Week of December 8, 2008

One Democrat, Otto Kerner went to prison for taking bribes while he was governor. He left the bribe notes in his official papers which he deposited in the state archives, where the FBI found them.

It's a rich story on many levels, filled with irony and striking coincidence. That would be the one from Huntsville in the North Arkansas hills.

The owners of the downtown Faubus Motel raised the Confederate flag on their property to protest Barack Obama's election as president.

In an article last week in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, these mountain moteliers got quoted as saying their display had nothing to do with race. Nothing ever does, does it? They said they merely were expressing their patriotic despair that a socialist was becoming president.

Obama's poll numbers are up to 79/18 approve/disapprove, prompting CNN's Bill Schneider to quip:"That's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster. To many Americans, the Bush Administration was a national disaster."

The unlicensed pipe fitter known as Joe the Plumber is out with a book this month, just as the last seconds on his 15 minutes are slipping away. I have a question for Joe: Do you want me to fix your leaky toilet?

I didn’t think so. And I don’t want you writing books. Not when too many good novelists remain unpublished. Not when too many extraordinary histories remain unread. Not when too many riveting memoirs are kicked back at authors after 10 years of toil. Not when voices in Iran, North Korea or China struggle to get past a censor’s gate.