The reaction to my reporting on Reimbursementgate — which, yes, has now been given a proper name, ending in “-gate,” in keeping with the rule that requires all political scandals to end that way – has made a few things…
Month: March 2011
AR-01: I Hear Sears Is Having A Sale On Hypocrisy, Rick
Politico has a story today about a letter that freshman Republican representatives are sending to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, which includes this passage: Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure. You have failed…
A Timeout For The Fab Five
We interrupt our regularly scheduled exposing of the absurdity of “reimbursements” to bring you a bit of positive news. Following last Wednesday’s first post on statutory expense payments, I requested updated records from both the House and Senate, which I…
Three Thoughts On The Reimbursement Scheme Generally
More fun with invoices coming later today, but, first, three tangentially related thoughts on reimbursements under the statute: 1. The most common response I’ve heard since starting these posts is that some legislators simply cannot afford to do the job…
Sunlight is the best disinfectant: A look at reimbursements
I wish I could say that exploiting the state reimbursement system is strictly a Republican phenomenon. Between Mark Martin and the legislators exposed as salary padding hypocrites Wednesday, one might even get that impression. The fact of the matter, however,…
Is Ed Garner's (R-Billionaire Lapdog) Political Career Baked?*
Pobre, pobre Ed Garner. He tried so hard, yes he did. But, evidently, he just couldn’t cry enough tears for the rich to get the abhorrent and downright unconstitutional HB 1002 passed. You see, fair reader, the Arkansas Senate and…
The Audacity of "Nope"
Yesterday afternoon, House Republicans prevented the passage of House Bill 1193, the appropriations bill for the Arkansas School for the Deaf, because the bill contained a spending increase. Of $6,389. For the ENTIRE YEAR. Oh, sure, $532.42/month may not sound…
AR-01: "With the buzz cut and the bow tie? This is a nightclub, not a John F. Kennedy cabinet meeting."*
When first-district voters went to the polls last November, they knew many things about Rick Crawford: owner/operator of AgWatch Network (which was like a farm-centric Little Orphan Annie to all the farm-centric Ralphie Parkers in Arkansas), friend of Pat Boone…
Ides of March Gallimaufry
When the soothsayer told Julius Caesar to “beware the ides of March,” she wasn’t talking about him getting stabbed fiftyleven times. Your English teacher lied to you. The soothsayer was cautioning Caesar and anyone else who would listen that some…
Well Said
Busy day, but I wanted to get this posted and hopefully expand on the thought later. When he was running as the Vice Presidential half of Thomas E. Dewey’s Republican ticket in 1948, Earl Warren, then the Governor of California,…