By John Brummett

Readers matter most and they say they like the arrows. And this is always a good way to cover several subjects at once.

Blanche Lincoln — Apparently her opponent will be either folksy and occasionally irascible state Sen. Kim Hendren of Gravette, flame-throwing Rovian operative Tim Griffin of Little Rock or unknown biotech firm executive Curtis Coleman of North Little Rock.

That probably means Hendren. It also means she can go ahead now and take the third-term oath of office from her buddy Joe Biden.

A Democrat did the math the other day. The Republicans win the 3rd District and the parts of the 2nd District outside Pulaski County. Lincoln wins Pulaski County and the 1st and 4th Districts. Rural/black still outpolls suburban/white in a state that is stagnant politically, culturally, economically and demographically. Blanche wins.

Her biggest problem is that Republicans in the Senate will be offering all kinds of lightning-rod amendments to vital bills this year and next, forcing her to cast liberal-looking votes. The Republicans can’t accomplish anything; all they can do is try to tie potentially vulnerable Democrats in knots.

Republicans in Arkansas — They ought to be able to do better than this, at least among rural conservative voters. Guys like Tommy Robinson and Sheffield Nelson might have made that inroad, but they destroyed each other and/or imploded. Mike Huckabee made those inroads, but only for himself, not party-building.

That’s understandable. Arkansas people don’t vote so much for the party as the person and Wide Body No More had to take care of himself, just as Bumpers, Pryor, Clinton and Beebe took care of themselves.

Arkansas politics remains a cult of personality and Republicans currently come unarmed to that battle in Arkansas.

Bobby Petrino — He’s going to take the Hogs to 7-5 next year and a bowl game in Shreveport. For that he will be proclaimed a genius, which, regarding offense, he may actually be. Indeed, the future will look reasonably bright and Petrino’s accomplishments will be made to look even better in contrast with those of the basketball team.

John Pelphrey — See immediately preceding item.

Ryan Mallett — They say this enormous youngster has the strongest arm ever among Razorback quarterbacks. Stronger than Joe Ferguson, stronger than Brad Taylor, stronger than Peanut Adams. If you see Ryan on Dickson Street, throw a net over him and call the coach’s office. There’ll be a couple of tickets in it for you.

House Speaker Robbie Wills — I’m still looking at his blog and reading his tweets every day. I don’t know why. I can’t help myself. I think he’s after Craig O’Neil’s job anchoring Channel 11’s newscasts, and I’m not so sure he shouldn’t get it.

Ray Thornton — It appears that he’ll be the chairman of the new Lottery Commission. I am surprised how comfortable I am with that. The last time this kind of comfort surprised me this much, Hillary Clinton was becoming secretary of state.

Marion Berry — He’s getting attacked on TV from the left. It doesn’t get any better than that for a Blue Dog Democratic congressman from East Arkansas.

Me — Just when I get nearly ready to hang it all up and write my memoir, “Garbage Man’s Boy — The Rise and Fall of an Unlikely Arkansas Pundit,” these youngblood local bloggers pull me back in.

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John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699.