By John Brummett

A major charitable event that also is a minor political one takes place today in Little Rock.

Nine hundred people or more will get free medical attention from noon to 7 p.m. at the Statehouse Convention Center.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who will attend this free clinic neither to receive medical care nor extend any, but as the local champion of it, will get noticed in a political context, more specifically in the context of the U.S. Senate.

So this is yet another chapter in the political story of the year in Arkansas, which is, of course, Blanche Lincoln’s vulnerability.

You must forgive these raw political observations about a noble event through which uninsured Arkansawyers will get medical attention at no cost to themselves. You must understand that the matter arose altogether from raw political calculations.

You have this reformed sports announcer by the name of Keith Olbermann who has transformed himself via cable television all-talk into the kind of blowhard advocate and provocateur on the political left that Limbaugh, Hannity and O’Reilly have become on the right.

Olbermann, champion of a public option in health insurance, decided to bring pressure to bear on moderate swing Democratic voters like Lincoln by allying with the National Association of Free Clinics to stage free clinics in the home states of these stragglers. He proposed getting started in U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Louisiana, where a clinic was conducted last week, and then moving to Lincoln’s Arkansas.

What Olbermann publicly solicited was local help in New Orleans and then in Little Rock in securing a venue and getting the local medical community on board.

So you know that Halter has very little to do as lieutenant governor, but is a bona fide go-getter with political ambition. He’s what you call a self-starter.

He took it on himself to give us a lottery that is performing beyond everyone’s expectations except his and producing millions for college scholarships.

So he walked into his little second-floor Capitol office one day and told his over-large staff that he thought they ought to seize this opportunity to help Olbermann get his free clinic in Little Rock.

Halter’s folks called the hospitals and the clinics and helped round up more than 1,200 volunteers. And they checked the availability of the convention center. Then they delivered their work to Olbermann and the NAFC, which ran with it.

All of that landed Halter a talking-head appearance Wednesday on Olbermann’s show. He extolled the free clinic and lamented the number of ininsured in the state and nation and deplored the slow pace of health care reform.

Then he got the surely welcomed opportunity to answer a question about whether he might pose a Democratic primary challenge to Lincoln from the left. As you may know, she polls poorly right now with conservatives who think she’s liberal and with liberals who know good and well that she isn’t.

Halter said he appreciated everyone’s kind hopes for him, but that this was neither the time nor place to address his political future because this was about helping people with their health care needs.

It sounds bad when you call someone a blatant opportunist. Actually, though, the world would be a woefully undeveloped place if no one ever saw an opportunity or if everyone was averse to taking the opportunities that presented themselves.

Halter continues to be interesting. He is smart and articulate and possessed of an elite education and quite a bit of personal money. He has demonstrated a certain nerve and a clear ability to get things done.

The state political establishment doesn’t much like him, but hundreds of people getting free health care today probably won’t care.

——-
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.