The AG’s opinion

This will get done, part II

We’re tempted to re-run our editorial of mid-December when the attorney general of Arkansas first rejected the government transparency constitutional proposal.

The editorial went something like this: The rejection is only a delay, maybe even warranted by a government official doing his due diligence (that is, his job as he sees it), but don’t fear, Gentle Reader, because this will get done. The people of Arkansas have already spoken—during the rise-up in the last special session of the Ledge— and are champing at the bit to sign onto this transparency act. It’s only a matter of time.

So clean up the language and let’s get on with democracy!

We’re still sorta . . . there. Words matter. The attorney general, Tim Griffin, says there are still problems with the last proposal, and his office’s latest memo actually says some of the previous wording problems have been repeated. So, as the poet said, lawyers will clean up all details.

Amusingly, but not at all surprisingly, the Arkansas Committee for Transparency (ACT for short) resubmitted a new proposal to the AG’s office at 6 p.m. Monday, only a little while after the office rejected proposal No. 2. These folks at ACT don’t fool around. They are as serious about strengthening Arkansas’ FOIA as all those citizens who descended on the Ledge during that special session last year.

We know that the people behind ACT are serious because we know some the people on that committee. Professionally, anyway. They know their stuff. Most are even lawyers themselves. In a discussion with a few of them not long ago, somebody mentioned that the attorney general can reject a ballot initiative, or two, but if this becomes a habit—especially if the office starts running out of reasons to reject these proposals—then the AG will start looking like Mr. No to the people of Arkansas. And appearing to stand in the way of the people and their right to public information is not a good look for a politician in such a populist state.

Now is not the time for torches and pitchforks and a march on the AG’s office. Now is the time to follow his instructions and get the ballot title/language/amendment right.

We are reminded of one of our favorite H.L. Mencken quotes:

“What I admire most in any man is a serene spirit, a steady freedom from moral indignation, an all-embracing tolerance—in brief, what is commonly called good sportsmanship. Such a man is not to be mistaken for one who shirks the hard knocks of life. On the contrary, he is frequently an eager gladiator, vastly enjoying opposition. But when he fights he fights in the manner of a gentleman fighting a duel, not in that of a longshoreman cleaning out a waterfront saloon. That is to say, he carefully guards his amour propre by assuming that his opponent is as decent a man as he is, and just as honest—and perhaps, after all, right.”

But to our friends at ACT and all the citizens who, during the last special session, acted:

This will get done. And those who still believe in our state motto—Regnat populus—will get behind it.