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JONES: Political vultures find prey |
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
The political vultures are again perched on the fence posts, apparently ready and more than willing to attack their prey with little or no justification.
Any opportunity will do. Even an honest mistake that was blown completely out of proportion for the sake of political drama and gain.
The truly sad part is that this ridiculousness again has to do with county government in general and the Saline County Sheriff’s Office in particular. You would think some of these guys have put the county through enough in the past couple of years. Obviously not, even as the High Sheriff, Phil Mask, continues to draw his salary from taxpayers who can rarely find him in the office or on the job. Good work if you can get it, right?
Art Copeland, a former justice of the peace from the northeastern part of the county, came into the newsroom Thursday soon after the Single Parent Scholarship Fund benefit luncheon had ended on the courthouse lawn in Downtown Benton. He had some photographs on his cell phone that we just had to see.
“Illegal stuff!” he exclaimed as he showed us photos of county inmates carrying large political signs for James Ward of Alexander, a hard-working candidate for sheriff.
Copeland was convinced that he and his political buzzards had swooped in on illegal moment that surely would change the entire scope of the upcoming primary election between Republican candidates Ward and Tim Dudderar of Bryant. The victor meets Democrat Bruce Pennington of Benton in the general election.
It’s important to understand that both Dudderar and Pennington are sergeants in the sheriff’s department. Ward is a businessman and detached from the click. Draw your own conclusions, which shouldn’t be difficult.
Understand, too, that Copeland is a District 2 constable and a Mask guy. And a friend of Rick Meyer of Bryant, the chairman of the county Republican Party and, some allege, the craftsman for sneaky political maneuvering.
Further understand that no one among this bunch is willing to forgive and forget the difficulties Mask has had with the rest of county government during his tenure as sheriff.
Well, while the photos did seem curious, something didn’t smell right. I was at the luncheon. I don’t recall seeing anything that looked so unusual that it could be considered a violation of political protocol. Plus, there was the political connection with Copeland that kept figuring into the equation.
What happened Thursday is that Pete Taylor, a county employee, made an honest error in judgment. He reportedly told a county official, “I just wasn’t thinking. I take the blame. I learned my lesson.”
Taylor works for the road department. He supervises inmate crews when they are doing chores like picking up trash along county roads or, as was the case Thursday, helping set up and take down materials for the luncheon.
Cleanup chores Thursday included removing leftover political materials for a lot of candidates, most of whom were at the luncheon because it was a good place to politic. Taylor, who wanted a Ward sign, saw inmates carrying some Ward signs. Taylor innocently asked one of the inmates to toss one of the signs in his truck.
As soon as he realized what he’d said, Taylor said it was too late; the inmate had already put the sign in the truck. The problem is, Copeland or someone saw it and took photos. In fact, the photographer went so far as to ask the inmate to pose with the sign, which the inmate gladly did.
Copeland didn’t find a buyer here so he went to the media outlet that he knew would take the bait: Fox 16 TV station in Little Rock. It’s well known that Fox and Mask have had a love affair. Mask asks and Fox does. This time, without any questions.
So, on Friday, here comes an Associated Press story with a Benton dateline. The source for the story is Fox 16. The story begins with Mask saying that he won’t tolerate jail inmates on work detail handling political signs — particularly signs for Ward, I assume, since Mask singled out Ward signs.
“This is an abuse of taxpayer money,” Copeland was quoted as saying, failing to mention, of course, that he had an immediate family member convicted in the late 1990s for the mishandling of money donated to a benefit fund.
Please. Mask now concerned about work detail crews when allegations of wrongdoing at the new county jail are swirling? Hypocrisy at its finest.
Taylor made an honest mistake — and the political vultures preyed on it, blowing an innocent incident completely out of proportion.
Hasn’t the county endured enough of this childish, vindictive bunch?
Whit Jones is editor of the Courier. His column appears periodically.
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