Posted by DEAN SKIP RUTHERFORD – Today I spoke at an Employment Law and Legislative Affairs Conference about “Life as a Political Animal.” The speech title itself deserves some explanation. In 1983, after leaving the staff of Senator David Pryor and returning to the private sector, I formed an organization called the “Political Animals Club,” a nonpartisan group where people would meet to talk only about politics. Think of it as a Rotary Club with a theme–only the Political Animals Club had no organizational structure, no dues and no responsibilities other than to discuss politics among themselves and with guest speakers.
We met for the first time at the long-departed Coachman’s Inn–located on the site where the downtown post office now stands. The Coachman’s Inn, owned by the Stephens family, was a political watering hole and gathering place. It was an appropriate site for political discourse–much like the bar at the Capitol Hotel, also owned by the Stephens Family, was in the 1992 Clinton Presidential campaign and will soon be again when renovation is completed later this year.
In 2008, the Political Animals Club will celebrate its 25th anniversary. After I stepped down as chairman of the club, George Jernigan, Russ Meeks and now Steve Ronnel assumed the club’s leadership position. All have done outstanding jobs, and the Political Animals Club continues to attract and provide quality programming. The Clinton School will be partnering with the Political Animals on Sept. 24 when Harold Ford Jr., speaks in the Barry Travis Exhibition Hall at the Robinson Center.
In my speech this morning, I shared some of my favorite Arkansas political stories. Here’s one of them:
Hattie Caraway, the first woman ever elected in her own right to the United States Senate, only made about one speech a year and never entered a debate. She was, however, the first woman to chair a Senate committee, the first woman to preside over the Senate and the first woman senior senator. When asked why she didn’t talk very much, she told a reporter. “I haven’t the heart to take a minute away from the men. The poor dears love it so.”
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