The Tolbert Report

During a meeting today of the Arkansas Desegregation Litigation Oversight Subcommittee of the Arkansas legislature, Sen. Kim Hendren once again stuck his foot in his mouth. While discussing U.S. District Judge Brian Miller’s involvement in the Pulaski County desegregation case, Sen. Hendren referred to Miller as “this new minority judge.”  (And yes, for those of you outside of Arkansas, this does go all the way back to the 1957 crisis at Little Rock Central High School) He later attempted to explain to Rob Mortiz of the Arkansas News Bureau that he meant this as a compliment.

If you will recall, I previously reported that in a meeting of the Pulaski County Republican Committee, Sen. Hendren referred to New York U.S. Senator Charles Schumer as “that Jew.”  He has since distanced himself from the comment, not so much calling Sen. Schumer a Jew as much as using the word that.  Today’s AP story stated, “Earlier this year, Hendren apologized for referring to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s religion during a public appearance, but stopped short of admitting that he referred to the New York Democrat as ‘that Jew,’ as one conservative blogger reported.”

Not to dredge up old wounds here but a couple comments on this point. First, multiple first hand sources all separately and consistently confirmed to me that he said “that Jew” in reference to Sen. Schumer and most importantly, this is the comment he confirmed in a telephone interview directly to me. He also confirmed the comment to Zack Stovall of the Arkansas News Bureau in the first interview with the press after the story broke on my blog. It was not until later that his story began to change.  Second, I am not sure why Sen. Hendren is making an issue here as the word that is not what got him in hot water. Would “the Jew” or “a Jew” or “a Jewish Senator” been any better? Lastly, no one in Arkansas politics had any trouble believing that Sen. Hendren made this comment. Even his defenders have mostly said things such as “Oh, that’s just Hendren. He didn’t mean anything by it.” I even predicted that Sen. Hendren would make “off the cuff” comments in a television interview on “Talk Business with Roby Brock” several weeks before the story broke.

Regardless, sources close to Sen. Hendren have told me that they fully expect him to drop out of the U.S. Senate race long before the Republican Primary; he is just waiting for the right time.  The field is growing crowded as of late with several Arkansas Republicans announcing, forming exploratory committees, or otherwise considering jumping in. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) Tom Cox, Fred Ramey, Curtis Coleman, and Tom Cotton who is due home from Afghanistan later this summer.