Triumph of Hope Over Experience

Second (and subsequent) marriages have been described as the triumph of hope over experience.

The same might be said for the new employee who follows a disappointing one. And if there was ever a new hire on a honeymoon, it has to be Bishop Woosley.

Woosley — not to be confused with Bishop Woolsey, the 16th-century cleric and adviser to King Henry VIII — has been promoted from chief legal counsel to director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. And though his elevation was not unanimous, it’s hard to imagine there was strong opposition to a choice so popular with the lottery employees we’ve heard from.

Julie Baldridge, the public information officer who had served as interim director, described him as “a stable and calming person,” a compliment at any time, but especially attractive after the lottery commission’s first hasty marriage to that flashy, seersucker-wearing South Carolinian, Ernie Passailaigue.

Woosley is getting a $50,000 raise along with his new title, but $165,000 a year is still barely half what Passailaigue was being paid during a tenure that was anything but stable and calm. Anyone who has had a high-maintenance wife (or husband) can appreciate the appeal of someone with more realistic expectations.

What’s more, Woosley doesn’t think he’ll need the two vice presidents that Ernie P. needed — each of them being paid $225,000 a year. Why, it’s like trading in the Kardashians for Ma Walton.

So the honeymoon starts. What the people of this state want is simple: a stable and calm relationship in which all parties work toward the goal of making college education affordable for as many Arkansans as possible.

Here’s hoping for a long and happy marriage. Bishop Woolsey, after all, spent much of his career trying to secure an annulment for Henry VIII.