Huckabeebee
One of the newspaper editors asked if I'd quit blogging. No, I've merely been dormant. I have five columns a week to write, and, anyway, this isn't the toy it was in the beginning. Nevertheless, here's a topic. I saw in a Max Brantley column that Mike Beebe charges public funds for his personal groceries at the Mansion, like Huckabee, but unlike Clinton and Bumpers, who admirably separated their personal foodstuffs from the residence's official foodstuffs. I couldn't believe it. Knowing Beebe, I thought he'd emulate Bumpers, not Huckabee. But all I get from Zac Wright, Beebe's chief spin doctor, is a technical defense based on arguable wording in an appropriation, and some smarting off for good measure. When I asked if Mike and Ginger's personal meals -- their coffee, their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — were "operations" of the Governor's Mansion, Zac asked if I ate in my home. Yes, and pay for the groceries. BTW: I happen to know Beebe likes Shiraz, the heavy red wine, done especially well in Australia. Zac says Beebe doesn't charge the taxpayers for personal alcohol. Just personal coffee, personal steak, personal bread and milk. Zac also accuses me of pursuing a trivial matter. Perhaps. That's why I blog it instead of putting it in the newspaper. Now, in discussing this with many people, I have encountered some who say Mansion-provided personal groceries are the same thing as the Mansion itself - which is to say a perfectly legitimate gubernatorial perk. Of course the house and State Police escorts are for security. Don't know what the free food is for. Don't know that free food is safer than food you paid for. So, I leave it at that, except to say that, at noon today, some poor television reporter had Beebe on and referred to him as Gov. Huckabee. She was more insightful than she knew.