Lynch at Large

Paul Greenberg has a crowded social calendar. In addition to being an outstanding guest on my WAI Radio show, he had lunch with Win Paul Rockefeller, and that provides the backdrop for this week’s Column One of the Perspective section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I would link it but – err, you already know.

Is it that Greenberg really likes WPR, or is it that he simply detests Asa Hutchinson? The editorial page editor is really fair to Win, even about being boring and stinking rich. He treats Rockefeller just like he actually has a chance to win the Republican nomination for Governor, which, of course he does.

Here is a taste of what Paul Greenberg had to say in today’s Democrat-Gazette,

“Immigration will be the hot-button issue in this election, and it’ll be interesting to see how three good men deal with it, and what compromises with their conscience they’ll be tempted to make. Yes, politics can be fascinating. Especially when it’s about more than politics.
“An election tests not just the candidates but the voters. Will they go for the base appeal or be moved by high principle? We’ll know more about each candidate’s character a year from now—and about the state’s.”

Win Paul Rockefeller just better hope that immigration is the hot button issue of this campaign because he might just win that issue if he hits the ball hard enough. He will knock it out of the park by reminding voters that Asa was not exactly a ball of fire as Undersecretary of Homeland Security. There must be a dozen right-wing web sites with plenty of quotes and information on Asa’s reasonableness on the issue. WPR can win if he is willing to knock the daylights out of Asa Hutchinson for having essentially the same inclination towards inclusion as himself. Greenberg may be right. It might be that Rocky is just too darned decent to demagogue the issue.

I believe that immigration will provoke the big fight in this race. Asa wins when he invokes the “A”-word.