Lecterngate

Why can’t anybody say ‘My bad’ anymore?

“Prior to a FOIA request related to the podium purchase, made on Sept. 11, 2023, there was no indication the Governor’s Office was seeking reimbursement for the cost of the podium and road case.”

—state auditors, in a report this week

The above statement is proof that at least the state’s Freedom of Information laws still work. Can you imagine how many $19,000 lecterns, or the equivalent, you would have paid for in the last 50-plus years— without knowing it—without a strong FOIA? (It’s no wonder some politicians can’t stand the FOIA.)

Depending on how far left or right you lean, this lectern situation with the governor’s office—all starting when the governor was a new governor, and her administration/assistants/go-fers were all new—is either 1) a big problem for Sarah Sanders or 2) a nit-picking thing that only goes to show why some people don’t trust the media.

Our considered editorial opinion is: It’s hard to have a considered editorial opinion when the public still doesn’t know everything. A couple of key individuals in the lectern business and a consulting firm with the Sanders campaign didn’t respond to “multiple” requests from auditors to answer questions. They didn’t even respond to Governor Sanders’ office when it tried to get auditors and these people together! What a mess.

The governor’s office responded to the findings, according to the paper, by saying the report “was a waste of taxpayer resources and time that resulted in exactly what the [governor’s office] said: The office lawfully purchased a podium and travel case. It was later determined that [the Republican Party of Arkansas] should lawfully purchase it. No laws were broken. No fraud was committed.”

So the investigation and report was a complete waste of time?

That resulted in affirming what the governor said all along?

Some waste of time.

If it’s vindication, as the governor’s recently released triumphal video suggests, how is it a waste of time, politically speaking?

As far as laws being broken or not, that’s still TBD, and prosecutors have received the report. But even if it turns out (later, and by folks outside the governor’s office) that no laws were broken, the way the purchase of this podium was handled was at least sketchy. Why can’t politicians today ever admit mistakes?

Wouldn’t this have been much easier, back when blogger Matt Campbell first uncovered the lectern payment, to say, “Oops. Our bad. We’re still new at this. We’ll make it right.”

Instead, every politician, and every politician’s political aide, seems to think every hill is the one to die on. (Figuratively speaking, of course.) Even hills that might not be too high. Maybe only undulations on the green. But in mod America, you never take a “loss,” even if you have to fight a fight that never had to happen. No, all that didn’t start with Donald Trump. Maybe not even with James Carville. This habit of fighting every fight, even if one has to punch down, might have started with Nixon & Co., at least in American politics. It has proven a communicable disease over the years. And it’s highly infectious in 2024.

When lawmakers had their say, and questions, Tuesday, one of them told the governor’s staff: “My dad taught me something at a very young age. You cannot correct a mistake until you admit you made one. And what troubles me most about this whole situation is that I don’t really hear the governor’s office or governor’s staff say, ‘We should have done it a different way.’ Instead they’re trying to justify how they did it.”

That was state Sen. John Payton of Wilburn. It should be noted, he’s a Republican in good standing.

This didn’t have to be a sixth-month controversy. And it doesn’t have to continue another six months. But it probably will. Because nobody wants to say, “My bad,” and move on.

Actually, nobody comes out smelling like a rose on this. Except maybe the state’s FOIA. At least you know, Long-Suffering Taxpayer, what’s happening in your government.