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Arkansas Project Odds and Ends

Work demands, some administrative issues and the sluggish pace of the August news cycle conspired to slow my posting to the blog today. However, a few odds and ends for a Friday afternoon, mostly passing issues that don’t demand individual posts:

Item: If you haven’t read Arkansas Project contributor Dan Greenberg’s series on the Dwayne Dobbins dilemma below, take some time to do so. Dobbins gave up his seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2005 as part of a plea bargain to dodge a felony charge of sexual assault on a 16-year-old girl. His wife ran for the seat in District 39 and won, but when it came time to file for re-election in March, Mr. Dobbins slid in and filed in her place, shortly before the deadline. Crafty devil! How do you solve a problem like Dwayne Dobbins? Dan examines the legal issues here, here and here.

Item: Many thanks to Arkansas Project readers who e-mailed over the last few days with suggestions for improving the site with some format tweaks. We’ll be adjusting many of those in the days to come. (One of those tweaks is the typeface, which you’ll notice is now a bit larger, after many of you pointed out that the earlier typeface was a bit hard to read).

Sen. Mark Pryor: Now Cut That Out!
Sen. Mark Pryor: Now Cut That Out!

Item: A profile of Sen. Mark Pryor in last Sunday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette confirms my belief that the Arkansas Congressional team is perhaps the Least Interesting Congressional Delegation in the United States. Reporter Seth Blomeley made a valiant effort to find some color in the Pryor palette, but the senator’s blandly pleasant nice guyism was simply too strong a force to overcome.

However, a couple of nuggets did shine through, one of which was this: “On the road, he likes to listen to old radio programs, such as The Shadow and Jack Benny — stuff that makes longtime aide Michael Teague groan.”

Who knew the junior senator had such excellent taste in entertainment? Lest you think this is about to turn into a sarcastic blast at Pryor, guess again: I LOVE Jack Benny, and am delighted to know that there are still fellow Benny-lovers in the world. Under the age of 70, I mean.

So, in honor of Sen. Pryor, and for the entertainment and edification of those of you who are stuck reading this while you wait for the office clock to strike five, a classic clip in which Jack Benny faces off against his longtime tormentor Frank Nelson:

An American classic, indeed.

Forecast for the weekend: Light posting.

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