Holt Not Extreme Based on Demgaz Reporter's Research
Holt is Not Extreme
When You Look at Wickline's Research
The following quote from Arkansas Watch blog reflects my view of a recent article by Michael Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette." Reporter Michael Wickline tries to answer the question of whether or not Senator Jim Holt, candidate for Lt. Governor, is an extremist. To answer the question he decided to do something that is almost unheard of in his field - through research! That is right, instead of simply making a series of unsupported statements, or making one phone call and when nobody answers writing up the story anyway, Mr. Wickline made the extra effort required to get all sides of the story."
Below are some of my favorite excerpts from the story along with my comments in brackets. Wickline's excerpts are in quotes; my comment are in brackets.
"Holt said Arkansas has the fourth-highest tax burden in the nation. He cited the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation.. .The foundation said Arkansas has the 10th-worst business climate in the nation."
" In his lieutenant governor campaign, he [Holt} has said he’ll try to get a measure on the ballot to give voters power to decide on tax increases and some state spending increases, if the 2007 Legislature doesn’t enact such legislation on its own."
" He said state government has incrementally drifted left, raising taxes, and needs to “compromise incrementally back to the right direction” to cut taxes."
" During six years in the Legislature, Holt has introduced four bills to cut taxes. None cleared a committee. … He voted against cost-of-living raises for state elected officials, including lawmakers, in 2001, 2003 and 2005." [In other words he voted against his own salary increase three times. Now that is extreme!!!! But honest Brummet in his recent article left the deceptive impression that Holt didn't want a minimum wage increase but approved of raises for legislators.]
"In 2003, he [Holt] said he’d propose a constitutional amendment to let voters decide whether legislators get raises. But he didn’t. He said he was advised that lawmakers wouldn’t put it on the ballot." [Now do we know why Senator Holt can't get any bills passed. He can't get the other legislators to cooperate with the will of the people. Another example is the bill he sponsored to keep unmarried couples, including homosexual and heterosexual, from adopting children. It passed the House, but Holt couldn't get it out of the Senate committee. But now that the Court has decreed that homosexuals must be allowed to be foster parents, every state candidate but one, Bill Halter, says they oppose homosexual foster parenting. So who is extreme, Holt or Halter?]
For rest of article click "Wednesday" below and scroll down, or if sent straight here just scroll down".
When You Look at Wickline's Research
The following quote from Arkansas Watch blog reflects my view of a recent article by Michael Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette." Reporter Michael Wickline tries to answer the question of whether or not Senator Jim Holt, candidate for Lt. Governor, is an extremist. To answer the question he decided to do something that is almost unheard of in his field - through research! That is right, instead of simply making a series of unsupported statements, or making one phone call and when nobody answers writing up the story anyway, Mr. Wickline made the extra effort required to get all sides of the story."
Below are some of my favorite excerpts from the story along with my comments in brackets. Wickline's excerpts are in quotes; my comment are in brackets.
"Holt said Arkansas has the fourth-highest tax burden in the nation. He cited the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation.. .The foundation said Arkansas has the 10th-worst business climate in the nation."
" In his lieutenant governor campaign, he [Holt} has said he’ll try to get a measure on the ballot to give voters power to decide on tax increases and some state spending increases, if the 2007 Legislature doesn’t enact such legislation on its own."
" He said state government has incrementally drifted left, raising taxes, and needs to “compromise incrementally back to the right direction” to cut taxes."
" During six years in the Legislature, Holt has introduced four bills to cut taxes. None cleared a committee. … He voted against cost-of-living raises for state elected officials, including lawmakers, in 2001, 2003 and 2005." [In other words he voted against his own salary increase three times. Now that is extreme!!!! But honest Brummet in his recent article left the deceptive impression that Holt didn't want a minimum wage increase but approved of raises for legislators.]
"In 2003, he [Holt] said he’d propose a constitutional amendment to let voters decide whether legislators get raises. But he didn’t. He said he was advised that lawmakers wouldn’t put it on the ballot." [Now do we know why Senator Holt can't get any bills passed. He can't get the other legislators to cooperate with the will of the people. Another example is the bill he sponsored to keep unmarried couples, including homosexual and heterosexual, from adopting children. It passed the House, but Holt couldn't get it out of the Senate committee. But now that the Court has decreed that homosexuals must be allowed to be foster parents, every state candidate but one, Bill Halter, says they oppose homosexual foster parenting. So who is extreme, Holt or Halter?]
For rest of article click "Wednesday" below and scroll down, or if sent straight here just scroll down".
posted by Debbie Pelley at Wednesday, July 05, 2006
4 Comments:
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"In the 2003 special session on education, Holt voted against a bill to consolidate school districts with fewer than 350 students." [Holt was also the only senator that voted against closing isolated school districts. It appears that the court in denying Bryant the right to close Paron this year has agreed with Holt who didn't want students on the bus 4 hours a day, and other Republicans are now agreeing with Holt on the small school issue.]
" Holt said he hasn’t tried to pass many bills.
“I think most people would agree that we have enough laws,” he said. [Amen]
He said his main purpose is to kill bad bills.
Among the bills he said he helped kill: The Huckabee backed proposal to make illegal aliens eligible for cheaper in-state college tuition rates and state-funded scholarships." [Amen again]
Recently honest John Brummett said, "He [Holt] wants to take evolution out of the textbooks. Wickline just did Brummett's research for him and reported it accurately. "The bill would have prohibited using public funds to present as fact evolution-related information that the bill declared to be false or fraudulent…. Holt and others insisted that the aim of the bill was not to ban teaching evolution and substitute biblical creationism. The aim, they said, was to stop the dissemination of inaccurate information to schoolchildren in material distributed or endorsed by state agencies, school districts, museums, zoos, cities and counties. … How “extremist” was it? It came within six votes of the 51 needed for passage in the 100-member House. A co-sponsor is the current chairman of the state Republican Party, Sen. Gilbert Baker of Conway. Another was Critcher, the Democrat who’s in line to be president pro tempore of the Senate for the next two years."
[ Good job Wickline! Of course, Brummett didn't really want to know the background. He, like the editorialists at the Demgaz, just wanted to report anything ugly he could find about Holt whether it was true or not.]
" Holt maintained that the state Supreme Court overstepped its jurisdictional bounds by reopening the state’s school-funding case. That led some to count him as “defiant” of the court’s order for Arkansas to adequately fund public schools. Two members of the court itself dissented from that ruling and said the court majority had overstepped its jurisdictional bounds." [Most people in Arkansas would not consider any of the Supreme Court justices extreme unless it would be extreme left or extremely liberal, especially so since they just handed down a unanimous decision mandating homosexuals be able to be foster parents after citizens in Arkansas voted for a constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage. That decision reflects how out of touch the court is with the populace.]
" He [Holt]voted against a bill to appropriate $40 million for prekindergarten programs.
Bryles [Senator Bryles who was the only Senator willing to call Holt extreme] said Holt’s opposition to pre-kindergarten promotes “a backward agenda” when the state needs to produce educated and skilled workers. Holt has said he opposes pre-kindergarten because “children are not wards of the state.” [Holt is so extreme that he agrees with the voters in California who just rejected in a statewide vote, Proposition 82 which would have provided free preschool for all California 4-year-olds, the same program that his opponent Bill Halter has proposed for Arkansas at a cost of at least $300 million! Arkansas is already eighth in the country in funding earmarked for preschool education according to Dem Gazette article. It appears to me that those who are still pushing pre-kindergarten in a state where the tax burden is so heavy (4th in the nation in total taxes per income) are the extremists. See this link for the California rejection of free preschool. So who is extreme, Senator Bryles, Bill Halter, John Brummett, (Brummet also slammed Holt for his stand on prekindergarten programs) or Holt? http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-props7jun07,0,5902039.story?coll=la-home-headlines
"Holt also said legislators weren’t happy that the court was attempting to dictate to the legislative branch and the executive branch. In that context, he said that when one branch controls everything it’s 'tyranny.'"
"Argue has said Holt’s willingness to “defy the court” was reminiscent of Orval Faubus, who as governor a half-century ago interrupted a court-approved school desegregation plan in Little Rock." [But just in the last few days, Argue stated his concerns that Judge Moody, who ordered Bryant not to close Paron school because of 4 hour bus rides, was usurping powers that belonged to the legislature. Strange how we decide who is extreme!]
" In April, Holt was one of only three legislators who voted against bills raising the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour.
He said some of his supporters advised him to vote for it.
Retired teacher Debbie Pelley of Jonesboro said she tried to convince Holt “his opponents would hammer him incessantly on this.” Political campaigns revolve around “sound bites,” she said, and it’s hard to explain a vote against the wage increase in a sound bite.
Holt said he told her he’s never voted for his own political gain.
“If you compromise to get there, you’ll compromise when you are there,” he said.
“I made the right vote, and I think I can defend it,” he said….
Sen. Paul Miller, D-Melbourne, who doesn’t count Holt as an extremist, said Holt votes his conscience.
“You have to give him credit for that. Against all odds he will stick with what he believes in,” Miller said. [No wonder Holt is called extreme. He fits that quote, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."]
And no wonder Holt is just the type of extremist that the populace have been looking for and the type of extremist they love. Instead of calling Holt an extremist, I think you could describe him as visionary. He is discerning, sees the problems ahead, votes his conscience and then others follow when the people and situations confirm he was right.
For Wickline's entire story go to this link:
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/159282/print/
Exactly right. All great leaders are visionaries.
Excellent, love it! » »
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