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Welcome back, Asa Sunday, Feb 24, 2008 By John Brummett There aren't many statewide offices left for Asa Hutchinson to lose. He's taken failed shots at U.S. senator, governor and attorney general. Surely he doesn't have designs on running for anything in Arkansas again. Anyway, there's big money to be made from cashing in on having been highly placed in the very first federal Homeland Security Department. Let's say some company has a new device that will detect anthrax through an envelope. This company could put Asa on its board. It could hire him as a consultant. In turn he could tell the company the best way to negotiate this massive, still-young agency, for permits or whatever. If this keeps somebody from getting poisoned, fine. If Asa gets rich, that's also fine. A man who loses that many elections deserves some happiness. But Asa, it turns out, has not gone away. In the last couple of weeks, he has burst out all over the news. First somebody leaked that he's heading a committee at the state Republican Party to try to plot strategy for the elections in 2010. Then he co-wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Times about how people using crack cocaine ought to get treated to the same prison sentences as people who use powder cocaine. This apparently was a class issue. Then the other day Hutchinson had a little Voices page essay in the Little Rock paper about how we - by which he means Gov. Mike Beebe - shouldn't be in this mad rush to raise the severance tax on natural gas just because they're finding a lot of it in north-central Arkansas. And do you know what I say to that? Just this: Welcome back, Asa. Good to hear from you again. Asa always was about the smartest one around in the Arkansas Republican Party. I remember in 1986 when he bested Dale Bumpers in a debate. Then Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives saw him as a good choice to present the impeachment prosecution of Bill Clinton. He's simply run against too much of the grain, as a Republican in a Democrat state, and an extremely conservative, introverted one at that, not at all like Mike Huckabee. Beyond that, he always managed to run when there was a big Democratic sweep coming. But goodness knows the state Republican Party needs help. The current chairman says the party was set back 20 years by the last elections, and it was way behind even before that. It's ceding Mark Pryor's re-election. Barring a new generation, which has not presented itself to the state Republicans, Asa is still the most competent Republican around to try think through, and work through, a plan. The other factor is that somebody in this state needs to mount a loyal opposition to Gov. Mike Beebe. Power unshadowed and unchallenged is not a healthy thing, no matter who you are. Beebe has co-opted state Republicans and charmed the state Capitol press corps. Yes, I include myself. I've been chummy with Beebe for 25 years. I touted him for the office he now holds. I predicted he would be a spectacular governor, thought that was kind of an abstract thing, since I always figured he'd never run for it or make it. That I turned out to be absolutely correct is no reason to give this guy a pass, especially when he starts talking about raising the severance tax without having made a strong case directly to the people. Republicans certainly can't count on Sheffield Nelson, once the state GOP co-chairman with Asa. Nelson is to the left of Beebe on the severance tax issue. He and Beebe are going to negotiate an alliance, I predict. It appears that Asa has decided it's his responsibility to provide that loyal opposition, or at least help his pitiable party provide it. Asa happens to be wrong on most issues, and especially the severance tax, in my view. But it won't hurt Beebe - and in fact it would help him and, more to the point, the state - if he was forced to answer pointed questions about what he's doing. Beebe tends to treat governing as an inside operation, seeking private compromise and consensus with business people and legislators. He's good at that kind of politicking; it distinguished him for two decades in the Legislature. But if Asa's loyal opposition forces Beebe out toward greater public accountability, that's all to the good. --- John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699. |
