heeled (both in the money and cock fighting senses) backers.

I might vote for Halter just to make it interesting, but I have to think Pryor would win. Against Huckabee in the general, it would not make much difference who won in how they voted in the Senate, but it would make a difference in who is Majority Leader.

Halter will be making a mistake if he takes on Pryor. A better course is to remain Lt. Gov. and use it as a means to form relationships throughout the state and improve his name recognition.
He could then run against our senior senator Wal-Mart Blanche the part-time democrat.

At this point I am just very thankful to hear someone, anyone, including Bozo the Clown, is considering a run against Pryor. Don't know anything about Halter but DBI is starting out with a few good questions.

V Vega (great name) I can't think of much more than a love of reading his name for Pryor playing a politician? Seriously, why is he in politics? I can't think of many Democrats any further to the right than Pryor, so yes, something to the left would be likely and fer gawds sakes a darn good thing. I do agree this ain''t CT, so lets try not to become CT. Pryor is somewhere between Lieberman and Boozeman with a legacy name.

Anyone have a few links with background on Halter?

and please tell me he is pro choice

Unless he plans to run as a Republican or he knows something about Pryor that the rest of us don't, I can't see how Halter could think this would be a good move. If he runs and loses in the primary - as he probably would - he would almost certainly destroy whatever future he might have in Arkansas politics!

I had never seen anything of Halter except his TV commercials until I saw him last night on Fox 16 news. I was shocked at how plastic and stiff he was -- he can't be much better in person.

Based on looks, personality & charisma alone, Mark Pryor will wipe the floor with him. More likely, Halter will pull a Mike Ross -- use the threat of a primary challenge to earn chits in the party.

You can mark it down now -- Mark Pryor will run against no or only token opposition.

>never seen anything of Halter except his TV commercials until I saw him last night on Fox 16 news. I was shocked at how plastic and stiff he was -- he can't be much better in person.<

I have no idea of how long you've been in town but Senator Pryor would make a nice statue model himself. In public you need to draw a circle around Senator Pryor to notice if he moves, other than flashing his big baby blues around he's soft-spoken boring.

Halter can work a crowd almost as well as Clinton. Mark is, of course, above all that.
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Halter is pro-choice.

I truly hope he does not think it's a good idea to run against Pryor.

Bill Halter once announced that he was going to run in the Democratic primary for Governor in 2006. When he saw the writing on the wall, he made the smart decision by not going head to head with Mike Beebe. I think he will show such wisdom again, and not run against Mark Pryor. However, if he does, he better pack a big lunch. And all of my Democratic friends need to remember that it is guys like Mark Pryor that have allowed us to have a (slim) majority in the Senate. Thanks AT for this great blog!

Boy,

Pryor & Halter on the ballot ain't no betta than Beavis & Butthead.
We folks in Arkansas gotta come up with some betta candidates than we putting in the halls of Congress these days.
Our current roster of Congressional polikticians, besides Vic Synder, ain't worth a heap of cow dung.
And anybody arguing that Halter would be any betta, probly on crack.

Fine and good...let's get Shane Broadway into the lite gov's spot...

I don't know much about Halter. I don't have to at this point because I know a whole whole lot about Pryor and I don't like hardly any of it.

Except for voting with Bush and making a little noise about FEMA trailers which went exactly NOWHERE. Arkansas would have been better off leaving that seat vacant.

Pryor's vote for TORTURE, his vote for the big credit card companies, his silence while Bush has robbed and raped combined with his undying love for warmongering Lieberman finished Pryor for me.

I would actually vote Huckabee over Pryor so at least we'd have a Republican voting like a Republican.

I don't much care if the person who runs against Pryor looks like Walter Brennan or Donnie Osmond, Shirley Walters is a fine looking old gal, but her insides are bad like day old fish.

I'm not hunting for a new best friend, I'm hunting for a Senator with a backbone like J. William Fulbright who will stand on their desk and scream bloody murder when evil is afoot.

I voted for Mark Pryor, we have several mutual friends who said he was a good guy, smart....knew what to do. The only people who are more disappointed in Pryor than me are the same friends who told me how great he was. They're holding their nose too.

Mark Pryor looks like a good boy. But he's either stupid or on the take, nothing else explains his votes and actions.

By the time Bush-Cheney are done, anything right of center will have the appeal of cat vomit. Pryor can be beat because he has pissed off tons of Democrats. About anyone with a nice suit and without a criminal past can knock him off in the primary, and should.

It's time we send an adult to Congress and quit pretending we're getting our money's worth out of who we've got up there right now.

losing a primary to pryor would not kill halter's career. david pryor lost to mcclellan with the most memorable debate i have seen in arkansas politics. showing my age. it seasoned him and improved him for later. i wish wes clark would run for the seat but he seems determined to go national. he would do the country and state a service in the senate but evidently he is not interested. i quietly talked to halter at community bakery early on before the election and came away impressed. i don't know much about his stands and would have to know the same answers as dbi. the same things about mark have sickened me. he seems to have realized he needs to come around lately and try to be a democrat but nothing can wipe away the vote on torture. he did not need to vote yes on that and it must have been to suck up to bush and a better person would not have done that.

Halter, the well-heeled newcomer to Arkansas politics taking on Pillsbury Doughboy Pryor in 2008? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! While he did provide evidence of his political ambitions when he fist announced for governor, who would ever have imagined Halter even CONSIDERING a challenge to a legend in his own time like Pryor?

Allow me to get tongue out of cheek long enough to say that I admire Halter for his gutsy proposal of an Arkansas lottery to help fund college scholarships, and hopefully he will propose additional great ideas to help bring the Natural State into the 21st century.

In the meantime, however, I sho' nuff do wish he and Miss Shanti would leave the baby at home, as did Bill and Hill with Chelsea. Poor little thing, being dragged around to every party in town . and raht cheer in the middle of flu season at that.

>Mark Pryor looks like a good boy. But he's either stupid or on the take, nothing else explains his votes and actions.<

He's nothing like David, for damn sure.
But David Pryor held office in different times, before Religio-Corporate marriage produced today's brand of fundies who fight daily for the Right of corporations to take every penny avaiable from working people while destroying all workers rights. In fact corporations can do as they please in Ark, just so long as gays cannot marry or adopt children, just so long as a black teen girl, raped by her uncle, can't get an abortion. Then that girl and thousands like her are free to step up to any pay-day lender and pledge her next 3 months income for a $375 loan. This is acceptable for Arkansas' fundamentalist Christains. This is their promised Christain Theocracy.
They quit throwing the money lenders out of the Temple long ago, in fact they pledge their honor to Money lenders but never to "the least of these."

These modern time Theo-corporatists is who Mark Pryor serves.
Pathetic.

Just as with Bush, I'll vote for whomever runs against Pryor in the dem primary.

At least Republicans can claim party loyalty for their support of torture.

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And take those babies everywhere! I was flying with mine when she was 6 months old, never missed a restaurant because I was afraid of taking a kid, took her on cruises, etc.

And I got lots of complements on her behavior.

Putting them in public is how you teach them to behave in public, not keeping them at home because you're afraid of some old fart is going to disapprove.

Any Democrat who defends Mark Pryors positions / actual votes should definitely question their complacence and or political affiliation. In addition I would argue that a primary was designed for a challenge, debate, explanation of positions, and past votes etc. As for settling for a Lieber-like Pryor just to have a majority in the Senate, I say BS! He walks like and quacks like an insulated callus neo-nut because he has demonstrated time and again that he is one. Most important, he votes with them! So what the heck kind of majority is that in the long run?

Are Democrats going to sit idly by while neos infiltrate our party looking for cover, just at the time the R party finally gets some long over due scrutiny? If we don't pay close attention to the failings and complacency in the Republican party then we are just as bad. As bad as the Republicans are, we must tend to our own nightmares as necessary.
Of course a sitting Senator is darn near a shoe-in for reelection but they are not kings unless you let them be one.

How does anyone sleep well when they know their vote supported a Senator who voted to cluster bomb innocent civilians? (actually both of our Senators voted that way)

CT was a perfect lesson for AR if we are just willing to face it. Republicans via Rove, Mel Sembler and Lieberman screwed CT Dems and the entire party nationally. Are we going to allow a similar scenario to continue unabated here?

Look no further than Senator Pryors voting record and the Rove installation of Griffin fiasco for signs that Arkansans are a target. We need to wake up and realize we are waving a plastic butter knife in a gun fight.

I'm sick of Pryor too!! I would love to hear about any democrat who will be challenging him.

"Putting them in public is how you teach them to behave in public, not keeping them at home because you're afraid of some old fart is going to disapprove." by: Crazy Horse

I agree if you are thinking PC and not family you're a loser!

In re gallivantin' babies and attitudes, that is, not shutting them up in a back room until they're 38, because "you're afraid . . . some old fart is going to disapprove . . ."
A very good example you did set, I'm sure.
I'm also sure you worked hard on the behavior bit at home. Right?
But how on earth do you teach a six-month-old not to scream throughout a long, long, presumably necessary, flight because her ears hurt?

"But how on earth do you teach a six-month-old not to scream throughout a long, long, presumably necessary, flight because her ears hurt?" by: Doigotta

That's Life!

Well, my GOODNESS, Crazy Horse...season's greetings to you, too!

Love ya lots,
The old fart

I went to school with Mark Pryor and was ecstatic when he won the senate seat. I felt really good, you know? I loved and admired his Dad (still do) and had great hopes that Mark would be another David.

I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said here, but the defining moment he lost me was his vote for torture. I don't like a whole lot of other votes he's cast, too.

Vic Snyder is my current favorite Arkansas public servant, and would love to see him in the Senate.

I don't see Mark ever getting my vote again.

I like Halter just fine. As for him and Shanti taking the baby around ... I think it's great. How do you get a six-month old baby to not scream thoughout a long flight? Ideally you stick her mother's nipple into her mouth. The baby's nursing will "pop the ears" preventing painful pressure.

We take our kid lots of places (fancy-ass jazz concerts, for example) and he has always done just fine, not to mention having great taste in music.

Ah....my ears hurt on airplanes too.......any chance I can get the same cure? Is this a service in 1st class? Ya know....my ears are kinda bothering me right now........Anyone But Pryor in '08!

I can't see myself ever voting for a Republican, but Mark has lost my primary vote, whether it's to Halter or any reasonable alternative.

goddamighty! You perckerwoods would argue with a sign you painted yourselves. Somewhere else, Lwood, I think, was asking about some organization, some getting together to atttempt to stop some of the bullshit we're ALL up to our noses in. If it is true that we each are alloted only so many words in our lives, y'all have wasted a damn truckload over NOTHING. Get your heads out and try to be just a tad constructive for a change. No wonder no one in "power" will admit to knowing this blog exists! Why the hell should they?

Thanks for the plug pollytick but alas, I'm in your list of the condemned for posting earlier on this one.

Here's my post from another thread:

>Anyone have ideas on grassroots organization that we here on the ol' ArkBlog could use?<
Posted by: hugh mann

Hugh I recently rec'd a fwd from Common Cause. It's set up similar to MoveOn. It was for responding to a state-federal issue, popular election of POTUS. It listed hyperlinks to the recipient's particular state Rep and state Senator. You could use a form letter or space was available to write you own message.

I want to know how expensive and how extensive must you get to create something similar to target UNresponsive legislators?

I'm thinking a group of Ark Progressives all connected via internet. How do you grow it?
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Posted by: Lwood

email on Typekey, give a handle on subject line to get into my mailbox.
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"...Get your heads out and try to be just a tad constructive for a change. No wonder no one in "power" will admit to knowing this blog exists! Why the hell should they?"

I'm always amazed when people make such blanket assumptions about things/people they couldn't possibly know a thing about. I'll wager there's a great deal of off-blog, real activism from the Times' gang.

There's a big logical fallacy here.

Eureka and DBI are correct that Mark Pryor is no flaming liberal.

But it is wholly incorrect to assume that Bill Halter is one.

Halter was very quick to repudiate some of the liberal and progressive viewpoints he espoused in the primary while running in the general and has further done so since taking office.

If Son of Pryor cannot afford to be a liberal when running statewide, Bill Halter certainly can't do it--and looking for him to do so if elected is not realistic. Bill's own record has demonstrated this.

Don't give up the hard-fought influence that Mark Pryor has been working to garner for Arkasnas in the Senate.

A moderate Democrat with seniority beats a moderate Democrat without it.