Well, you've been waiting all week for this. I finally have the book report for Chapter 5 done! Whew! If you are new to this blog or missed previous book reports please read Intro,
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, before continuing to read.
So now it is time to join me on the front porch, have a cup of sweet tea, in fact take some banana pudding. Bring your own guitar or grab Stella and guitar pick while a write this.
The premise of this chapter is about the Democrat/Republican rivalry that goes on in Arkansas. And how Mike Huckabee overcame that through his political career. As you recall from my previous blogs and if you have read his biography, that he was only the third Republican to be elected Governor of Arkansas since reconstruction.
Mike Huckabee says that it is difficult for a Republican to run for public office in Arkansas. When he ran in the 1992 U.S. Senate race at dinners he was given the worst seat and ignored by the event organizers. He was always at the end of the line in parades.
During this time the Clinton presidential race dominated all the news in Arkansas. State and National media was covering Bill Clinton's campaign. This was the first time that anyone from Arkansas had been a nominee for a major political party in a presidential race. Thus the Senate race didn't get much national coverage.
Dick Morris had been Mike's pollster. How loyal were Mike's supporters? This is what Mr. Morris said to him, "Your voters would swim the Mississippi at flood stage to get to the ballot on election day." They did not believe anything negative that was printed about Mike Huckabee. They knew what he stood for and they stood for the same ideals. If you don't recall from previous he lost.
As stated in my previous reports, after Bill Clinton became President Jim Guy Tucker, Lieutenant Governor at the time, elevated to Governor. Thus there was a need to hold a special election for a new Lieutenant Governor, a spot vacated by Tucker. Mike figured that since he had had a dedicated staff from his Senate race, he would run for this position. He knew that this would be an uphill battle.
Mike knew that many Arkansans would choose to vote for the Yellow Dog Democrat before they voted for a Republican.* The newspapers did not cover him or his campaign. When he would be at parades or events middle age women would make obscene gestures and yell at him.
Mike points to three factors in his victory.
- Learned through experience in the Senate race.
- He had a message of honesty and integrity.
- Took opponents by surprise
There were other politicians at this event. After they took their turns speaking one of the announcers mentioned, "We do have other members here in our audience, including a Republican Mike Huckabee." They didn't even mention that he was the sitting Lieutenant Governor. Many people were upset and embarrassed that their Democrat party would behave that way.
Governor Tucker and Lieutenant Governor Huckabee got along better than Governor Clinton and Lieutenant Governor Tucker got along. The rivalry between Clinton and Tucker went back to 1978. In 1982 Clinton and Tucker were planning on running against each other for Governor. In 1990, thinking Clinton would not run again, Tucker thought he would give it a try to run for Governor. Bill Clinton had called a press conference. Everyone, including Hillary Clinton, thought he would make an announcement not to run for re-election. To every one's surprise, Bill Clinton said "I'm going to run one more time." Sometime after that Dick Morris told Mike that Clinton's plan was to say he would not run again.
After the 1990 election, Clinton was not around much. He was already planning on running for President. Tucker was left to take care of business. He was ticked off at Clinton. Clinton never gave him the vital details to be able to properly take care of things. Clinton also left the state with a huge financial mess.
Tucker and Huckabee got along fine, until 1995. That was when the indictment for Tucker's involvement in Whitewater was handed down. Tucker wanted to look like a tough leader, before going into court.
Three things that Tucker tried doing.
- Change of public school funding.
- Highway construction program.
- Rewrite of state constitution.
For the school districts Tucker wanted to consolidate 311 districts into 35 super districts, adding country schools in with the city schools. Mike said this was a bad idea, since the country schools were doing better than the city schools. In Cabot, Arkansas Tucker was booed off the stage. His idea was unpopular.
In order to get the highway bill passed Tucker had to make promises to the state senators. Mike was told that the senators thought it was a bad idea, but they voted for it to get the things promised to them.
Mike was told that for the constitution convention he and other Republicans would be included in on the plans. When Mike was to speak at a Methodist Church, Tucker called him and told him the inclusive deal was off for the Republicans. Mike alludes this to the fact that Tucker caved into political pressure from the Democrats. This was also about the same time that Mike decided to run for US Senate again. This would be the first time in 18 years that there would be an open seat for Senate.
In December of 1995 the constitution convention failed 80% to 20%. The highway bill failed 87% to 13%. Mike had opposed this also. Due to the fact that it was going to cost too much money. Also, the Republican Party spent $200,000 for him to oppose it on TV.
After these failures, Jim Guy blamed Mike for being the reason these bills failed. Mike says Tucker just got egotistical. He wanted to look cavalier before he went into court. He looked anything but. Political cartoonists portrayed Tucker as a lame duck. After all this the only time the two ever saw each other was for two photo ops.
Leaders have the responsibility to think and to act in the context of their positions. Having been awarded their offices by voters, elected officials in particular must consider the effect their actions will have on others. In trying to pursue his interests instead of those of his constituents, Governor Tucker found that his own people turned against him. Even yellow Democrats had had enough.
In my attempt to butcher the Beverly Hillbillies closing credits, written by Paul Henning and sung by Jerry Scroggins:
- Now it's time to say goodbye and read the next chapter
- I would like to thank you folks for kindly reading this
- You're all invited back again to this blog
- To have a heaping helping of this hospitality
- (Hillbilly that is. Set a spell. Take your shoes off. Y'all come back now, ya hear?)
I will try harder to get these book reports out faster. I will be honest, this one took a while because it was mostly about specific incidents about Jim Guy Tucker and Arkansas politics. I wanted the report to be relevant to Mike's point about character without getting too far off track.The problem with doing a book report on a book written by Mike Huckabee is that he speaks so eloquently that I am afraid that I will either butcher his words and/or not relay the message to y'all correctly.
I have already started my notes on Chapter 6. I will be putting Chapter 6 and 7 together, since they match so closely.
God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!
