"As you probably know, I can’t run for the House of Representatives again after this upcoming term. When I am gone, I sure hope some white guy takes my place."
That quote is taken word for word from a newspaper column written by former Missouri State Representative Bubs Hohulin, whose loyalty to Governor Matt Blunt was recently rewarded with a profit machine in the form of the Lamar License Bureau.
If I left that quote as is, I would be accused, quite correctly, of quoting Bubs out of context. He opened one of his weekly columns with that quote to make a point.
He was inspired to write the column after he read a Joplin Globe article which quoted an African American teacher in the R-8 school system as saying he hoped he was replaced by an African American teacher. The teacher explained that the number of African American teachers in this area is small and that young African Americans need to have role models in education.
Hohulin used the quote in the manner of an old-fashioned demagogue, jumping on the opportunity to appeal to his right-wing conservative base.
Hohulin said when he read the Globe article, "I couldn’t help but imagine the outrage that would occur if a white teacher were to say that he sure hoped that he would be replaced by a white guy."
He continued, "Of course, the Joplin Globe, as well as other members of the mainstream media, have to take a lot of blame themselves. The Globe ran an article about the lack of minority teachers in local school districts. The reaction from the community should be ‘so what’. If we are going to live in a color blind society, we should never see an article like that."
He then used the article as a jumping point to go into one of his pet rants, another putdown of the quality of American education.
"The focus should have been on why today’s students are failing despite spending many times more money on education than we used to," he wrote. "The focus should have been on the lack of discipline because of unsupportive parents and the meddling of the ACLU. The focus should have been on the huge salaries paid to unnecessary administrators that are mandated by the state. The focus should have been on the unnecessary rules and regulations that get in the way of efficiently educating our kids. There should be no mention of the color of the skin of our educators. If a person can do the job better than anyone else, skin color should be irrelevant.
"Unfortunately, because of attitudes fostered by articles like the one in the Globe, more emphasis is placed on skin color and chromosome arrangement than on ability," Hohulin wrote. "That is racism and discrimination at its worst. I realize that what I am writing is totally politically incorrect and that no sane politician would say this for fear of political backlash. The fact is, I care more about where we are heading as a society than I do about my political future. I am tired of politicians being scared to say what they know is right because of who may or may not endorse them. I am tired of the media running ridiculous articles and no one pointing out what nonsense it is for fear of maybe being the next target of those who buy ink by the barrel.
"The fact is, the emperor has no clothes and I am not afraid to say it."
On the face of it, Hohulin had a point. We should always try to put the most qualified person in any position, but he is overlooking history and reality. The Joplin teacher who said he hoped he was replaced by an African American was expressing concern for young African Americans who had no role models, just as elementary and middle school principals have done their best in recent years to hire more male teachers to give young children positive male role models. When so many of them do not have a positive male role model at home, that makes it an important and necessary goal for education and for society. There are times when other things have to be taken into consideration.
That being said, Hohulin's diatribe was indicative of the way he treated his 12 years as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. At one time, I termed him "The Abominable No-Man" because of his negative attitude toward any legislation that came his way." While he did a great deal to expose waste during his dozen years, he also lumped in everything that didn't meet his narrow view of the world with that waste.
Some of Hohulin's writings over the year do more to point that out than anything I could say about him.
RACIAL PROFILING- March 6, 2001- "It will probably never show up anywhere, but I wonder how many times an officer has seen a vehicle that should have been stopped, but didn’t because they noticed the driver was a minority and they had already stopped what they figured was the upper end of the limit of minorities for that period." This was Hohulin's way of saying that many minorities got away with breaking laws because police officers were afraid arresting them would get them accused of racial profiling."
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT- 2002- "It doesn’t bother me to say that I think laws like affirmative action and Americans with Disabilities Act are some of the worst laws that have been passed in the history of our country. It is easy to be generous with someone else’s money, but I wonder how many of these left wing do-gooders make it a point to first look for a minority contractor when they want to add a room onto their house. Do you suppose they will make sure they have a bathroom to accommodate a guest that might be in a wheelchair? Not likely, but you can bet they will make sure that someone who is just trying to make a living while still meeting payroll and dozens of regulations will have to spend untold amounts of money and time to make sure they are hiring enough blacks. Whatever happened to hiring the best person for the job? If I were black or a woman, I would be insulted that liberal politicians would think I wasn’t good enough to get a job on my merits, that I would need them to make sure I was taken care of."
ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE- "While I will be the first to admit there are legitimate mental illnesses, drug and alcohol abuse isn’t two of them. Ever since I have been in the House, I have fought against state funding of drug and alcohol abuse. I cannot understand why we should have to pay for someone that can’t keep from powdering their nose or pickling their liver. By paying for items like that, it uses up money that could, and should, be used for legitimate claims."
Those are just a few of the many provocative comments Hohulin made over the years. While many would agree with him, his lack of tolerance for anyone whose views did not coincide with his own, including many Barton County Republicans, kept him from being an effective legislator.
Apparently though, he was just the kind of man that Matt Blunt felt should be rewarded with the cash cow gift of a state revenue office...despite the fact that he was not the first, second, or even third choice (and you could probably go a lot further) of Barton County Republicans to receive that office.
It is time for Matt Blunt's people to show us the business plan Hohulin submitted to make him the recipient of the governor's generosity. If this kind of man is the kind Blunt feels should be appointed, that would indicate either Blunt has no concern whatsoever about people who do not agree with his extreme conservative views...or Bubs Hohulin must have been hiding an incredible business acumen all these years.
Let's see the business plan.
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Profits for Echostar's Dish Network were up in 2004, even before the potential bonanza afforded by Nexstar and possibly other companies depriving cable companies of retransmission rights.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, Dish Network had 10.905 million subscribers at the end of 2004, up from 9.425 reported at the end of 2003. Total revenue was $7.151 billion, up from $5.739 billion in 2003, the filing said.