Defining Moments: Historic Decisions by Arkansas Governors from McMath through Huckabee

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE Once to Every Man and Nation, comes the Moment to Decide. —JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL The idea of examining a defining moment for each of Arkansas’s governors over the past sixty years has always intrigued me.I first thought of it in terms of John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer prize– winning book,Profiles in Courage. The evolution of that concept over the years, having mulled it over and massaged the idea, has been to expand the notion to include moments when a governor was confronted with a significant decision with severe political ramifications and made his choice, rightly or wrongly. History, of course, will be the judge of that. But the true mettle of us all is best determined by how we deal with an issue that threatens our security, political or otherwise. In the case of this state’s governors , the issue would be one, as conventional wisdom would have it, that might well jeopardize and even “sink” that governor ’s political career. Arkansas is renowned as a state which is small enough where “everyone knows everyone,” and because of this we know our politicians,and particularly our governors,personally.It is a rare individual who has not shaken Bill Clinton’s hand at least once or, more often than not, multiple times. The same holds for Dale Bumpers and David Pryor and, in recent years, Jim Guy Tucker, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Beebe. Because of this, I have known the men I write about, at least casually. I worked for two of them as an aide (Dale Bumpers and Jim Guy Tucker) and supported xv two others (Winthrop Rockefeller and Bill Clinton) either by precinct work or monetarily. My firsthand experience as well as observation and my love for politics and public service make this subject uniquely appealing to me. Arkansas has been blessed, in these past six decades, with a string of uniquely qualified and accomplished governors and a few governors who held great promise but saw their ship ultimately founder when the moment of truth arrived.Few states can claim the likes of a Rockefeller, a president of the United States, and several presidential contenders and a favorite-son candidate in such a brief period of time, as can Arkansas. This all proves the point that the caliber of our state executives,by and large,has been very high indeed. A word needs to be said about courage and,in this case,political courage.The word courage derives from the Latinate word for heart. I am convinced that it is a good heart that leads most men and women into public service and ultimately to the governor’s seat.(Dale Bumpers and Governor Mike Beebe call public service and politics a noble calling, as did John F. Kennedy before them.) But it is an even greater heart that is willing to risk sacrificing the honor,power,and prestige of the job for what is right,honorable, and good. That is what this book seeks to explore—men who did just that (all of Arkansas’s governors have been men) and those who flinched in the face of controversy or in other ways allowed their personal beliefs to blur their vision and judgment. In some instances, I employ my imagination and concoct a dialogue of the principals or enter into their minds to support my understanding of the events that transpired.Obviously,I was not present at some of these events, armed with a recorder, but I have no doubt that the reenactments I have framed are reasonable depictions of what occurred. xvi PROLOGUE Defining Moments Sid McMath as governor. Courtesy of Butler Center photos, Arkansas Studies Institute Collection, Little Rock. ...