{"id":1984,"date":"2010-06-06T11:40:50","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T16:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1984"},"modified":"2010-06-08T08:20:39","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T13:20:39","slug":"run-down-for-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/06\/run-down-for-runoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Run Down for Runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s why we have the committee system.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s nominate this as the<\/em> quote of the spring 2010 primary campaign season.<\/p>\n

Dave Bisbee is executive of Benton County, Ark. He’s seeking re-election. The field of candidates was narrowed in May, and the runoff for county judge is Tuesday the 8th. It’s a Republican primary, no Democrats are running so this decides the position. At the end of his campaign the judge has been in a circuit courtroom, not a quorum one, facing misdemeanor ethics charges. Last Friday he was acquitted<\/a> of two counts and the jury was hung on the third. The conflict-of-interest issue was a construction company he owned doing work for the county last year.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Van Stone says he may seek retrial on that last count. Polls usually aren’t conducted at this level so how Bisbee will fare Tuesday against opponent Bob Clinard is unknown. I can’t figure Bisbee out and don’t live in his county. All I know has come from articles about this trial.<\/p>\n

People seem to like Bisbee; he was a state representative for six years then senator for 10. How he performs as CEO of a county is different than what is needed in the legislative branch. What Bisbee said about how he performed in those 16 years floors me.<\/p>\n

Stone in questioning Bisbee on the stand pointed out that in 2005 he voted to amend one of the statutes he was accused of violating. The Northwest Arkansas Newspapers article stated<\/a>, “Bisbee testified he did not remember the law and likely did not ever read it when he was a member of the Legislature.”<\/p>\n

The article was not clear on which statute or detail the amendment. The dialogue though remains illuminating.<\/p>\n

“Stone asked Bisbee if there was a good chance Bisbee voted on a lot of laws he did not read.<\/p>\n

“‘Absolutely,’ Bisbee said. ‘That\u2019s why we have the committee system.’\u201d<\/p>\n

I hire legislators to read proposals, from the Arkansas General Assembly, among the folks remaining after Bisbee left, and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter who serves as president of the state Senate. My congressman, John Boozman, must understand bills he co-sponsors and others he reads to vote on. I expect my senator, Blanche Lincoln, to have figured out every nuance of health care, for instance. Come to think of it, even if you oppose Lincoln’s re-election, who doubts she is on top of legislation?<\/p>\n

Others have “the committee system,” be that other solons or staff. Doesn’t that just rock?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s why we have the committee system.” Let’s nominate this as the quote of the spring 2010 primary campaign season. Dave Bisbee is executive of Benton County, Ark. He’s seeking re-election. The field of candidates was narrowed in May, and the runoff for county judge is Tuesday the 8th. It’s a Republican primary, no Democrats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":262,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/01\/cast-bread-upon-the-voters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1984,"position":0},"title":"Cast bread upon the voters","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not fair to blow up a quotation of a state legislator, even adding context to show that he or she probably did mean it the way it sounded. But when remarks fall into your lap, courtesy of alert journalists, who can resist? I have written previously about opposing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/07\/loosen-up-kerry\/","url_meta":{"origin":1984,"position":1},"title":"Loosen up, Kerry","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, July 9, 2004. Here's how Johns Kerry and Edwards can win big in November. This is also how they can lose, as it's the same trick. Kerry and Edwards in a public forum do a cheer\/yell like the one that cost Howard Dean his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/08\/kerrys-gonna-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":1984,"position":2},"title":"Kerry’s gonna win","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Aug. 6, 2004: After conducting all the research that's necessary -- licked my right index finger and held it up -- I finally can make a prediction on the presidential race: Kerry will win in a landslide. I know the polls still show neck-and-neck,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/08\/dupe-duplicative-dupe\/","url_meta":{"origin":1984,"position":3},"title":"Dupe duplicative dupe","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Doop a dupe a doop Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004. The Berkeley Breathed \"Opus\" panel for Sunday 8\/8\/04 looked very familiar (His syndicate does not allow open online access). So I walked from the paper on the dining table to my home office (the north side\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/fake-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":1984,"position":4},"title":"Fake Off","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When one goes for a hit of news, it's amazing how often it's been cut with spin. Not bias, not commentary, but flapdoodle. It's right after shipment where the purveyors can't help but allude to it so it stays. Example 1. Former President Clinton's tactics a few weeks ago while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":402,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/the-green-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1984,"position":5},"title":"The Green Candidate","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago Charlie Rose interviewed Garrison Keillor, who said something so provocative that for a detectable millisecond Rose was speechless, a rarity. Keillor of course was on promoting A Prairie Home Companion, but early on they discussed the just-ended 2004 election, where the progressive Keillor nailed John Kerry's defeat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1984"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1992,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984\/revisions\/1992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}