By John Brummett

HOT SPRINGS — I moderated a panel discussion of rural state legislators last week at the state Rural Services Department’s rural development conference. The conservatism did not exactly overwhelm, as I figured it might. 

It appears I need to try to get over some of my stereotypes.

I brought up the now infamous statement by Doyle Webb, the state Republican chairman, that we need a Republican majority in the Legislature to prevent a lesbian, the hard-working Rep. Kathy Webb of Little Rock, from becoming chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.

Every panelist promptly condemned the statement, including state Sen. Gilbert Baker of Conway, our only Republican and himself a former Republican chairman who might be the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate against Blanche Lincoln next year.

“I am not a candidate today,” Baker said.

He said Doyle Webb erred badly and knew it and would not be talking like that again.

Rep. Robert Moore of Arkansas City, likely the next speaker of the House and thus the person who would install Kathy Webb as Joint Budget chairman, said he’d be honored to do that very thing if given the opportunity. He said he’d trust his last dollar to her competence, vigilance and hard work.

Reps. Willie Hardy of Camden and Tiffany Rogers of Stuggart  joined Sens. Jimmy Jeffress of Crossett and Steve Faris of Malvern in extolling Kathy Webb.

I found it striking. Uplifting, of course, but striking.

Rural Arkansas is supposed to be socially and culturally conservative, and, in fact, is. Gay marriage and gay adoption bans passed overwhelmingly in rural sections of the state. But here, before an audience of rural officials at a rural development conference, rural state legislators stood up vigorously for an openly gay colleague — their only openly gay colleague.

It seems that anti-gay sentiment applies only generally, not personally. And all of this probably advances my argument that the way to erode anti-gay bigotry is incrementally with familiarity, not by shame and ridicule.

There were a couple of other moments I found interesting:

First I invoked Sen. Steve Faris’ sponsorship of that proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to hunt. I figured I’d be alone in making fun of this perfect waste of good ballot space. 

But Rep. Tiffany Rogers, reminding us she hailed from the duck-hunting capital of the world in Stuttgart, said the proposal was unnecessary and potentially counterproductive. 

To take a valued privilege and make it a constitutional right invites wholly unintended legal complication, she said. Put her down for “no,” she said.

A woman in the audience told Faris he was spreading fear by suggesting that, without his amendment, the right to hunt game could get taken away in Arkansas. A man wanted to know how much money Faris had received from the National Rifle Association. Faris said not much.

I’m not suggesting the right to hunt wouldn’t have passed the room overwhelmingly. I’m saying there were more apparent “no” votes than the one — mine — I had expected.

Second, I brought up Gov. Mike Beebe’s getting called possibly the nation’s best current governor in the new issue of Governing magazine. Everyone agreed that Beebe might well be just that, but no one said amen more vigorously than our Republican, Baker. 

He was so effusive that Sen. Jimmy Jeffress said that all anyone else needed to do was cite what Baker had said. 

All the more remarkable is that Beebe targeted Baker for defeat last year, even as some Democratic legislators, like Bob Johnson, were raising money for Baker.

As always, Arkansas politics remains virtually impossible for the outsider to understand. 

Sometimes the insider can get a little confused.