Crossposted from BlueArkansasBlog.com
This coming from Max Brantley:
Another bit of evidence on the Halter-may-run theory is the near-instantaneous reaction to Berry's gibe from Halter's political spokesman Bud Jackson:
Congressman Berry’s comments are not surprising to us. After all, he did not support Halter’s campaign for lieutenant governor which beat the insiders and has now resulted in a scholarship lottery that will help thousands of Arkansans afford a higher education.
If getting under the skin of the insiders is the price for helping Arkansans, he’ll do it time and time again. Should he run for federal office Arkansans can look forward to more of the same because Washington is broken and it needs more people like Bill Halter who aren’t afraid to stand-up to special interests and insiders.
These words were in reaction to Marion Berry's comments about Halter. This isn't the kind of talking a spokesman gives if Halter is leaning towards not running. These are fighting words. I was starting to wonder if Halter had the will to run, but these kind of reactions show something is up in the Halter campaign.
And by the way, what is with all the hate for Halter on the Democratic establishment side. I understand that he ran for Lt. Gov. when he wasn't "supposed" to, but Arkansans could care less about that. So, instead you have to make up issues and try to play "gotcha" with things like the Lt. Gov.'s staff numbers? Really? I noticed that Max Brantley said that Halter was tooting his own horn when the Scholarship Lottery passed yesterday, but did anyone in the Democratic establishment bother to give credit where credit is due? No. They would rather act like Halter never existed and try to take the credit for his plan. They even tried to blame the pay scandal on him when he warned them in March about the issue and they ignored him.
Senate, House Panels Advance Lottery Bills - March 18, 2009
Halter also said the legislation would allow the lottery’s executive director to be paid nearly $500,000 a year, which he said is "over the top."
Wills said the legislation sets a salary for the director of $141,603 but allows a legislative oversight committee to multiply the salary by up to 2-1⁄2 times, which would bring the maximum to about $354,000, not $500,000. A follow-up bill, now in shell form, will clarify that point, he said.
So when the story broke in summer, guess what happened? Many blamed Halter for the salary that got put near $350,000 by the oversight committee. People who disliked Halter jumped on this as an opportunity to attack him, despite the facts of the issue. The point of this is not to attack Wills for the displacement of the blame, that happens a lot in politics. The point is that so many were willing to jump on that without a factual basis to back up the claims. If Halter does jump in, we should be ready for these kinds of baseless attacks, because when you hate someone, you don't have to know that the attacks are true or meaningful to repeat them verbatim.
Crossposted from BlueArkansasBlog.com
If you want to help make sure Bill Halter does jump in, sign up here:
http://drafthalter.com
And/or sign MoveOn's petition:
http://pol.moveon.org/...
And join the facebook group here:
http://www.facebook.com/...