OPINION
You want tort reform? Try this.
T
he nursing home industry and the chamber of commerce finally defeated the trial lawyers in the 2017 legislature. The Republican-dominated body approved a constitutional amendment for voters in 2018 that they’ll depict as close to motherhood in goodness. If approved, they’ll tell you, greedy lawyers will still be able to dream up nuisance suits against saintly doctors and pristine nursing homes, but their contingency fees will be limited and strict caps will be placed on both punitive and “non-economic” damages. Non-economic damage? That’s pain and suffering, even death. Children and the elderly who can prove no loss of income from neglect and abuse are entitled to little for their torment because, really, what are they worth? The trial lawyers will spend plenty to
stop what amounts to stripping the Arkansas Constitution of the right to a jury trial for damages. But perMAX verse Arkansas — BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com though no home to runaway juries or financially strained nursing home owners or doctors — is inclined to buy propositions that the chamber of commerce declares good for business. (If being hospitable to business and inhospitable to workers was a ticket to economic Glory Land, Arkansas would be Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle and the Johnson Space Center rolled into one.) Alas, you know the reality. But some hope emerged this week. The Arkansas Bar Association is work-
Goodbye, Mr. Trump
I
t is hard to escape the feeling that the fortunes of President Trump and the country took a decisive, and for Trump a fatal, turn May 9-10, when the president fired the director of the FBI over its investigation of Russian efforts to swing the presidential election to him and the very next day shared top-secret intelligence with Russian officials in an Oval Office meeting closed except to a Kremlin press aide toting electronic gear to capture the intimate session for Russians but not Americans. In the McCarthy era and maybe during the Nixon siege, 1972-74, conservatives and most others would characterize those shocking events as little short of treasonous, particularly if you link them to 30 years of Trump toadying to the Russians, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Vladimir Putin. But absolutely no one, not even his worst enemy, suspects Trump of trying to harm America. Democrats, probably most Republicans in Congress and many in Trump’s Cabinet and officialdom know the president’s problems, and they are not about his patriotism. They are deeply personal, psychiatric and longstanding. Donald Trump views the presidency and all
of government as extensions of himself, just as he did his business empire. Government must be wholly dediERNEST cated to advancing DUMAS and protecting his image, and nothing else. He had repeatedly demanded a vow of loyalty from the FBI director, who is sworn to look out for the country, not any politician. Not getting them, Trump fired James Comey and, after putting out lies about it, finally admitted he had fired him for the Russian investigation. Everyone in his circle, including loyal members of Congress, knew the president’s peccadilloes — his naivete about the Constitution and government, his nutty obsessions like tweeting his fleeting thoughts to the whole world, his penchant for lying and standing behind his lies forever while insisting that his underlings support them until he says the opposite or something else. People looked upon them as refreshing, quaint, a good distraction from Washington’s stuffy protocol — or a dangerous psychic disorder.
ing on a constitutional amendment. It doesn’t have endorsement of its governing body yet. But it would force the nursing home titans and chamber executives to double their spending to pass one amendment and beat another. The bar amendment does more than nullify the damage limits proposed by the legislature. The marquee provision would shine light on “dark money,” undisclosed independent spending in political races that played an enormous factor in recent races for Supreme Court and attorney general. Contributors would be disclosed and, in the case of judicial races, held to normal campaign spending limits. The amendment also would finally end legislative pork barreling, in which legislators defy the constitution and divvy up state surplus for personal projects. The practice has turned felonious at times. Some recent legislative mug shots taken following bribery arrests could serve as campaign material. The amendment also would restore balance of power. The courts would continue to be responsible for court rules, if not substantive law. The legislature
could override a gubernatorial veto, but only with a two-thirds vote, not a simple majority. The amendment would overturn a legislative initiative that put control of executive agency rules in the hands of a legislative committee. The legislature tried to discourage such popular initiatives with a punishing new law for people who pay to gather signatures on amendment petitions. The bar association hopes to rely on volunteer labor and thus avoid the new rules on paid canvassing.
“With all due respect, I’m tired of hearing about the Little Rock School District. I’ve had it, OK?” Solutions for Williamson: 1) Give Little Rock its school board back and 2) resign from the state Board of Education.
It would only take this weird blowhard perhaps a little more time to learn how to govern effectively than it did politicians who came up through the political process, like Clinton, the Bushes and Reagan. Wary Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and 2020 presidential hopefuls like Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would stand behind him through this process so they couldn’t be accused of disloyalty before the president brought himself down. But May 9-10 introduced a dilemma — not a new one but a heightened realization of it — to everyone. The president’s bumbling on one thing after another — the Muslim ban, health care reform, his absurd budget, the border wall, his spurious charges that Obama wiretapped his offices, his endless attacks on old foes and the press — all occurred during nearly four months of peace and quiet for the country. The economy continued to hum like no other in the world. The crazy North Korean dictator kept doing the same nutty things he and his daddy had done for 16 years, but there’s been no crisis. Trump’s self-inflicted wounds — not a real crisis — have kept his national approval ratings at the abysmal level. But these are dangerous times. What if there is a real national security crisis, as every modern president has faced? Will the president act with the same stupid judgment he used to get his Justice
Department toadies to craft the firing excuse that Comey had mistreated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election or in hosting a cozy chat with Russian officials in which he buttered them up by sharing a powerful secret that will allow Russia and its brutal ally, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, to disrupt U.S. intelligence operations? What kind of mess, what potentially fatal dilemma, could he blunder the country into, not out of malevolence but out of childish spite or ignorance? What Republican cannot wonder, and shudder? On Tuesday, the president was back at his old stand, saying the wrongdoer was not he who had leaked national secrets to the enemy, but whoever had leaked knowledge of it to the American people. From Election Day, Trump has attacked people for leaking stuff about his dealings. He wants them prosecuted. Every president — chiefly Bill Clinton — has endured the scourge of leaking aides. It is a natural phenomenon. As an old government reporter, I know. Who leaked the president’s leak to the Russians? It’s just a guess based on personal experience, but my money is on Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s stern national security adviser, who sat in on the Russian tête-à-tête and who had to be horrified. McMaster manfully came out and inartfully tried to explain away his boss’s mistake (“it was wholly appropriate”) and took a public beating for it. That’s what a patriot would do.
UNRELATED SUBJECT: Brett Williamson, a hired hand for the Murphy Oil fortune, gave a poor illustration of public service last week. Four Little Rock School District supporters made a heartfelt plea before the Board of Education that the board return the district to local control. Board member Williamson’s response:
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arktimes.com MAY 18, 2017
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