Arkansas GOP Senate Leader: Beebe Not at Fault

Over the past week, some significant problems and budget shortfalls have come to light over at the Arkansas State Forestry Commission.  You can read about the full details of it all here.

Yesterday, there was a roughly five-hour legislative meeting that brought many issues to light that are worthy of serious discussion, to put it mildly. My blogger colleague Jason Tolbert attended yesterday’s marathon legislative meeting, missing the monthly LR Burger Caucus, and filed this blog report with his take on the hearing.

Some Arkansas Republicans view the State Forestry Commission problems as an opportunity to score cheap political points by attempting to blame Governor Beebe for that commission’s budget shortfalls and employee layoffs.  For example, today the Republican Party of Arkansas tweeted that “Governor Beebe Puts Arkansas Jobs At Risk For Political Gain, Ignores State Agency Shortfall For Over A Year.”

But not so fast, it appears that not all Republicans are reading from the same talking points.

Senate Republican Minority Leader Michael Lamoureux deflated the Republican Party’s attack with this tweet after the meeting:

@Sen_Lamoureux: “After actually listening to both days of testimony I do not see where BB [Beebe] is at fault, directr [director] Shannon clearly was”

Glad to see at least one Republican legislator doesn’t view State Forestry Commission’s problems through partisan goggles.