MIKE HUCKABEE has never felt
so far away. While the former
Guv is busy finding a new life on the cable talk-show circuit, his former colleagues in the Arkansas legislature are busy slumping back to their same old, unopposed ways. The matter this time: A $ 91, 909 payment from the State of Arkansas, aka You and Me, to a church in Pine Bluff whose pastor just happens to be a state senator. The bad old days are back. When the senator in question, Hank Wilkins IV, was asked about this little ol’ payment last month, he insisted it wouldn’t benefit him at all, even if he is the pastor of St. James United Methodist, the church in question. And even if his wife is the church’s Outreach Coordinator. Yes, technically, the money will go to a non-profit outfit run by the church, with the money to be spent running a program for drug abusers. Which might be fine—if a state lawmaker weren’t so tied up in the whole suspect arrangement. Naturally enough, Hank Wilkins’ friends and colleagues in the Ledge okayed the payment with their routine lack of diligence in these matters. The one lawmaker who did object, Stephanie Flowers, a state representative from Pine Bluff, couldn’t even delay this payment, much less stop it. (Thank you, Rep. Flowers. We remember the towering figure of your father, who also knew when to take a stand for the right. ) Now comes word that Rev. / Sen. Wilkins’ church has hired a new employee to help spend all this taxpayer money. You’ll never guess his name: Hank Wilkins V. That’s right—the senator’s son. The dynasty just goes on and on.
Wilkins the Elder acknowledges that he sat in on the interviews for this job but adds that he recused himself from discussions over filling it. But with him present, he may not have had to say a word to assure that Wilkins the Next got the job.
In his defense, Senator Wilkins says: “I don’t think it is my place to tell my son... not to apply for the job.” But was it his place to play any role at all in seeing that taxpayers set up this deal for his church and his son ? That’s a rhetorical question, for anyone obtuse enough not to recognize it as such. Senator / Reverend / father Wilkins shouldn’t have had anything to do with establishing this sweet stipend.
This is where the nostalgia for Mike Huckabee kicks in. Because in this post-Huckabee era, nothing and nobody seems able to stop Senator Wilkins from going into business with his son on the taxpayers’ dime. As the state returns to one-party rule, look for more family firms like Wilkins & Wilkins to crop up. And the only thing that’ll prevent the rot from returning is an active two-party system that could exert some control on the other party’s grabby habits. The way the emergence of Mike Huckabee ended Democratic dominance of state politics in 1998. Remember ? Before he came along, there was no alternative to one-party rule and the corruption it led to. (See Wilson, Nick. )
Ah, those were the days. A real twoparty system seemed to be taking root in Arkansas. It’s striking sometimes, what you come to appreciate only after it’s gone.
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