Dale Bumpers: More Than A ‘Smile And A Shoeshine’

CAMPAIGN MONIKER MADE CHARLESTON NATIVE A MUCH BETTER CANDIDATE

Many miles of newspaper column space has been printed about the death of former U. S. Senator and former Arkansas Gov. Dale L. Bumpers this week.

I add just a little to that total from a personal perspective of watching and occasionally covering the man, the politician and the issues he championed.

At h is re t i rement from the Senate, he transitioned from Washington D.C. to an honorary post at the University of Arkansas, for a year. He served as a guest lecturer and hosted some of the most diverse speakers and programs on current events in that year on that flagship campus. Often I had a front row seat to these events.

As always, Bumpers excelled at his wit and wisdom and never disap- pointed before a crowd of 50 or 5,000.

He went on to write a memoir: “The Best Lawyer In A One- Lawyer Town,” first published by Random House and later merged into the University of Arkansas Press stable of publications. He remembered those who impacted his life — like a public school teacher named Doll Means. She taught him how to write and how to speak, Bumpers penned in his book. She did a fine job. He lived a full life, passing from this life at age 90 at his home in Little Rock, surrounded by his family which meant so much to him as a person and a politician.

As a U.S. Senator for four terms most of the time he was in the news.

Bumpers was first a game- changing, two- term governor ( for only four years) back when the in-state campaigning was on- going, all the time, 52 weeks a year, 24 hours, seven days a week.

He did not thrive in that scenario, but rather survived it.

Twice he was at the cusp of being a candidate for President, but tragically a realist and pulled back each time.

And he always, later, talked about those decisions with a great deal of regret.

Bumpers, as a governor and later U.S. Senator, did not pander to the press. Ask an uninformed question and he would let you know, in a very direct answer, that you needed to be better informed to ask a question like that and waste his and other people’s time.

Even the editorial cartoonists, especially the late George Fisher, often caught Bumpers’ ire. One cartoon I recall was during the Arab Oil Embargo and Energy Crisis during his tenure as governor. Always striving to be a conservationist, Governor Bumpers ordered all the state thermostats turned down to save on heating costs.

Fisher, a day or two later, portrayed the conservation minded Bumpers as a Snidely Whiplash villain. He was catching a state employee hiding a space heater under her desk. Fisher penned these words in his sterling cartoon. “Aha!, Mrs. Jones, (pulling the cord on the errant heater) 68 degrees is 68 degrees!”

Bumpers’ terse response was that he was too busy being governor to go look under everyone’s desk and people needed to be personally responsible to his executive order to conserve energy.

And he was, of course, correct.

Early on in a political race, it has been said that Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller referred with disdain that Democratic challenger Bumpers was “... little more than a smile and a shoeshine.”

Somehow over the years that has been amended to include the phrase “… armed with a single speech.” Indeed Bumpers had a mantra-like speech and was stumping all over the state seeking the state’s highest office. And he won. Bumpers and his wife Betty love Arkansas. They love the outdoors and they love the people of Arkansas.

His death and passing brought out a lot of love for his public service to this state and nation.

Count me among those noting his passing that indeed a very good man has passed this way.

The long shadow of his deeds is present still.

Rest In Peace Dale Bumpers.

Rest In Peace.