Questions That Need to be Asked

The City Edition speculates that Arkansas Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney may have been the victim of a Manchurian Candidate-style assassination.

The post makes for interesting reading. And it raises some points that observers who are closer to the scene in Arkansas than I am might be better equipped to handle.

But the people I know in Arkansas who have e-mailed me about this matter have used words like "weird" to describe it.

They seem to be as baffled by this as I am.

Clearly there are questions that need to be asked. The City Edition is to be commended for talking about something that hasn't been getting the attention it deserves.

Reflections

I don't want to dwell on this too much.

As you've probably heard, the state Democratic Party chairman in my native state of Arkansas, Bill Gwatney, was murdered last week.

As I understand it, Gwatney became party chairman last year. Before that, he was a state senator. I guess his political career hadn't really begun when I left Arkansas 20 years ago, but I recognize his last name from the string of car dealerships that must have been started by his father or grandfather.

John Brummett, a talented writer with whom I worked when I was on the copy desk at the now defunct Arkansas Gazette in the 1980s, has written a nice tribute to Gwatney for the Arkansas News Bureau.

I can't say that I understand what happened, but Brummett's column made me feel better.

As Brummett wisely points out, "The only time you have is right now. Make the most of it. No one can know the bizarre intersections that await."

By the way, John Lyon of Arkansas News Bureau reports that Democrats apparently won't make any announcements about replacing Gwatney until after his funeral service, scheduled for Monday afternoon in Little Rock.

A political science professor at Hendrix College in my hometown of Conway says party rules impose a time limit for filling the vacancy, but it may be as much as 60 days.