Steve Flowers: Judge Bobby Aderholt
Alabama has a legacy of great men who have served as judges in our state. Recently, revered, retired Circuit Judge Bobby Ray Aderholt of Haleyville passed away at 85. He served the public for more than 50 years. As a judge, he presided over each case with integrity and impartiality. He was the Circuit Judge for the 25th Judicial Circuit for 30-years, 1977-2007. He was first elected Circuit Judge in 1976. He would have continued serving the people of Winston and Marion counties if it were not for an antiquated law in Alabama that judges cannot run for office after age 70. When Judge Aderholt first ran in 1976, he bucked a Democratic tidal wave in the state and was the only Republican elected in North Alabama that year. Our state had been overwhelmingly Democratic from the 1870s through 1964 because of the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, there was one area of the state that never bought into the Southern Secession from the Union. The folks in Northwest Alabama did not own slaves and figured they did not need to fight a war over slavery for the rich planters of the Black Belt. Therefore, when Alabama seceded from the Union, Winston County seceded from Alabama. Thus, Winston County became the Free State of Winston. During the 1884 to 1964, 80-year period, every statewide elected official in Alabama was a Democrat, and also every local and legislative officeholder ran as a Democrat with the exception of one county – Winston had Republican officeholders. In fact, legendary U.S. Federal Judge Frank Johnson Jr. was a Republican from Winston County. When a federal judgeship came open in the Middle District of Alabama in the early 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower had a hard time finding a Republican to appoint. He chose young Frank Johnson Jr. The Republican party broke the ice in 1964. Alabama voted straight Republican for Barry Goldwater, and the wave carried five Republican congressmen with him. Alabama had become a red Republican state. However, we still elected Democrats to local offices like legislator and circuit judge. 1976 was a blip with Jimmy Carter carrying Alabama and the Deep South due to the post-Watergate fallout. Judge Bobby Aderholt was always a Republican, so he ran as a Republican that year and won. He was on an island with no other Republican winning in North Alabama. He became a pioneer in the Alabama Republican Party and one of the most respected judges in the state. He was known as fair, fiercely independent, and not beholden to anyone. He had a brilliant legal mind, but most importantly, he always had compassion for all individuals and treated everyone in his courtroom with dignity and respect. In conjunction with his judicial duties, he performed countless weddings and funerals in his beloved neck of the woods. Judge Aderholt was born in December of 1935 and grew up in Winston County. He went to undergraduate school at Birmingham Southern and went to Law School at the University of Alabama. He matriculated back home to Haleyville, where he had graduated high school in 1954. He spent his life in Haleyville. He was a dedicated member of the First Baptist Church of Haleyville. However, he pastored Fairview Congregational Church in Hackleburg for 47 years. Judge Bobby Aderholt was a dedicated family man. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary Frances Brown Aderholt, who was his childhood sweetheart. Judge Aderholt is the father of our senior Congressman, Robert Aderholt. Robert is the only child of Judge and Mrs. Mary Frances Aderholt. They raised a good one. Robert was elected to Congress in 1996 at the ripe old age of 31. He is in his 25th year of representing the 4th Congressional District of Alabama and is the Dean of our congressional delegation. Robert and his wife, Caroline McDonald Aderholt, have two children, Mary Elliott and Robert Hayes. Judge Bobby Aderholt was a good man. We will all miss him. I will miss him as a reader of my column. He read it every week, religiously in the Marion County Journal Record and the Northwest Alabamian. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at:https://www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: An election year to remember
As we close out this year of COVID and presidential politics many of you are still in discussions about Donald Trump. Some are still enthralled with the most colorful and controversial character in my presidential memory and are saying the election was stolen from him. Others are saying he is the most egocentric and crooked person to ever sit in the oval office. Allow me to disagree with both sides. In my lifetime no man could come close to comparing with one Lyndon B. Johnson when it comes to crookedness, crudeness, and audacity. He was the epitome of an unbridled, unconscionable thirst for power. No election could be more brazenly stolen than LBJ’s means of ascent to power in this first election to the U.S. Senate in 1948. Johnson was a tall tough young East Texas Congressman making his play for a Senate seat from the Lone Star State. Most Texans thought it was a Don Quixote kamikaze mission because he was running against the legendary Texas Governor Coke Stevenson. The Governor was a revered figure in the state. He epitomized a Texas legend. He was a successful self-made man who had built a large ranch and cattle empire. He was much like the father figure, Ben Cartwright, played by Lorne Green in the old television series Bonanza. Stevenson was generous, plain-spoken, and very conservative. He had been a very good governor. Stevenson was from the old school and renowned for his integrity and he was above reproach. Johnson was just the opposite. He had already earned the reputation that when it came to winning that was all that counted, and character, integrity, and honesty went out the window. As might be expected, Johnson had unlimited campaign money, a lot of which was supplied by the Brown and Root Construction Company that is now Halliburton, which by the way is a major player in Senate races today. Johnson outspent Stevenson 10-to-1 as Stevenson would not ask for contributions. Johnson employed new, modern campaign devices like polling and he even used a helicopter to land at rural towns throughout the gigantic state. He crisscrossed Texas and not only outspent Stevenson 10-to-1, he outworked him by the same measure. His hand was swollen from handshaking. Coke Stevenson still beat Lyndon Johnson. However, Johnson was not going to take defeat. Duval County on the Mexican border was known as the most corrupt political county in Texas, if not in the nation. It was legendary for bold, unadulterated vote manipulation. Johnson had cornered the bosses of Duval County and they held their votes out in case Johnson needed them. Three days after Stevenson’s apparent victory, Duval came in. It had voted more than twice as many people as who lived there. Johnson got over 90% of the Duval votes that were suspiciously cast. When they got the Duval votes to Austin, it still was not enough to overtake Coke Stevenson. Not to be outdone, Duval officials swore under oath that a box was still out. They said Box 13 has not reported. They came back five days later with just enough votes for Lyndon to claim victory. The margin of victory in the state of Texas was 83 votes. When Johnson got to Washington as a freshman senator, the entire Senate and most people in Texas and a good many political observers around the nation, knew that Johnson and his allies had stolen the 1948 Texas Senate race. Thus, Senators and Washington insiders gave him the dubious nickname of “Landslide Lyndon” because of his 83-vote margin. Many people think that nickname was a reference to his actual landslide victory over Barry Goldwater in 1964, but it came from his unscrupulous election to the Senate in 1948. A legendary story came out of that election about stealing an election or as some say, counting someone out. Supposedly, as Lyndon’s cronies were harvesting the last batch of needed votes from the infamous Box 13, they were going through an old Mexican-American Cemetery taking names of long passed folks either from Mexico or Duval County off of tombstones to vote them posthumously after the fact. Lyndon was actually accompanying the Duval voting officials to make sure they voted all the residents in the cemetery. They got to an old marker that was indiscernible. The harvester shouted out to Lyndon we cannot make out this name. Johnson replied, “Hell, make him up a name, he has as much right to vote as the rest of them in here.” See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Inside the Statehouse: The 1964 Goldwater landslide was the beginning of republican dominance of the south
Steve Flowers outlines the 1964 presidential election and its impact on contemporary Alabama politics.
Donald Trump trial closing arguments aim at voters, history
Key Republicans have decided the president’s actions toward Ukraine do not rise to the level of impeachable offense.
Steve Flowers: 2016 in review — ain’t Alabama politics fun?
Historically speaking, Alabamians have been more interested in the governor’s race than presidential politics. For years, from 1876 to 1964, we were a totally Democratic state, more so out of tradition than philosophically. The hatred for the radical Republican Reconstruction shackles invoked on the South made an indelible mark on white southern voters. It was so instilled, that there are a good many stories told throughout the South where a dying grandfather would gather his children and grandchildren around his deathbed and gaspingly admonish them, “Two things I’m gonna tell y’all before I die – don’t ever sell the family farm and don’t ever vote for a damn Republican.” That all changed in November 1964. Barry Goldwater and the Republicans became the party of segregation and the white southern voter fled the Democratic Party en mass. As the fall election of 1964 approached, the talk in the old country stores around Alabama was that a good many good old boys were going to vote straight Republican even if their daddies did turn over in their graves. Well folks, there were a good many papas turning over in their graves all over the South. The entire South changed parties on that day 52 years ago. Since we were a solid Democratic state for 90 years, we really had no say in the presidential selection process. We are in the same position today, being a solid Republican state. Therefore, it makes sense that we would have more interest in gubernatorial politics than presidential rhetoric because we have much more of a say in that contest. In addition, all our other offices are up for election in the race for governor year, including all 67 sheriffs, all 140 members of the legislature, and all other constitutional offices such as attorney general, agriculture commissioner, secretary of state and treasurer. Indeed, for most of our past there were more votes cast in the Democratic Primary for Governor of Alabama than in a presidential contest. Today, our voting proclivity runs more along the national percentage. We also have the same tendency to vote more against someone than for someone. George Wallace used to always say give me a good boogeyman to run against. Well, lest you forget Hillary Clinton was the best boogeyman to vilify before Barack Obama. He was the hated villain for an eight-year interlude. Now Bill and Hillary have taken back their rightful place as the face of the despised national Democratic Party among white southerners. Therefore, as this year began, I thought it would be a yawner, a sleeper year for good old Alabama politics. However, we have had some good theater. Not to be outdone by the colorful campaign of Donald Trump, who was a continuous circus or vaudeville act, our local Alabama characters have put on quite a show. It began with the ethics trial of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, which was a lengthy, detailed, fully vetted and well run process. Hubbard was found guilty by a Lee County jury, which he represented in the legislature. He will ultimately go to jail, a state prison, which is woefully overcrowded and dangerous. While the Hubbard story was anticipated and expected, the saga of good ol’ Dr. Robert Bentley has remained in the news continuously throughout the entire year. His former buddy, Spencer Collier, has filed a lawsuit against the Governor and his girlfriend. Now comes a second suit and revelations by his former Security Chief Ray Lewis which is juicier and adds to and confirms Collier’s story. This will probably keep the salacious story alive for another year or more. Bentley has been relegated to an irrelevant punchline or joke. He would not have been so adversely ridiculed if he had not been perceived as a family values man, churchman, retired doctor and looked like an old grandfather. There is an old saying in politics that if you ride a white horse you better not get mud on it because it shows up. Another truism is sex sells. Ain’t Alabama politics fun? Wow – what a year! Now we will get ready for the 2018 gubernatorial year, and to top it off, we have also got an open Senate seat up for grabs. We will have a governor’s race and an open U.S. Senate race in the same year. Those races have begun. Since winning the Republican primary is tantamount to election in Alabama, we elect a new governor and new U.S. Senator in June 2018, which is less than 18 months from now. See you next week. ___ Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state Legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Martin Dyckman: Donald Trump’s remarks about nuclear weapons are scary
Is it time to recycle the daisy ad? The most effective political spot ever filmed begins with a precious little girl pulling petals from a flower, counting them imperfectly. It segues to a man’s harsh voice counting down from 10. The child’s face dissolves into the hideous sight and sound of an H-bomb test. “These are the stakes,” says another voice — the familiar one of the president of the United States. “To make a world in which all of God’s children can live or to go into the darkness. We must either love each other or we must die.” “Vote for President Johnson on Nov. 3,” says an announcer. “The stakes are too high for you to stay home.” The ad did not mention Barry Goldwater, Johnson’s arch-conservative, hawkish Republican opponent, and it was pulled after running only once. But nearly everyone saw it in news replays, and it contributed enormously to LBJ’s landslide victory in November 1964. The message was that Goldwater shouldn’t be trusted with the nuclear codes. He had, in fact, suggested the use of low-yield nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Anyone old enough to have seen the ad will never forget it. For everyone else, it’s on YouTube. Search for “daisy ad.” There is now a candidate for president, presently leading the race for his party’s nomination, whose reckless talk about nuclear weapons makes Goldwater look rather like a peacenik. That candidate has suggested that South Korea and Japan should be encouraged to develop their own nuclear arsenals so as to shoulder a greater load of their own defense, which is now guaranteed by the United States. “At some point, we cannot be the policeman of the world,” Donald Trump said. “And unfortunately, we have a nuclear world now … Now, wouldn’t you rather, in a certain sense, have Japan have nuclear weapons when North Korea has nuclear weapons?” No, we wouldn’t. And neither would Japan, which promptly cited its prudent policy of never possessing them. As for the two Koreas, what does Trump suppose that the North’s manic dictator Kim Jong Un would do with his nukes should he see or suspect South Korea actually undertaking to develop one? Trump is practically goading the tyrant to use one now. The problem, of course, is that Trump shoots from the lip, whether the subject is war, women, abortion, or anything else. As The Washington Post columnist Katherine Parker put it, “The man either can’t or won’t think before speaking.” Newt Gingrich, a supporter, acknowledged that Trump doesn’t see that “being president of the United States is a team sport that requires a stable personality that allows other people to help him.” That too many nations already have nuclear weapons hardly makes a case that others should. It means just the opposite. Nuclear nonproliferation is a long-standing, bipartisan policy that we share with all our allies as well as such less-friendly nations as Russia and China. It’s why we assembled a coalition to enforce the sanctions that pressured Iran into forsaking its own pursuit of a nuclear arsenal. “We don’t want somebody in the Oval Office who doesn’t recognize how important that is,” President Barack Obama said Friday at the close of a summit meeting on nuclear security. “Even those countries that are used to a carnival atmosphere in their own politics want sobriety and clarity when it comes to U.S. elections because they understand that the president of the United States needs to know what’s going on around the world,” the president said. The next president, heaven forbid, could be someone who not only doesn’t know but doesn’t seem to care that he doesn’t know. The only one thing worse than ignorance in politics is the willful stupidity of a candidate who assumes that his gut instincts are all the knowledge he needs. Trump’s interview with The Washington Post’s editorial board was so jaw-dropping that the newspaper posted the full transcript online. Click here to read it. Typical of his dissembling and evasion was his answer to a timely question about whether “it’s a problem that the percentage of blacks in prison is higher than whites, and what do you think is the root of that situation?” Trump wouldn’t say. Asked a second time, he still wouldn’t say. Asked directly whether he believes there are “disparities in law enforcement,” this is what he finally did say: “I’ve read where there are and I’ve read where there aren’t. I mean, I’ve read both. And, you know, I have no opinion on that.” On climate change: “Perhaps there’s a minor effect, but I’m not a big believer in man-made climate change … to me, the biggest risk is nuclear weapons.” And then he went out and dialed that risk up yet another notch. Ten, nine, eight, seven … *** Martin Dyckman is a retired associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times. He lives in suburban Asheville, North Carolina.
Martin Dyckman: Mike Huckabee’s tax plan is huckster’s scheme to slam seniors
There’s a Republican running for president who promises unequivocally to “protect Social Security and Medicare … to kill anything that poses a threat to the promises we have made to America’s seniors.” But he’s also calling for a “tax reform” that would bleed seniors as they’ve never been bled before. What do you call such a politician? Huckster, for one. Fraud, for another. Mike Huckabee, to be specific. “Robbing people of the benefits they have contributed is not a solution – it’s an escape,” says his website. Yet Huckabee is also the arch apostle for the so-called “Fair Tax,” which would replace income and payroll taxes with a national sales tax at likely 50 percent. Half again, in tax, added to what you pay for food, clothing, utilities and other necessities. Half again in tax, even on what you pay for doctors, medicine and insurance. That 50 percent isn’t a wild guess. It’s the sober estimate of Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal group, and the bipartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, on what it would take to replace current revenue from income and payroll taxes. The tax rate could be much less, of course, if a President Huckabee shut down the Pentagon, abolished food stamps, sold off the national parks and forests, and stopped putting money into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. This radical scheme is Huckabee’s bid to win over the economically subversive wing of the Republican Party, epitomized by Grover Norquist, whose stated mission is to make the federal government small enough “to drown it in a bathtub.” Norquist and his fellow travelers have opposed Huckabee on account of some decent things he did as governor of Arkansas. Norquist himself won’t mistake Huckabee for a potential winner. But there are ordinary folk, in the Tea Party and elsewhere, who are susceptible to anti-IRS propaganda. Huckabee needs them. He figures to have a lock already on the party’s other extreme wing, the religious conservatives whose growing influence terrified even Barry Goldwater. It’s deceptively easy to dismiss Huckabee as a fringe candidate who might win early primaries in atypical states like South Carolina, but who wouldn’t be able to finish the race. One trouble with that view is in the damage he could do along the way to the not-so-whacko candidates in the Republican presidential rumble. Another is that he might give a camouflage of respectability to a “tax reform” scheme that’s beyond wrong: It’s fundamentally evil. It would switch the entire base of federal taxation from what people earn to what they spend, and from they earn to what they have saved — in many cases, on money they saved after paying taxes on it. Consider an elderly couple subsisting on Social Security, augmented by withdrawals from their small savings account. They spend all of it on necessities, most of which the states already tax. The federal government taxes none of it now. If your only income is Social Security, it is entirely exempt from the federal income tax. For those with other income, no more than 85 percent of Social Security is taxed. But while Huckabee’s scheme leaves that as it is, it would heap an enormous new federal tax on what that couple spends on necessities from their Social Security income and savings. For others whose income is great, the “Fair Tax” promises a windfall. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the top 1 percent would see their taxes fall by an average of $225,000 a year. Meanwhile, eight of every 10 Americans would be paying $3,200 more. There is a case that a sophisticated form of national sales taxation could make American exports more competitive and in that way contribute to the economy. The value-added tax common in Europe refunds the levy on goods taken or shipped out of their countries. The late Sam Gibbons, the Florida congressman who briefly chaired the House Ways and Means Committee, had this in mind when he proposed a value-added tax. But recognizing its regressive effect on most people, he would have offset it with a straight levy – with no exemptions – on higher incomes. However, that’s far from the case Huckabee is making. His is a cynical concoction of simple solutions – abolish the Internal Revenue Service, replace it with a national sales tax that the states would collect for Uncle Sam, and call it a day. This is what Huckabee claims: “The Fair Tax is the only plan that lowers everyone’s tax rates, untaxes the poor, broadens the tax base and helps protect Social Security and Medicare.” The last person who sounded like that was Bernie Madoff saying, “Just trust me.” Martin Dyckman is a retired associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times. He lives in Western North Carolina.
