By John Brummett

Remind me: What were the very founding tenets of that so-called Brotherhood that Sen. Bob Johnson of Bigelow formed to wrest control of the Senate from more progressive senators years ago?

And don’t I recall correctly that Sen. Gilbert Baker, leader of the Republicans in the Senate, was right there with Bigelow Bob?

Indeed, the insurgent takeover wouldn’t have worked without the Republicans.

Oh, yes. Now I remember.

These founding tenets were an equal share from state surplus funds for every senator to take home for pork projects and no more lording it over lesser senators by big dogs in this surplus-spending process.

It turned out that Johnson had sustained hurt feelings as a Senate freshman when, even as a former speaker of the House, he didn’t get any special treatment.

It turned out that Baker had sustained hurt feelings as a freshman when then-Sen. Mike Beebe presumed to tell him what he would get and not get from this General Improvement Fund for the University of Central Arkansas. Then Baker got mad when Sen. Percy Malone of Arkadelphia took that role in the next session — Beebe having gone to attorney general — and performed with decidedly less tact and charm than Beebe.

Baker and I shouted at each other about this back in those days. We came up out of our chairs.

He said equal was fair. I said it wasn’t.

I said the state’s capital improvement needs didn’t magically happen to fall equally among 35 senatorial districts. I said responsible policymaking is not to throw some senator with few state installations in his district the same amount of tax manna one throws to a senator with many such installations.

I said you accomplished nothing other than to encourage the senator with few state installations to spend unaccountable money on whole-cloth concoctions, such as sidewalks and rodeos.

I said there was nothing inherently wrong, but some things inherently right, with certain senators taking extra responsibility and showing extra resourcefulness and expertise and, as a result, having more power.

Oh, my, how old-fashioned and absurd, opposing simple equality like that, Baker replied.

So now I simply must tell you what happened in this just-completed legislative session.

The Brotherhood had achieved its pinnacle. Johnson ran the Senate as president pro tem. Baker was the Senate’s co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.

They told all senators they would get $857,000 apiece from the General Improvement Fund.

Meantime, Baker was helping steer $10 million through GIF to the state Highway Department to go toward a new interchange in Conway, mainly to oblige the new Hewlett-Packard facility.

And Johnson was singlehandedly steering $4 million to the Forestry Commission, with which to try to buy land for preservation along the Big Maumelle River and protect Central Arkansas’ water supply.

I support both those expenditures. I touted Johnson in columns and praised his conversion from destroyer to protector of Little Rock’s water. Conway needs traffic relief.

I merely cite these as classic examples that make my point. Equal isn’t best. Sometimes special needs arise. And sometimes big-dog senators get special rewards for themselves and their constituents.

Baker says I give him too much credit for the $10 million. And he argues that at least Johnson didn’t deprive any senators of their equal share of the available pot.

I say only Baker was chairman of Joint Budget.

I say putting these projects on the general side of GIF, the so-called governor’s side, didn’t change the fact that these were Johnson’s and Baker’s projects.

And I say the available pot for other senators would have provided more than $857,000 for each of them if Johnson and Baker hadn’t skimmed $14 million right off the top.

This is mostly a story about the idle amusements of circumstance and hypocrisy.

Here’s another element of that story: Everybody is saying this $10 million for the Conway interchange needs to be matched by federal money and that U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder will try to deliver that in an earmark.

But aren’t earmarks supposed to be bad? Hasn’t Barack Obama vowed to end them?
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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.