Embracing due process

Public service requires more in terms of responsible behavior than turning yourself in to the Arkansas State Police.

The constitutional right to due process refers primarily to procedural rights in defending oneself in a legal matter. It does not extend to a supposed right to remain a state legislator while charged with not paying state income taxes.

Yet the Arkansas Republican Party seems more interested in keeping one of its own seated in the Legislature after such an arrest than in extending similar sensitivity to, say, a poor person on Medicaid who fails to verify he’s been looking for work.

We should indulge with sensitivity the Republican legislator accused in state police documents of not filing an income tax return since 2005, the state GOP says. But we should jerk health insurance from the poor man on Medicaid who didn’t check a computer box to declare that he’d been trying to find a job, this same state GOP also says.

I made those observations Friday on Twitter in the matter of state Rep. Mickey Gates of Hot Springs. In so doing, I managed to engage both the Democratic candidate for governor, Jared Henderson, and the Republican incumbent he opposes, Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

First Henderson wrote: “It gets better [by which I’m certain he meant worse]. The poor person can ONLY provide the proof via the web while living in a state that’s ranked 49th in Internet connectivity. But at least we are going the extra mile to accommodate the lawmaker who has already admitted not filing a tax return for years.”

That evening, Hutchinson replied on Twitter. It had been a long day for the governor. He and Henderson and the Libertarian Party candidate, Mark West, had debated earlier in Eureka Springs at the Arkansas Press Association convention. I make note of that in the context of the governor’s having needed slight editing on his post, which said: “One could argue that due process is something a poor person and even a Republican should receive. That is probably a liberal position, so it seems your progressive tendencies has limits.”

The governor should have written either “tendencies have” or “tendency has,” but perhaps I nitpick.

Hutchinson’s point was that the poor person gets due process, considering that he doesn’t lose Medicaid coverage the first month he fails to make it to a computer for his requisite click at the appropriate portal. (Coverage is lost after three monthly failures to report, without a hearing.)

The governor’s further point was that a true liberal-minded person ought to advocate extending the same indulgence even to a Republican legislator.

I replied to the governor that he should read my full Twitter tirade to see that I’d explained that, while he and Republicans couldn’t force Gates out without due process, they could invite him out with a public nudge.

All of that led me to get in touch with Hutchinson by private message to seek further explanation. I pointed out that he’d previously said legislators shouldn’t be called on to resign unless “federally” indicted. Here Gates faced a state arrest. What gave? Federal versus state?

The governor replied at length, and I will quote his response in full while parenthetically adding context to a couple of his points.

All of what he wrote was interesting and, I think, revelatory as to his lawyer-influenced thinking that, I must say, may be as principled as partisan. He wrote:

“I am glad Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry did not resign after they were charged in state court [by a Democratic prosecutor on accusations later dismissed.] I regret what happened to [Alaska] Sen. [Ted] Stevens when the federal prosecutors unethically pursued him. [He was convicted, defeated for re-election and then cleared on Justice Department findings of prosecutorial abuse.] It is hard to apply general rules, but I did not call for the resignation of [Democratic] Sen. [Paul] Bookout based on ethical violation charges. I did not call for the resignation of President Clinton. Public officials should use their own good judgment and resign when their work is undermined, but I have always been hesitant about making a judgment on limited facts. By the way, did you call for the resignation of Gov. [Jim Guy] Tucker when he was indicted? Regardless, Rep. Gates should step aside just to focus on his responsibilities, but we should not prejudge everything.”

I did not call for Tucker’s resignation. I did call for Clinton’s.

Was the governor’s conclusion that Gates ought to resign by personal choice, but that he would not call or ask for it?

“That is fair,” he replied. “I may call for it at some point, but hopefully he will handle the public trust in the right way.”

And that is how one embraces due process with one hand and nudges with the other.

You’ll notice the governor isn’t calling or even asking for anything. He’s just sayin’.

John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.