February 2000

Huckabee reports $12,000 in gifts 4,000 officials required to file statement Date: 2/1/2000 Category: News Page: B1 MICHAEL ROWETT ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Gov. Mike Huckabee received 75 gifts valued at more than $112,000 last year, according to his financial disclosure statement for 1999. The gifts include clothing, use of a fishing boat, parties, tickets to athletic events, airplane rides and other things. State law requires public servants to file a statement of financial disclosure listing their sources of income, business holdings, gifts and other financial information for the previous year. The statements were due Monday. Like the past two governors, Huckabee reported receiving more gifts than any other state employee or legislator. Huckabee's report included gifts to him personally, as well as gifts to his family and members of his gubernatorial of fice staff. The report noted that his gifts included three country club memberships but that he did not use them. Huckabee reported accepting 73 gifts in 1998, 85 in 1997, and 30 in 1996, when he was governor less than half the year. Of the $112,366.83 in gifts on Huckabee's 1999 report, almost half -- $53,382 -- came from Jennings Osborne of Little Rock, a businessman and philanthropist. Osborne's gifts included $23,032 worth of clothing; $750 total on three gifts of flowers for Janet Huckabee; $10,400 for the year on weekly flowers for the Governor's Mansion; $7,500 on a May 12 party for governor's of fice staff, mansion staff and security; and $11,700 during the year on pastries for the mansion staff and of fice staff once a week. Osborne, 57, said Monday that he expects nothing and receives nothing from the governor in return for the gifts. It's important to put the $53,382 in perspective, he said. It cost him about that much to decorate the state Capitol with Christmas lights, he said. Osborne said he spends about $30,000 on each of the 10 or so barbecue he holds around the state each year. "I'm blessed that I'm able to do things for people," Osborne said. "When you put it all in perspective, what I do for Mike is no big deal," he said. Osborne said he and Huckabee became friends after they met six or seven years ago at a Warren tomato festival. "We almost never talk about politics," he said. "That kind of stuff bores me. I'm not sure I've ever called him governor. Mike has a state to run. I don't get involved [in state politics]. It's a real turnoff for me. "I never ask for anything from him unless it's to say, 'Hey, Mike, pass the catfish,' or'Hey, Mike, pass the ribs."' Osborne said that when he buys himself a suit or sport coat, he generally buys a similar item for the governor. The clothing is sent to the governor, and the bill to Osborne. The only reason Huckabee knows the clothes' value is that Osborne's secretary sends the amount to the governor's office because Huckabee is required to report gifts, Osborne said. Osborne said he has "no idea" how much he gives away in gifts every year except that it's "substantial." He said he wasn't aware of how much he gave the Huckabees until an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter told him. Osborne also gave Huckabee and his family nine gifts in 1998, including three gift certificates. The governor reported accepting seven gifts from Osborne in 1997. Osborne told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last February that each of the gift certificates he gave to the Huckabees in 1998 was "probably in the $1,000 to $2,500 range." Under Act 553 of 1999 by state Sen. Bill Gwatney, D-Jacksonville, public servants for the first time were required to determine and include the "reasonable fair market value" of each gift that triggers the reporting requirement. The provisions of the act first applied to financial disclosure statements for 1999. Other high-dollar gifts listed by Huckabee include the inaugural wardrobe for Janet Huckabee, valued at $23,000; free eye care for Huckabee and his family from Dr. George A. Haas, valued at $1,364; use of a fishing boat from Basscat Inc., valued at $2,500; and free airplane transportation to in-state and out-of-state events, valued at $10,378.83. Public servants also must list every gift received by the official or his spouse valued at more than $100 and those valued at more than $250 received by his dependent children. They do not have to disclose exact sums in the portion of the report that deals with sources of income and business holdings, but must categorize them as more than $ 1,000 or more than $12,500. About 4,000 of the estimated 40,000 public servants at the local, county and state level in Arkansas are required to file the annual financial disclosure document. This year's filing comes as the state Ethics Commission ponders a proposed rule that would sharply restrict the circumstances under which public servants can accept gifts. Huckabee has been outspoken in his view of the rule as a draconian attempt to criminalize innocent behavior by thousands of public servants, including teachers, nonelected state employees and appointees to boards and commlsslons. The rule was proposed in an effort to interpret the gift-giving provisions of the law, Arkansas Code Annotated 21-8-801, which stems from a 1988 initiated ethics act. An item is considered a gift if it's valued at more than $ 100. Financial disclosure statements filed for 1999 by the members of the Ethics Commission showed no gifts. Huckabee's annual salary as governor is $68,448, which will increase to $69,920 per year effective July 1. Also, he is reimbursed for actual expenses and resides in the taxpayerfinanced Governor's Mansion, where the state provides meals, lodging, security and other things. In addition to his state salary, Huckabee listed income of more than $12,500 in book royalties from Broadman and Holman publishers of Nashville, Tenn. He also listed business interests or holdings in Bank of America of Little Rock, more than $12,500; Regions Bank, more than $1,000; and Annuity Board of Southern Baptist Convention, more than $12,500. The most common gifts accepted last year by other constitutional officers, legislators and state department heads were complimentary racing passes to Oaklawn Park and football tickets to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. If the Ethics Commission adopts the proposed rule on gifts, public servants could no longer accept the passes or the tickets. Passes for the l 999 racing season were distributed in January 1999 and passes for this year's season were distributed in December 1999, so the values listed in the reports include two seasons' passes. State law and the proposed rule on gifts exempt such things as food, lodging and travel related to the public servant's office and to appearances in an offcial capacity; gifts not used and returned to the donor within 30 days of receipt; gifts from a spouse or relative; any inheritance; items valued at less than $100; and wedding presents.

Gifts to constitutional officers and legislative leaders Date: 2/2/2000 Category: News Page: B4 The nongubernatorial constitutional offcers and legislative leaders reported these gifts, the date given, the givers, and the estimated value: LT. GOV. WIN ROCKEFELLER NatGear hunting jacket, October, Rollie Remmel, $200 SECRETARY OF STATE SHARON PRIEST Weekly pastries to secretary of state office staff, January-December, Jennings Osborne, $1,800 23 Oaklawn season passes, January, Rep. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, $345 20 Oaklawn season passes and two jockey club passes, January, Friday, Eldredge and Clark, $330 20 Oaklawn season passes, January, Rep. Roger Smith, D-Hot Springs, $300 University of Arkansas football tickets and parking pass, October, University of Arkansas, $300 Financial plan, October, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, $250 Framed original print, "Dreams and Memories I," April 9, Nine individual donors and 32 group donors, including state House of Representatives, $250 Framed original print, "Dreams and Memories II," April 9, Nine individual donors and 32 group donors, including state House of Representatives, $250 10 Oaklawn Park season passes and 10 day passes, January, Rep. Steve Faris, D-Malvern, $170 Eight Oaklawn season passes, 10 daily passes and one parking pass, Oaklawn Park, $ 155 LAND COMMISSIONER CHARLIE DANIELS Two UA, Fayetteville season football tickets, August, University of Arkansas, $300 Two Arkansas State University season football tickets, Aut, Arkansas State University, $180 24 season passes to Oaklawn Park, December, Robert Evans, value not listed AUDITOR GUS WINGFIELD UA football season tickets, September, University of Arkansas, $300 Jimmie Lou Fisher Appreciation Dinner, July 29, Mercantile Bank, $300 Housing in Augusta, Ga., April 4-5, Wachovia Corp., $300 Two tickets to United Cerebral Palsy fund-raiser, May 6, Rick Fleetwood, $250 Mothers Day Toast and Roast fund-raiser for Florence Crittenden Home, May 7, Mercantile Bank, $250 Arkansas State University Indians Golf Tournament, August 7-8, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, $ 175 Season passes to Oaklawn Park, January and November, Oaklawn Park, $2 each, "over $100" Hunting trip, January, Hicks Muse, "over $100" Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame, Nov. 5, Alltel Corp., $100 Two tickets to James Earl Jones concert, Feb. 12, Regions Bank, $ 100 Two tickets to Farkleberry Follies, April 23, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, $ 100 Arkansas Sheriffs' Boys and Girls Ranch benefit, Oct. 14, Arkansas Bankers Association, $100 Fees for Bolo Bash Golf Tournament, May 25, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, value not listed Fees for Senate-House Golf Tournament, May 11, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, value not listed ATTORNEY GENERAL MARK PRYOR University of Arkansas season football tickets, August, University of Arkansas, $350 Aromatique potpourri and candle, December, Aromatique Inc., $150 TREASURER JIMMIE LOU FISHER Oaklawn season racing passes, January and December, "legislators," $765 Oaklawn season racing passes, January and December, Oaklawn Park, $600 University of Arkansas season football tickets, September, University of Arkansas, $300 University of Arkansas basketball tickets, Jan. 16, John Monroe of NationsBank, $225.13 Arkansas State University season football tickets, September, Arkansas State University, $90 HOUSE SPEAKER BOB JOHNSON, D-MORRILTON Oaklawn racing passes, January and December, Garland County legislative delegation, $15,800 University of Arkansas football tickets, September, University of Arkansas, $300 Ray Floyd Golf Tournament fee, May 10, Southwestern Bell, $150 United Artists Theatre Circuit movie pass, used twice, $26 Under nongovernmental sources of payment, Johnson reported receiving airfare, hotel, transportation and food totaling $2,534.45 from Arkansas Electric Cooperatives for a trip to Washington, D.C., from April 30-May 5, 1999. The trip was to meet with federal offficials and the state's six-member congressional delegation about states' options in deregulating electric power providers, Johnson said. Five other state legislators attended the trip at the cooperative's expense, according to Carmie Henry, a lobbyist for Arkansas Electric Cooperatives: state Sens. Jon Fitch, DHindsville, and Bill Walters, R-Greenwood; then-state Rep. Ted Thomas, R-Little Rock, now Huckabee's budget director; and state Reps. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, and Steve Napper, D-Little Rock. SENATE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE JAY BRADFORD, D-PINE BLUFF Oaklawn racing passes, January and December, Oaklawn Park, $10,750. Bradford said in his filing that all of the passes he received were given to constituents and none were kept for personal use. University of Arkansas season football tickets, June, University of Arkansas, $260. Bradford said in his filing that he offset the tickets with a $300 donation to UA on Oct. 11, 1999.

Gift reports for state officials Date: 2/2/2000 Category: News Page: B7 The nongubernatorial constitutional officers and legislative leaders reported these gifts, the date given, the givers, and the estimated value: LT. GOV. WIN ROCKEFELLER NatGear hunting jacket, October, Rollie Remmel, $200 SECRETARY OF STATE SHARON PRIEST Weekly pastries to secretary of state office staff, January-December, Jennings Osborne, $1,800 23 Oaklawn season passes, January, Rep. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, $345 20 Oaklawn season passes and two jockey club passes, January, Friday, Eldredge and Clark, $330 20 Oaklawn season passes, January, Rep. Roger Smith, D-Hot Springs, $300 University of Arkansas football tickets and parking pass, October, University of Arkansas, $300 Financial plan, October, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, $250 Framed original print, "Dreams and Memories I," April 9, Nine individual donors and 32 group donors, including state House of Representatives, $250 Framed original print, "Dreams and Memories II," April 9, Nine individual donors and 32 group donors, including state House of Representatives, $250 10 Oaklawn Park season passes and 10 day passes, January, Rep. Steve Faris, D-Malvern, $170 Eight Oaklawn season passes, 10 daily passes and one parking pass, Oaklawn Park, $155 LAND COMMISSIONER CHARLIE DANIELS Two UA, Fayetteville season football tickets, August, University of Arkansas, $300 Two Arkansas State University season football tickets, Aut, Arkansas State University, $180 24 season passes to Oaklawn Park, December, Robert Evans, value not listed AUDITOR GUS WINGFIELD UA football season tickets, September, University of Arkansas, $300 Jimmie Lou Fisher Appreciation Dinner, July 29, Mercantile Bank, $300 Housing in Augusta, Ga., April 4-5, Wachovia Corp., $300 Two tickets to United Cerebral Palsy fund-raiser, May 6, Rick Fleetwood, $250 Mothers Day Toast and Roast fund-raiser for Florence Crittenden Home, May 7, Mercantile Bank, $250 Arkansas State University Indians Golf Tournament, August 7-8, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, $ 175 Season passes to Oaklawn Park, January and November, Oaklawn Park, $2 each, "over $100" Hunting trip, January, Hicks Muse, "over $100" Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame, Nov. 5, Alltel Corp., $100 Two tickets to James Earl Jones concert, Feb. 12, Regions Bank, $100 Two tickets to Farkleberry Follies, April 23, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, $100 Arkansas Sheriffs' Boys and Girls Ranch benefit, Oct. 14, Arkansas Bankers Association, $100 Fees for Bolo Bash Golf Tournament, May 25, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, value not listed Fees for Senate-House Golf Tournament, May 11, Arkansas Soft Drink Association, value not listed ATTORNEY GENERAL MARK PRYOR University of Arkansas season football tickets, August, University of Arkansas, $350 Aromatique potpourri and candle, December, Aromatique Inc., $150 TREASURER JIMMIE LOU FISHER Oaklawn season racing passes, January and December, "legislators," $765 Oaklawn season racing passes, January and December, Oaklawn Park, $600 University of Arkansas season football tickets, September, University of Arkansas, $300 University of Arkansas basketball tickets, Jan. 16, John Monroe of NationsBank, $225.13 Arkansas State University season football tickets, September, Arkansas State University, $90 HOUSE SPEAKER BOB JOHNSON, D-MORRILTON Oaklawn racing passes, January and December, Garland County legislative delegation, $15,800 University of Arkansas football tickets, September, University of Arkansas, $300 Ray Floyd Golf Tournament fee, May 10, Southwestern Bell, $ 150 United Artists Theatre Circuit movie pass, used twice, $26 Under nongovernmental sources of payment, Johnson reported receiving airfare, hotel, transportation and food totaling $2,534.45 from Arkansas Electric Cooperatives for a trip to Washington, D.C., from April 30-May 5, 1999. The trip was to meet with federal offcials and the state's six-member congressional delegation about states' options in deregulating electric power providers, Johnson said. Five other state legislators attended the trip at the cooperative's expense, according to Carmie Henry, a lobbyist for Arkansas Electric Cooperatives: state Sens. Jon Fitch, DHindsville, and Bill Walters, R-Greenwood; then-state Rep. Ted Thomas, R-Little Rock, now Huckabee's budget director; and state Reps. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, and Steve Napper, D-Little Rock. SENATE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE JAY BRADFORD, D-PINE BLUFF Oaklawn racing passes, January and December, Oaklawn Park, $10,750. Bradford said in his filing that all of the passes he received were given to constituents and none were kept for personal use. University of Arkansas season football tickets, June, University of Arkansas, $260. Bradford said in his filing that he offset the tickets with a $300 donation to UA on Oct. 11, 1999. Photos: Sharon Priest Gus Wingfield

Gifts received by Gov. Huckabee, first lady and staff Date: 2/2/2000 Category: News Page: B6 MICHAEL ROWETT ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Gov. Mike Huckabee reported accepting the following gifts in 1999. Some of the gifts were to Huckabee. Others were to first lady Janet Huckabee, members of his family or members of his staff. State law and a proposed Arkansas Ethics Commission rule on gifts exempt from the definition of "gift" the following: food, lodging and travel that bear a relationship to the public servant's office and when appearing in an official capacity; unused gifts that were returned to the donor within 30 days after receipt; gifts from a spouse or relative; any inheritance; items valued at $ 100 or less; and wedding presents. Here are the gifts, the dates they were given, the givers, and the estimated values of each gift. The total value exceeds $ 112,000. FOR MIKE HUCKABEE: Clothing, March 21, Jennings Osborne, $5,452 Clothing, April, Jennings Osborne, $3,194 Clothing, May 31, Jennings Osborne, $223 Clothing, August, Jennings Osborne, $1,720 Clothing, August, Jennings Osborne, $1,225 Clothing, November, Jennings Osborne, $4,033 Clothing, November, Jennings Osborne, $2,579 Clothing, November, Jennings Osborne, $2,306 Clothing, November,Jennings Osborne, $2,300 Honorary membership for one year, January, Chenal Valley Country Club, $3,060 -- not used by governor Honorary membership, January, the Little Rock Club, $624 Honorary membership for one year, January, Pleasant Valley Country Club, $2,670 -- not used by governor Club privileges for March through December, Feb. 25, Little Rock Country Club, $2,600 -not used by governor Use of fishing boat, January-December, Basscat Inc., $2,500 Pistol, August, Lester Sitzes, $600 Chain saw, September, Poulan Division of Frigidaire Home Products Corp., $250 Dillard's gift certificate, December, governor's Cabinet, $1,000 Cowboy hat, Oct. 22, Republican Party of Arkansas, $400 Bass guitar, Oct. 22, Colin Raye, $350 Chiminea (small patio oven), Aug. 19, office staff, $350 Flatware, Dec. 9, executive security, of fice staff and mansion staff, $467 Antique Victrola (phonograph) previously owned by Huckabee family, December, Randy Quillen, $500 1995 duck print, July 7, The Lord's Ranch, $300 Two duck prints, Oct. 30, Larry Grisham, $400 Homemade patio furniture, March 5, Charles and Carol Turley, $200 Framed photograph signed by Joe DiMaggio, March 22, Phil Ford, $200 Clock, Aug. 18, Bill Gothard, $ 175 Two pewter candelabra, January, Governor's Mansion staff, $130 Model of a Hawker 800XP plane, Feb. 15, Raytheon Corporate Jets, $300 Eye exam and glasses, Jan. 7, Dr. George A. Haas, $599 Dental care for the year, January-December as needed, Lester Sitzes, $250 Cellular telephone service, January-December, Sprint PCS, $360 Two tickets to the Citrus Bowl, Jan. 1, University of Arkansas, $110 Movie pass for two, unlimited use for one year, Jan. 4, Carmike Cinema, $54 -- value based on actual use by governor Movie pass for two, unlimited use for one year, Jan. 8, David Chaffin of United Artists, $ 165 -- value based on actual use by governor Use of yard equipment for three months, October, Futrell Marine and Supplies, $150 Wendy's discount card, 50 percent discount on all purchases, less than $100 -- value based on actual use by governor Tickets to Arkansas State University games, Sept. 14, Arkansas State University, $180 Tickets to University of Arkansas football games, Sept. 17, University of Arkansas, $350 Four Cotton Bowl tickets, Dec. 10, B. Alan Sugg, $240 Electronic security monitoring service, December, Com-Linq of Fort Smith, $350 Annual alarm service and monitoring, December, RC Alarms, Murfreesboro, $350 Food, lodging and hunting at Five Oaks Hunting Lodge, Dec. 27-28, George Dunklin, $300 Air transportation to Nashville, Tenn., and overnight accommodations, March 8-9, Lamar Alexander for President campaign, $970 Air transportation to and from Cherokee Village for governor and first lady, March 10, Republican Party of Arkansas, $641.30 Air transportation to and from Mount Ida, April 8, Republican Party of Arkansas, $427.53 Air transportation to and from Cordova, Tenn., April 25, Anderson Tulley, $535 Air transportation to and from Leesburg, Fla., for governor and first lady, lodging and entertainment, May 22-25, First Baptist Church of Leesburg, Fla., $1,705 Air transportation to and from Del City, Okla., and dinner for governor and first lady, June 25, First Southern Baptist Church, $990 Air transportation to join Lamar Alexander on campaign tour in Iowa, July 9-10, Lamar Alexander for President campaign, $775 Air transportation to and from Wynne, July 11, Wynne Baptist Church, $519 Air transportation from Springdale to Columbus, Ohio, and back to Little Rock, Aug. 2, Republican Governors' Association, $940 Air travel to Mobile, Ala., Aug. 16, Cottage Hill Baptist Church, $623 Air transportation to and from Lavaca, Aug. 29, Lavaca Baptist Church, $638 Air transportation to and from Louisville, Ky., Sept. 16, George W. Bush for President campaign, $518 Air transportation to and from Cape Girardeau, Mo., Sept. 24, Jim Talent for Governor Campaign, $1,097 Hospitality baskets for governor and first lady, Aug. 8, National Governors' Association, $250 Hospitality baskets for governor and first lady, Sept. 11, Southern Governors' Association, $250 Subtotal: $53,844.83 (48 percent of the total) FOR JANET HUCKABEE: Inaugural wardrobe, part of which is now the property of the Old State House Museum, January, Inaugural Committee, $23,000 Eye care throughout the year, January-December as needed, Dr. George A. Haas, $773 Gun, January, Sam Winstead, $450 Cowboy hat, Oct. 22, Republican Party of Arkansas, $400 Cowboy hat, February, Bob Robbins, $400 Food, lodging and travel to and from Brownwood, Texas, July 23-24, Rocky Creek Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas, $412 Boots, Oct. 22, Lloyd and Maryanne Stone, $250 Valentine's Day bouquet, February, Jennings Osborne family, $250 Birthday bouquet, July, Jennings Osborne family, $250 Mother's Day bouquet, May, Jennings Osborne family, $250 Subtotal: $26,435 (23.5 percent of total) For others: Admission to inaugural events for governor's immediate family and guests, January 12, Inaugural Committee, $825 Airfare for Sarah Huckabee to Maine for First Ladies Build, August, Habitat for Humanity, $600 Eye exam and glasses for Sarah Huckabee, March 1, Dr. George A. Haas, $262 Subtotal: $1,687 (1.5 percent oftotal) STAFF AND EMPLOYEES: Flowers for the Governor's Mansion on a weekly basis, January-December, Jennings Osborne family, $200 per week ($10,400 yearly total on the basis of 52 weeks) Pastries for the Governor's Mansion staff and offce staff once a week, January-December, Jennings Osborne family, $25 per week for mansion staff($1,300 yearly total); $200 per week for offce staff ($ 10,400 yearly total) Party for offce staff, mansion staffand security staff, May 12, Jennings Osborne, $7,500 Tickets to the fair for governor's staff, Oct. 5, Arkansas Fair Association, $200 Subtotal: $29,800 (27 percent of total) Grand total: 75 gifts (as enumerated on the governor's report) valued at $112,366.83

Stroll through an ethical wasteland Offensive smell comes from state Capitol Date: 2/3/2000 Category: Editorial Page: B7 JOHN BRUMMETT Let us lace our highest boots and hold our noses while we venture into the ethical wasteland, the public trust vacuum, that is Arkansas state government. Let us consider first the kept man, that portly Ken doll outfitted by his keeper, otherwise known as Gov. Mike Huckabee. Then we'll turn our attention to the prostituted state senator by the name of Tom Kennedy. Then let's all throw up. In the annual statement of financial interest required of him and others, Huckabee, wellknown gift addict, reveals that in calendar 1999 he accepted $23,032 worth of clothing from that oddball Jennings Osborne, champion of garish generosity, demolisher of tasteful restraint, king of excess, prince of tacky. Yes, that's right: $23,032 worth of threads in a year's time, the state's per capita income, give or take, and for stuff, free stuff, trappings. Osborne must have been paying by the square yard. Let me assess this matter first in an uncritical manner. Then I'll tell you what I really think. Here is the uncritical part: The Huckster makes about $68,000 a year, which is not that much money as compared to what CEOs make. He has three kids in or around college age. He has a house to keep up over on Lake Greeson. He is expected as governor to dress nicely for public appearances. The TV people get clothing allowances. He doesn't, though he shows up on TV more than some weathermen. It is conceivable that his clothing expenses were heightened in 1999 by weight fluctuations, to speak euphemistically. Osborne is not known as a political king maker, playing the angles for power, but for garish generosity by which he throws good money around after waste and nonsense, and he simply has taken quite a shine to this apparent soul mate we affectionately know as the Huckster, a.k.a. Wide Body. Here is what I really think: That $68,000 a year is quite a bit by Arkansas' standard and is sufficient to permit the Huckster to pay himself for a few dress shirts and business suits and ties. There are plenty of financial aid programs for college kids keeping their grades up. Huckabee gets use of a free house and a free motor vehicle, all utilities paid. Is it the Velveeta and taco costs that are cutting into his ability to clothe himself? If the governor needs a clothing allowance, then the taxpayers ought to create one with a firm limit and a tenacious auditing system. A governor has no sense of propriety to allow a sugar daddy to dress him, especially at this rate. Osborne says he doesn't care about politics. That's doubtful. A man fighting the IRS cares about politics. A man who gets his property rights caught up in a Supreme Court case cares about politics. A man who accepted the governor's appointment last year to the War Memorial Stadium Commission cares about politics. Ponder this: Huckabee appoints Osborne to the stadium commission. Frank Broyles proposes moving at least one Razorback football game out of the stadium that Osborne was appointed by the governor to serve. Huckabee steps forward to inject himself in a regional dispute to take the side of one part of the state over another, the one containing Osborne's stadium. (Dear Coach Broyles: You should have bought the governor some sport coats.) Does anyone still wonder why the Huckster has been sending agents to the Ethics Commission to decry a proposed rule banning gifts? He abuses teachers and state employees by saying he's worried about them. But he's only interested in losing his shirt. Now to the prostituted Tom Kennedy, elected by the people up around Russellville to the state Senate, a public trust he then betrayed to try out for, and now secure, an executive's job as a lobbyist for Entergy Corp. That happens to be the electric utility whose deregulation bill he ushered through the Legislature last year. Kennedy will succeed as Entergy's lobbyist the legendarily slick Cecil Alexander, with whom I caught Kennedy vacationing in Mexico last spring, missing a vote to discipline Nick Wilson. Kennedy says he'll stay in the Senate until the end of the year even though he is now a paid lobbyist for a special business interest. Why not? He couldn't serve Entergy any more faithfully now than when he was abusing the voters' trust to try out for the job. I remember watching Kennedy carry that Entergy bill as if he had a personal interest. One day Alexander walked up to him during a committee hearing and encouraged him to calm down, so agitated was he about the nagging questions in the public interest from those pesky House members. Later when I talked to Kennedy about the bill and he answered a question purely in regard to Entergy's corporate need, I asked him who he was working for, the people or the company. But the question was mostly rhetorical. I knew what he'd say. I knew what I thought. And now we all see how it turned out. John Brummett's column appears every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

The party's over Date: 2/4/2000 Category: News Page: B6 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL James Bolden (left) and Davy Browning work Thursday morning to dismantle the frame of one of two Christmas trees that decorated the front lawn of the state Capitol. Both men work for Jennings Osborne, who supplied the decorations.

The Guv's sugar daddy Just say NO Date: 2/8/2000 Category: Editorial Page: B6 WHAT IS it about the word No that some public servants can't seem to understand? Is it too short? Too direct? Too hard to remember? Or is it because No is just too limiting? Yes, that must be it. How else explain the compulsion of Mike Huckabee, this state's consumer-in-chief, to accept so much stuff? We thought racing passes were bad enough, but this governor takes everything from free eye care to fishing boats. Why doesn't he just open bids? According to the annual statement he's required to file, Mike Huckabee took in $112,000 worth of goodies last year. If he'd accepted $1,000 from 112 people, at least he wouldn't be obliged overmuch to any one benefactor. But almost half of this stuff came from Jennings Osborne, whose generosity can be overwhelming. At last count and public-disclosure report, the governor and his family had accepted almost $54,000 worth of goods from Mr. Osborne--the Guv's friend, political appointee, and barbecue specialist about town. Included in that total is $23,000 just for clothing. Cindy Crawford should have such a clothing allowance. What's a fella like Jennings Osborne doing outfitting the governor? A better question is: What's the governor doing accepting all this baksheesh from anybody--friend, foe, or potential political ally? Any public official worth the character he preaches shoulda, coulda, woulda Just Said No. Not to bring standards into a subject like politics, but somebody here should have been setting a better example. And his name is Michael Dale Huckabee. Speaking of an absence of standards, what's a member of the press doing criticizing this or any public official for accepting freebies from Jennings Osborne? You should see the shameless way some of us line up at the Osborne trough for a handout at softball tournaments, picnics, barbecues . . . anything that smells like a free lunch. Gawd, we're incorrigible. And we all know that Mr. Osborne could become the subject, not just a patron, of the news at any time. As he has in the past. What's a reader supposed to think when the same folks piggin' out with Jennings wind up covering him in the news? Talk about a practice that needs to stop. Of course there are degrees even to groveling. There's a difference between accepting a free barbecue sandwich and 23 grand in free duds. For one thing, it's easier to rationalize away a sandwich. You can always tell yourself you might take the guy to lunch one day. (Somehow that payback lunch never seems to happen, does it? Not with enough newspapermen.) And we know it's not easy to say No to Jennings--flowers and fruit have a way of appearing at the door with no easy way to send it all back. But flowers and fruit are one thing. A public official who accepts suits by the closetful sounds too much like a kept man--and one who's not overly concerned about keeping the public trust. It's a free country, and a fella who has a notion to cozy up to a politician or a journalist can try all he wants. But that doesn't mean the prominent pol or inky wretch cannot politely decline. It's not hard. Just tell the potential benefactor that it's for appearances' sake. Surely he'll understand. Be polite but firm. If the relationship between Jennings Osborne and Mike Huckabee really is one based wholly on friendship--and we've no reason to believe it isn't--this should have been easy. The Guv could have simply said, "No, thanks, buddy. I'm sure you understand how it'd look." It's not too late to start. It would make life so much easier. That way, nobody would raise an eyebrow when the Guv puts his ol' buddy Jennings on the commission that deals with War Memorial Stadium. (Not that such a commission would ever find itself in the middle of anything controversial.) Mr. Osborne said he's never asked his friend Mike for anything beyond "pass the catfish." But when you're delivering thousands of dollars worth of clothing and merchandise, who has to ask? About the only encouraging news to come out of the governor's latest Statement of Financial Interest is the report itself. Ain't public information grand? We the People can now see what freebies our chief executive is getting, from whom, and at what cost. And we the voters can take that information, file it away, and remember it come election time. Or not. It's up to us. Like whether to accept mountains of stuff from a friend. And whether it will obligate us in any way.

Taking Broyles' measure Date: 2/12/2000 Category: News Page: A1 1 Little Rock businessman Jennings Osborne (right), famous for his gigantic Christmas light displays and barbecue dinners, puts a tape measure to University of Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles on Friday as if to fit him for a new suit. The two were attending the UA board of trustees meeting at the Hilton Inn-Little Rock. Osborne was in the news last week when public disclosure forms filed by Gov. Mike Huckabee revealed that Osborne gave the governor $23,032 worth of clothing last year. Osborne, a member of the War Memorial Stadium Commission, and Huckabee are good friends. Folks witnessing this scene figure it might be Broyles' turn to get a new outfit. Osborne also provided breakfast for those attending Friday's board meeting, but, alas, there was no barbecue. The fare included scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy. Photo: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEVE KEESEE

Governor: Some gifts rejected Items turned down in '99 worth 'thousands,' Huckabee says Date: 2/13/2000 Category: News Page: A1 MICHAEL ROWETT ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE While he accepted more than $ 112,000 in gifts last year, he turned down others worth thousands of dollars because he was leery of the donors' motives, Gov. Mike Huckabee said. Asked to give a more specific figure to represent the "thousands of dollars" worth of gifts he said he has turned down, the governor said he couldn't. Asked to give specific examples of gifts he returned, the governor said he would like to, but couldn't think of an example of such a giver whom he felt comfortable discussing in public. The governor said that he asked extravagant philanthropist Jennings Osborne of Little Rock to stop sending gifts to him, but Osborne wouldn't. "He'd send something over, and I'd say, 'Please don't do that anymore. I've got all of whatever I need,"' Huckabee said. Many of the gifts from Osborne were clothes, which Huckabee defended accepting: "They were already altered." Huckabee ended up accepting more than $50,000 worth of gifts from Osborne, including $23,032 worth of clothing. The clothes were given over a period of months. These details about the gifts accepted by Huckabee in 1999 came to light in an interview with the governor last week by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Huckabee is paid an annual salary of $68,448 as governor. His salary will increase to $69,920 per year effective July 1. He also is reimbursed for actual expenses. He and his family also have free state transportation, free security, free residence in the state-owned Governor's Mansion, free utilities, free food at the mansion, and other benefits. The gifts of clothes have been described by Osborne as "suits and sport coats." Both men declined to specify where the clothes were bought, other than saying "several stores." Osborne knew the governor's measurements, Huckabee said, because Huckabee's measurements were available at stores where Osborne bought the clothes. Huckabee, complying with a state disclosure law, filed a Statement of Financial Interest on Jan. 31 that reported that he, his family and his staff accepted 75 gifts last year valued at $112,366. $ 11,700 FOR PASTRIES The gifts from Osborne on Huckabee's report totaled $53,382. Besides the $23,032 worth of clothing, Osborne spent $750 on flowers for first lady Janet Huckabee; $10,400 on flowers for the Governor's Mansion; $7,500 on a May 12, 1999, party for governor's office staff, mansion staff and security; and $11,700 on pastries for the mansion staff and of fice staff. Osborne, who last year decked the state Capitol, Graceland, Walt Disney World and entire Arkansas cities with Christmas lights, was by far the governor's most generous benefactor. Osborne has helped promote, and in many cases, helped foot the bill for, some of Huckabee's pet projects. Last year, he paid for several barbecue events touting Huckabee's Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs program. Huckabee appointed Osborne last February to the War Memorial Stadium Commission for a term that expires Jan. 14, 2006. Osborne doesn't serve on any other state boards or commissions. Huckabee said because his relationship with Osborne is strictly personal and doesn't involve state business, there's nothing wrong with accepting the gifts. "One of the reasons he's taken a like to me is that I've never, ever asked him for anything. I have people every single day who ask me to ask Jennings to give them a gift," Huckabee said. "I don't do that." CONSCIENCE VS. REGULATION During the interview, the governor said he should be allowed to accept gifts from any source as long as his conscience is clear and the gifts aren't given in return for a specific action on Huckabee's part to benefit the giver. The public doesn't have a right to tell him from whom he can and can't accept gifts, the governor said. "What role does the public have in regulating relationships of a public offcial? My feeling is it has to do with his performance in office, and whether or not anything is done for him, whether it's a coffee cup or whether it's giving him a Bentley to drive," Huckabee said. "The point is, can you tie anything in that person's performance to the gifts that were given to him? "If you can, you've got a real problem, and that needs to be exposed. That's corruption." It should be up to the public servant and his conscience, not the public at large, to decide whether accepting a gift is wrong, Huckabee said. "If you happen to have a relationship with someone outside of your role in government, that relationship may be odd, may be extravagant, to other people's relationships, but who died and let them be God about other people's relationships? "If there is no connection between activity of that public of ficial and relationship, then why should that be regulated by the state?" When asked if voters have the right to question the propriety of his accepting gifts, Huckabee said they do, but questioning and regulating are different. "They can wonder all day. That's the wonderful thing of freedom, they can wonder it. But to regulate it is a different thing than to wonder it." The governor sought to distinguish the propriety of accepting gifts from strangers from taking presents from longtime friends such as Osborne. "If someone comes up to you, a total stranger offthe street, and says, 'Here's $1,000,' you're going to say that's drug money and I'm not going to do it. "If it's someone with whom you've had a relationship -- someone with whom you're comfortable in that relationship -- and the parameters of your relationship are such that you can size people up, that's different." Huckabee said he couldn't put a price tag on the dollar value of gifts that would be improper to accept. "I don't know. It comes down to a person's conscience," Huckabee said. "I've told people before that I'm just really uncomfortable receiving that, and gosh, I really appreciate that, thank you so very much, but I really don't feel like it would be appropriate for me to take it." Asked where he would draw a line on accepting gifts, Huckabee quipped, "I won't take any nuclear devices." The governor said he doesn't think his acceptance of the gifts will be useful political ammunition for Democrats in elections. He said he doesn't think acceptance of gifts detracts from the dignity of the office held by the public servant who accepts them. "I think it detracts if he is lampooned for it," Huckabee said. "I'm not saying I'd wear Wal-Mart jeans and old T-shirts if it weren't for Jennings, but I think it adds to something of the representation I make of the state, that when I am representing the state, I look nice -- that I have decent clothing." Asked if his request to Osborne to stop sending gifts meant the governor had a feeling that accepting the gifts wasn't right, Huckabee answered, "It's not that it's not right. It's that there's a limit on how many things I really need. "I've never had much in my life," Huckabee said. "One of the things that Jennings and I have in common that I think has given us a basis for a relationship is that we grew up never imagining that we would be able to do the things that we've been able to do. To put it bluntly, I think we've both turned out better than anyone around us would have given us hope for." DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS Section 8 of the Statement of Financial Interest doesn't specify how much information a public servant must supply on gifts received. The extent of information provided varies among the 4,000 public servants required to file the financial disclosure documents. Under Act 553 of 1999 by state Sen. Bill Gwatney, D-Jacksonville, public servants this year for the first time were required to determine and include the "reasonable fair market value" of each gift that triggers the reporting requirement. The provisions of the act first applied to financial disclosure statements for 1999. Huckabee said while he has no quarrel with disclosure requirements, he doesn't like two provision areas. The first includes the provisions of Act 553 that require him to estimate the dollar value of gifts. "In essence, that's forcing me to now divulge 'What was the value of our friendship in that gift?' It's awkward for anybody." The governor said he also objects to provisions that oblige him to list gifts given to his children by nonfamily members. "If someone takes my daughter on a date to the prom and spends more than $100 on her, I have to report that. I think that's absurd," Huckabee said. He said the burden of proof should be on the person who questions whether a public servant listed the correct value of the gift. The governor said he favors rolling back the disclosure trigger to $25, so that more gifts would have to be disclosed. The amount triggering disclosure now is $100. The lower level would mean that "you disclose everything, but you don't prohibit things," he said. This year's filing of Statements of Financial Interest by public servants comes in the midst of a debate over a proposed rule on gifts under consideration by the Arkansas Ethics Commission. The commission is set to review the proposed rules at its meeting Friday, the fourth time commissioners will consider the rules since they were proposed in December. The rule would sharply restrict the circumstances under which public servants can accept gifts. Huckabee has been outspoken against the rule. He said it is an attempt to criminalize innocent behavior by thousands of public servants, including teachers and nonelected state employees and appointees to boards and commissions. The rule is an effort to interpret the gift-giving provisions of the law, Arkansas Code Annotated 21-8-801, which stems from a 1988 initiated ethics act. An item is considered a gift if it's valued at more than $100. The proposed rule prohibits gifts or other compensation "intended to reward a public servant for doing his or her job or which is intended as a reward for past or future action." It wouldn't have to be proved that an offcial action resulted from the gift or compensation for either to be prohibited. A public servant is defined under the rule as anyone employed by the state or a local or county government, along with appointees to public boards and commissions at all levels of government. The commissioners would decide on a "case-by-case" basis whether a gift or outside compensation was intended as a reward for job performance. The commission would need to know the stated motivation of the donor, who could be called to testify before the commission if a complaint was filed against a public servant. State law and the proposed rule on gifts exempt from the definition of gift such things as food, lodging and travel that bear a relationship to the public servant's office and when appearing in an offcial capacity; gifts not used and returned to the donor within 30 days after receipt; gifts from a spouse or relative; any inheritance; items valued at $100 or less; and wedding presents. Huckabee said he's against the proposed rules because he sees them as an attempt by the commission to enact new laws instead of interpreting existing laws. The governor said the solution is for the Legislature to revise the statute on which the proposed rules are based, because the statute is too vague. When it was pointed out to the governor that the reason it took an initiated act to get ethics disclosure laws passed was because the state Senate declined to approve an ethics measure, resulting in a statewide voter election that approved an ethics initiated act, Huckabee said times have changed. "We do have a very different Legislature," Huckabee said. "Term limits have created a very different environment."

Nice suit Lunch with the Guv Date: 2/13/2000 Category: Editorial Page: J4 EVER NOTICE how our material surroundings seem to actually change with our emotional moods? Maybe the psychologists can explain it, but some locales and what happened there implant themselves so firmly in our memories that, coming back to them at a different time in different circumstances, they seem physically altered. We can remember getting back to Little Rock the day after the Arkansas Gazette closed, and the whole city seemed slightly skewed. The very skyline looked different, as if something were missing. And it was: a certain character. You needn't like or dislike something to feel its absence. You just know it's gone. It's a sensation somewhere between nostalgia and deja vu. As when you pass the house of a friend who has died, or a football stadium where your team no longer plays. The place itself seems shrunken, empty. When a bunch of us inky wretches showed up at the Governor's Mansion the other day, it had undergone some subtle but distinct alteration. The place seemed shrunken, a little dingy, and for the first time we started wondering just who had donated all the items in every room. We were there to have lunch and talk about plans for the state's tobacco settlement with Gov. Mike (Nice Suit) Huckabee. The governor himself was as articulate and ingratiating as ever; nothing outward had changed, though we thought him particularly well attired. But something was different. It was our perception. Our eyes kept drifting to the governor's threads. His plans for a special legislative session to divvy up the tobacco money got only a lick and a promise as the table talk centered on all the gifts he's accepted during his tenure--some $1 12,000 worth last year alone. Of that rather grand total, $53,382 came from one donor--the legendary giver Jennings Osborne, and it included $23,000 in clothes. The governor said he didn't see anything wrong with all that. Jennings, he explained, would be Jennings, and he'd asked his friend to stop but you know how Jennings is, and the governor had never done any political favors in return, and we had to understand that they'd both been poor boys, which explains why Jennings just can't help giving (and why this governor just can't help taking?) and his conscience was at ease, and how about ours, considering all the T-shirts and barbecue Jennings had given the press over the years, huh, and look at how much worse certain legislators' ethics were than his own and .... the dining room kept getting smaller and darker. AT SOME POINT, drifting away from what was being said, we thought of Mike Huckabee's first bright day in office, when he and the whole state had to fight to wrest the Mansion from a disgraced governor who refused to leave, and what light years away all that now seems--as if it were a dim, distant, fast receding star. Before lunch was over, the conversation touched on many things--not just the tobacco settlement but the state's current siege of Stadiamania, and the governor's unhappiness with his fellow Republicans' traditional death wish. It has manifested itself most recently by the party leadership's not realizing how useful it could be to have a real, live Republican in the Governor's Mansion, someone who was willing not just to advise but to lead--and to take responsibility for the party's success. The Guv sounded both miffed and mystified. At one point, irrepressible showman that some of the best preachers are, the Huck gave an uncanny imitation of Bill Clinton--the only satisfactory one we've ever heard, amateur or professional. Maybe it helps to come from Hope, Ark., and know not just the accent but the pitch. We felt like applauding at the end, and would love to hear that number again. It was art. For a moment the general tawdriness of debating the propriety of all those gifts with the Guv, and having to, lifted like a bad spell. But it's the emperor's clothes that stick in the mind, and in the craw--all $23,032 worth of them. That he had asked Jennings Osborne to stop sending him all this stuff spoke well of the governor. And not so well. Mike Huckabee must have realized that there was something unseemly in the head of state's accepting all this baksheesh, or he would not have asked his generous friend to please stop. And now he won't or can't acknowledge that there's anything wrong with a governor's taking $50,000 in goods and services from his benefactor over the course of a single year. It's not Jennings Osborne's giving that's the problem, but the governor of Arkansas' taking. And taking and taking. But to have to spell out why that's wrong is embarrassing, too. Some things should not have to be explained to a grown man even if he is a politician. Even if he's a preacher. The next time the Guv delivers one of his moving appeals on behalf of Arkansas pride and grit, and how important it is to reform welfare and reinforce the work ethic, and the satisfaction of paying your own way, are we just supposed to put his hundred and twelve thou in annual gifts aside--the nice suits and free eye care and everything else? Can't be done. How separate the speech from the speaker, the preachment from the preacher? IT'S SAD, having to draw up rules and regulations, statutes and ordinances, to substitute for simple common sense and self-restraint. For the surest sign of a fading ethic is the need for a profusion of "ethical guidelines." Can the Wall Street Journal have had something when it derided Arkansas Mores? This whole discussion depresses, and makes us all smaller It's happened before, this trick-of-the-eye that makes the Governor's Mansion a different place for different governors. For each governor seems to leave his own stamp on the Mansion. We remember having a fast-forward lunch there with Jim Guy Tucker in what now seems a world or two ago, and marveling that somehow the food had disappeared off his plate, for the man seemed to talk non-stop, intensely, imperatively, through the hour. The gracious dining room was suddenly transformed into a fast-food outlet. No wonder so many politicians seem dyspeptic, we thought at the time; it must be all those business lunches. There have been better times, too. Remember when the late Winthrop Rockefeller moved into the Mansion after the Faubus eternity? The place gleamed with new hope and a New South, and the promise of those days was largely fulfilled, as one corrupt practice after another was abandoned. And remember how alive the Mansion seemed when the Pryors and their boys filled it with life? Of course that was long before David had gone on to become an ex-senator and shill for the Clinton defense fund, a guy whose idea of propriety was meeting with a federal judge in camera to exercise his influence. (The judge, caught by surprise, would later apologize; we don't think David ever did.) The day we lunched at this governor's table was cloudy, sultry for February, uneasy, and the sky as opaque as the ethics of public offficials in Arkansas. Before saying goodbye, we made a point of mentioning that we hoped the governor would let us buy him lunch soon. Something wouldn't let us leave without offering to reciprocate. At least he had raised our consciousness. The governor seemed agreeable. And very well dressed.

Ethics, restraint and public trust Date: 2/10/2000 Category: Editorial Page: B7 JOHN BRUMMETT Gov. Mike Huckabee has been explaining public ethics lately. Maybe Jennings Osborne can hold forth next on taste and restraint. Then John Rocker can lecture on the brotherhood of man. I caught Huckabee's act on "Arkansans Ask" the other night on the Arkansas Educational Television Network, a.k.a. Huckstervision. Talk about a state agency in the right place at the right time. The state has a governor who craves cameras as much as he craves clothes. AETN happens to have plenty of free cameras, if not nearly as many as Osborne has free suits. Then I listened the next morning as Wide Body took his spiel to local talk radio, a medium for which he is trained and on which his glib inflections sing. He might have pursued radio as a career, in fact, if the clothing allowance had been better. Huckabee made the rounds to explain that it's perfectly fine for him to take more than $23,000 in free clothes in a year from Osborne, the random practitioner of garish generosity. He said it's about friendship. He said it's about how he will not allow his friendships to be regulated or appraised by the "friendship police." He said it's about how Osborne never asked him for a thing. He said it's about how the only regulation that matters is his own conscience, which, he relates, is just fine with the more than $112,000 in gifts he and the family reported accepting all told last year. Apparently it was osmosis, not a dapper governor, that put Osborne on the War Memorial Stadium Commission and in the middle of the great war for the heart of the tailgate culture that is Arkansas. Apparently Huckabee equates this particular personal friendship with his receipt of apparel. Does he fear that Jennings wouldn't like him if he said no thanks, pal, the closet's full? How convenient it would be if all of us could invoke our own condoning consciences in triumphant defense against perceived transgressions and indiscretions. "But, Hillary, dear," Bill pleaded, "my conscience told me it wasn't sex." That was when she slapped him, or so I've read. One thing this is not about, in Huckabee's version, at least, is the importance to the public trust of a governor's diligence in maintaining not only actual propriety, but even the appearance of independence and propriety. Huckabee whined on the radio that he's been forced to open his checking account to public scrutiny to serve as governor, and that, by golly, he does not intend to compound that indignity by sending back any of those suits and sport coats from a buddy who merely wants the pleasure and honor of outfitting him. I know all of us share Wide Body's contempt for the inconveniences of free public housing and free transportation--indeed, for the full measure of personal inconveniences of public office and public responsibility, burdens that someone apparently forced Huckabee to assume at gunpoint. That it's simply unseemly for a man elected and paid by the people to allow himself to be dressed like a plaything by an extravagant sugar daddy, even one who never attaches a specific quid pro quo--that basic truth remains safely hidden in this governor's purported blind spot. Why preach welfare reform and personal responsibility to poor people and then take free clothes to supplement your own $68,000-a-year salary as enhanced by free lodging and free transportation? One other thing about Huckabee--before, that is, I blast away at another ethically challenged state legislator: Huckabee always reacts to criticism of his ethical failings with petulant rejoinders about how others are doing similarly bad or worse things and getting away with them. It's a version of the "Mommy, he started it" argument, which didn't work way back when. On the radio show, Huckabee asked why we don't require public disclosure of "intimate encounters" with someone other than your spouse. Actually, we sort of do. Bill Clinton, Henry Hyde, Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston--they could testify. I guess Huckabee's argument is that if Monica could do that thing for Bill, then Jennings ought to be able to do this thing for him. It's an interesting parallel. I suppose these are symmetrical personal services: undressing and dressing. More than one person has observed that getting stuff seems to be Huckabee's version of Clinton's self-destructive obsession with getting something else. Meanwhile, we find that state Sen. Tom Kennedy of Russellville has company in the disgrace of handling an electric utility's deregulation bill and then reaping private rewards from that electric utility. State Rep. Steve Napper of Little Rock handled the electric cooperatives' deregulation measure last session. It got amended into Kennedy's bill for Entergy, making everyone but the people happy. Now we learn that in September, Napper, a lawyer, began doing outside legal representation for the co-ops. In both outrages, a legislator used his public trust and a public policy debate to ingratiate himself with a special interest that later retained his private professional services as if as a payoff. Napper's situation is marginally less disgraceful than that of Kennedy. He isn't a fulltime paid lobbyist, just a contract lawyer. It's one thing to have a pre-existing private career that poses potential conflicts when disclosed as one presents oneself as a candidate for our citizen Legislature. It's quite another to gain the public trust and then avail oneself of it for private enrichment. John Brummett's column appears every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Osborne largess just friendship, Huckabee says Governor has clear conscience about gifts to him, family, staff Date: 2/9/2000 Category: News Page: B1 ROB MORITZ ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Gov. Mike Huckabee defended his acceptance of expensive gifts from his friend Jennings Osborne, saying Tuesday no one has the right to tell him whom he can and can't befriend. "Don't regulate my friendships and don't prohibit my friendships," the governor said while appearing on a radio show. "If you get elected to public of fice, it's already [enough] that you have to disclose the intimacies of your relationships with everybody and everything, and empty out your bank account for the world to see," Huckabee said. "Do you have to give up the friends you already have as well? And if so, who gets to be the 'friend police' that decides what level of friendship is appropriate?" State law requires public servants to file a statement of financial interest each January listing their sources of income, business holdings, gifts received, and other financial information for the previous year. The list must include gifts received by the official or spouse valued at more than $100 and those valued at more than $250 received by dependent children. The gifts Huckabee reported for himself, his family and some staff members totaled more than $112,000 last year. Almost half -- $53,382 -- came from Osborne, a businessman and philanthropist who lives in Little Rock. The report showed, among other things, that Osborne gave the governor $23,032 worth of clothing and $11,700 for once-a-week pastries sent to workers at the governor's office and the mansion. Other Osborne gifts included $10,400 for a year's worth of flowers for the Governor's Mansion and $7,500 for a May 12 party for the governor's staff. Huckabee said the value of the gifts Osborne gave him last year compared to the businessman's wealth is "equivalent to the average guy" buying him a hamburger for lunch. "What is he going to get in return?" the governor asked about Osborne. "He doesn't do any business in Arkansas. The man doesn't have Arkansas clients. He's never asked me for a thing, and I've never asked him for a thing." Huckabee said he has a clear conscience about accepting the gifts. "If you have a clear conscience about what you're doing, then the issue is not for someone else to decide what my conscience should be," Huckabee said. "An honest person is not going to be bought for a million dollars and a dishonest person can be bought for a sandwich." The governor admitted he was "astonished" when he learned the value of the gifts. Osborne is well-known for his sometimes lavish giving. He decked the state Capitol and several Arkansas cities with Christmas lights last year. He often pays for fireworks displays. He has helped promote, and in some cases paid for, Huckebee's pet projects. Last year, he paid for several barbecue events touting the governor's Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs program. The governor appointed Osborne last year to the War Memorial Stadium Commission for a term that expires Jan. 14, 2006. That commission is embroiled in a debate over how many football games the University of Arkansas Razorbacks will play in Little Rock.

Feed back Date: 2/19/2000 Category: Editorial Page: B9 LR airport record is exemplary I must strongly disagree with Winton Carson's characterization of the runways at Little Rock National Airport as "woefully inadequate" (Voices, Feb. 14). Passenger safety is and always has been the No. 1 concern of this airport and the nine airlines that serve Little Rock. During the 1990s, about $170 million in federally approved capital improvements were made at this facility, the vast majority in the areas of safety and capacity. The improvements included a new commercial service runway, the rehabilitation and extension of a second commercial service runway, work on a runway primarily used by general aviation aircraft, as well as improvements to the taxiway system. In addition, a new airport traffic control tower has been built and new state-of-the-art navigational equipment installed. The runways at Little Rock National have safely handled the British Airways Concorde, 747s (including Air Force One), 757s, 767s and a variety of other large and small aircraft in addition to regularly scheduled passenger aircraft. I can assure Carson that these aircraft would not have operated here, nor would they continue to operate here, if the runways were "woefully inadequate." In all, there were more than 148,000 aircraft operations (takeoffs and landings) at this airport in 1999 and for the last several years. Little Rock National Airport is fully certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, which would not be the case if any of the facilities here were "woefully inadequate." The exemplary safety record of this airport during the almost 70 years of handling commercial air traffc speaks for itself. DEBORAH H. SCHWARTZ Little Rock Deborah H. Schwartz is airport manager for Little Rock National Airport. An untruthful politician? Well, I have received another shocker regarding the honesty or integrity or else the intelligence of our reverend-governor. I have read some criticism of his accepting sumptuous gifts from his good friend Jennings Osborne, but nowhere have I read any criticism of their friendship. Nor have I read or heard of anyone trying to say who his friends should be. When I read that the governor thought the criticism was referring to whom he should choose as a friend, I wondered if this is another of his cases of trying to confuse our thinking, or does he just not understand exactly what the criticism was referring to? It could be like renting an airplane years ago to a political organization and not having the rent money go to him because it went to the bank (in his account, of course). Or the situation in which he fires a long-time trusted state employee (in favor of a former member of his church), then when asked about the firing, said, "I thought he resigned." Maybe someone can enlighten me. Has the reverend become another dishonest politician like one who does not know the meaning of the word "is"? THOMAS M. PAYNE Bella Vista

A damaged player, just from having to be the visiting team Date: 2/20/2000 Category: Editorial Page: J3 BOB DOUGLAS You have your fans, your band, your cheerleaders. You have the singing and yelling and all. It's pretty much the same whether the Arkansas Razorbacks play in Fayetteville or Little Rock. But, say I, you're not really playing at home if you have to get on the bus. This is a subject I know something about. For five years, in junior and senior high, I played on road teams only. The Kensett, Ark., basketball teams I played on without distinction or even nominal recognition had no gymnasium. Season after season we traveled the highways and byways of White County, longing in vain for cheers, approbation and, yes, love that never came. Our occasional goals met silence, our miscues drew scathing jeers and cruel laughter. We were despised, ineffectual foes though we were. Bald Knob, Judsonia, Pangburn, Rose Bud, boos coming and going. On at least one occasion, we played McRae at Morris Institute, supposedly a neutral site. For the record, we were supposed to be the home team. We weren't. The crowd hated us, possibly out of habit. Oh, sometimes the bus had room for a token cheering squad, but you hardly noticed them, probably because we gave them precious little to cheer about. One teacher even wrote the words to a KHS fight song, to the tune of the Washington and Lee March. A memorable scrap of lyric: "We're gonna yell, yell, yell, yell, yellyellyellyellyell." There was no one to sing it, no band to play it. We were not a large school. We couldn't field a band and a team at the same time. It doesn't take a psychiatrist to recognize the permanent damage to a man's psyche resulting from playing as the visiting team, facing derision and hostility twice a week, night after night, season after season. And this during a young man's formative years. Can you blame me for wanting the Razorbacks to play on campus? After reading this, can you blame me for anything at all? Talk about lasting trauma, about psychological scars that will not heal. Denied my destiny of greatness. Always an outsider, always on the wrong end of the cheering. That was my lot, that's my story. What's your excuse? JUST PLAIN TACKY As Forrest Gump might put it, "Tacky is as tacky does." Mike Huckabee may not be corrupt, his conscience may be clear as he assures us it is, but, by the Great Horned Spoon, is the current governor of Arkansas ever tacky. To me, there's no better way, no more accurate way to describe the man and his behavior. Accepting $112 thou in freebies of one kind or another, $50 thousand from one benefactor, also fits my mother's most damning condemnation, "He's acting downright common." There's the common good, the heroic common man, those are the good commons. The guv's common is the bad kind, the one my mother used in a fiercely disapproving tone. Common, to her, was, well, tacky. Maybe worse than tacky. But I'll just leave it at tacky. Nothing wrong, nothing common, nothing tacky about Jennings Osborne's plying the chief executive with goodies, including $23 thousand's worth of finery. That's what Jennings Osborne does; it's his trademark. There's no evidence that the Arkansas Santa Claus expects anything in return. The appearance of the thing reflects on the Big Guy in the governor's chair, no one else as of this writing. Speaking of Big: I'm puzzled about one thing. Mr. Osborne said that the clothiers' have the governor's sizes on file. I have seen only pictures of Mike Huckabee for the last few years, but I have noticed that the size file has had to be updated from time to time. If the governor is going to keep "growing," replacement wardrobes might tax even the famous Osborne generosity to friends and strangers. Certainly, 'tis still more blessed to give than to receive. The governor and his friend Jennings are at opposite ends of the spectrum. In Huckabee's case, the receiving is just plain tacky. Tacky, tacky, tacky. Even common. POUNDING THE PREACHER In the Olden Days, we called it "Pounding the Preacher." Each member of the congregation donated a pound of some kind of staple--butter, sugar, shortening--to help out the local pastor during the Great Depression. But preachers weren't governors back then. Not a lot they could do for you beyond saving your soul. It would have taken tons of produce to pound the Rev.-Gov. Mike Huckabee during the depressed days of the 1 930s. Even in the inflated economy of today, it would take several pounds of gold to add up to 1 12 thou. Bob Douglas is former managing editor of the Arkansas Gazette and retired chairman of the Walter J. Lemie Department of Journalism at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Write him at rdouglascomp.uark.edu

State's gifts to hopefuls in line with race Date: 2/20/2000 Category: News Page: A1 5 JANE FULLERTON ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE WASHINGTON -- Arkansas contributions to the major presidential candidates mirror the race taking shape on a national level, with front-runners Al Gore and George W. Bush raising nearly identical totals to lead the pack and the insurgent John McCain picking up the pace in 1999/s final quarter. Bush, the Republican Texas governor, raised $179,557 in Arkansas, putting him slightly ahead of Gore, the Democratic vice president, who raised $179,120, according to year-end figures provided to the Federal Election Commission by each campaign. Gore raised much of his Arkansas money at a $500-a-ticket Little Rock fund-raiser in August. That event, a joint Clinton-Gore effort, produced $400,000 overall, according to the Gore campaign. In the year's final reporting period, covering October through December, Bush raised almost three times as much as Gore -- $15,650 for Bush compared with $5,555 for Gore. For the year, the Bush campaign received numerous contributions from some of Arkansas' best-known names. In the final quarter, contributions of the $ 1,000 maximum by Murphy Oil Chairman Robert M. Murphy of El Dorado and his wife, Katherine, brought Bush's total from the Murphy family to $8,750 for 1999. During the year, Bush also won the backing of the William Dillard family ($6,000) and the Jennings Osborne family ($3,000), as well as other prominent Arkansans, including Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller, former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt and longtime Republican supporter Earl Sloan of Walnut Ridge. Along with those contributions made directly to the Bush campaign -- known as "hard money," which is subject to federal limits -- the Texas governor also generated $70,000 in December from just three Arkansas families who made donations to a separate 1999 State Victory Fund Committee. The committee is relatively new in political fund-raising, according to FECInfo, a nonpartisan information service that tracks candidates' contributions and spending. Part of the money will go into Bush's "hard-money" account and part will go into an account for "soft money," the unregulated funds that are generally given directly to the political parties for "party building" activities rather than for supporting specific candidates. Donations to the new Bush committee came from a trio of longtime Republican backers -Murphy; Chesley Pruet, another El Dorado oilman who is state finance chairman for the Bush campaign; and Pruet's wife, Elizabeth. Each of the three gave $10,000. Also, Charles Adams, a cotton marketer from Leachville, and his wife, Myrna, each gave $20,000 to the Bush committee. McCain, the Republican Arizona senator, raised just $19,787 from individual Arkansans in 1999. But, reflecting the increasing strength of his campaign, more than half -- $10,838 -came in the final three months of the year. During the final quarter, only Bush got more money than McCain in Arkansas, and the Texas governor outpaced the Arizona senator only 3-2 even though he was still far ahead in the polls at the time. In Arkansas, McCain picked up cash from several people who had already donated to Bush. For instance, Jackson Stephens, chairman of Stephens Group Inc., gave $250 to Bush in June. He gave $1,000 to McCain on Dec. 7. Also, Jim Walton, chairman of Arvest Bank Group Inc., and his wife, Lynne, owner of Corner Bookstore in Bentonville, each gave $1,000 to Bush in June. They gave $1,000 apiece to McCain in October. Unlike 1992 and 1996, when Arkansans anted up millions in contributions for home-state candidate Bill Clinton, the state has not been a wellspring of funds for any of the current contenders. For Gore, from neighboring Tennessee, Arkansas ranked 27th in terms of state totals. For Bush, from neighboring Texas, Arkansas ranked 40th. For McCain, the state came in at No. 42. And for Democratic candidate and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, Arkansas finished 51 st, giving more than only two other states -- North and South Dakota -- and coming in behind places that aren't even states at all, such as Puerto Rico. While McCain picked up several $1,000 donations from high-profile Arkansans, nationally most of his contributions have been far smaller. Thirty percent of McCain's total dollars came from people giving less than $200, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes finances in the political system. That's three times the proportion of small contributions to the campaigns of Bush, Gore and Bradley. At the same time, McCain has relied far less on $1,000 donors, who have accounted for about a third of his contributions. On the other hand, $1,000 contributors have provided about three-quarters of the money for Bush and Gore, and about two-thirds of the funds for Bradley. "McCain's money pattern matches the campaign," said Larry Makinson, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "It's much more an insurgent effort than an establishment campaign, and the numbers reflect that." Overall, at the end of 1999, financial disclosure forms showed Bush still way out front in the fund-raising race, with some $70 million. His $32.7 million cash-on-hand dwarfed the funds available to the other candidates: $8.3 million for Bradley, $7.8 million for Gore, and $1.5 million for McCain. But McCain's landslide victory in the New Hampshire primary has changed not only the dynamics of the race since the first of the year, but also the fund-raising picture. Although the campaigns have not yet been required to file updated disclosures, some observers estimate that Bush's cash has shrunk to about $20 million. McCain, meanwhile, has been using the Internet as a fund-raising tool, raising some $4 million online, including $2.5 million since the New Hampshire primary.

What's wrong with Jerry Sullenberger? Date: 08/23/90 Category: Page: What's wrong with Jerry Sullenberger? . Where is Jerry Sullenberger and what's WRONG with him? A small advertisement in the Arkansas Gazette Wednesday said: " Jerry Sullenburger. Please contact a staff member as soon as possible ... Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center, Inc." Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center on Rebsamen Park Road tests new drugs for pharmaceutical companies. Sullenberger, whose name was misspelled in the ad, apparently was one of the people who participated in one of the tests. Employees at Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center said Wednesday that Sullenberger was in no particular trouble and that the advertising campaign to locate him was done as a favor to a pharmaceutical company. " Oh no, no, there's nothing wrong with him," said a woman named Cindy who answered at the telephone number listed in the ad. " He's OK.The drug company would just like to talk to him about possibly trying another drug.(" Jennings Osborne of Arkansas Research Medical Testing said Sullenberger was one of 24 people who participated in a test of a new "anti-ulcer" drug in June. He was one of three in the test group whose response to the drug prompted the company to ask for them again, Osborne said. The other two have been notified, but Sullenberger could not be located, and the ad was run "as a courtesy," to the drug company, Osborne said. The 2-inch-by-4-inch ad also appeared in newspapers in Austin, Houston and Dallas, Texas, where relatives of Sullenberger's believe he might be living, he said. " He religiously reads the paper wherever he goes," Osborne explained. David Sullenberger of Little Rock, Jerry Sullenberger's uncle, said his nephew is "kind of a nomad" who lives a transient existence. A Vietnam veteran who is a carpenter by trade, Jerry Sullenberger hasn't communicated with his uncle in several months. David Sullenberger said he was not aware that Jerry Sullenberger had any medical problems, and speculated that he participated in the drug test to earn money. He agreed that the newspaper advertisement was a good idea, and said that if his nephew had the money to buy a newspaper, the advertisement likely would catch his attention. Osborne said this was the first time that the Arkansas Research Medical Testing Center has used an ad to find a former test subject. He said that finding the right wording for the ad was difficult and predicted that some people who read it would speculate that a terrible fate had befallen Sullenberger.

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