ClarkCast 018 - Interview with Mike Beebe
July 24, 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Good afternoon. This is Wes Clark, and for today's ClarkCast, I'm pleased to be joined by my friend and the next governor of Arkansas, Attorney General Mike Beebe. Mike, thanks a lot for being with us today.

Mike Beebe: It's good to be here, General. I appreciate you letting me on.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well no, (laughs) I'm really happy that you're here. I want to first, if you can help people understand a little bit about your background. You're a native Arkansan.

Mike Beebe: Yeah.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And you went to school here.
Meke Beebe: Yeah.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Been in the Senate for twenty- State Senate for twenty years.

Mike Beebe: Twenty years, yeah, yeah. Well actually, my background is probably not unlike a lot of other people's backgrounds, but I think it speaks to the beauty of this country and the opportunities that this country and this state affords people and provides people. I was, I've actually been able, I think, to live the American dream. I was raised by a single parent. My mother had me as a teenager, and, and she actually had to quit school-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hm.

Mike Beebe: -or felt like she had to quit high school. She raised me by herself, and because she had to quit school, and because she was limited with, without an education, she did the only thing she knew how to do to support herself and to support me, with a great personality that she had and, and a wonderful work ethic, and that is she spent her entire life as a waitress-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hm.

Mike Beebe: -waiting on tables. I'm sure most folks realize that waitresses were even exempt from minimum wage. So, she had to make her money on tips. And because she did not have an education, she, I think appreciated the necessity of it perhaps as much or more so than, than most people would. So, she instilled in me the importance of obtaining an education and did all she could to ensure that, that I could do that. And consequently, I grew up with an understanding or an idea that education was the key to open so many doors. We moved around a lot. Even though I was born in Northeast Arkansas in Jackson county, we lived in Detroit and St. Louis and Chicago and Houston, Texas and Alamagordo, New Mexico.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: So, you'd been all over the country as a kid.

Mike Beebe: Oh, yeah, yeah. But from the ninth grade on, came back to Arkansas, and went all through high school at Newport-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Mm hm.

Mike Beebe: -in Northeast Arkansas. Went to undergraduate school at ASU, and went to college at-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's Arkansas State University for out out of st-

Mike Beebe: That's Arkansas. That's not Arizona State-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: -that's Arkansas State-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Exactly (laughs)

Mike Beebe: -that's right. Arizona, we call it Arizona State, that other ASU, you know.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (laughter)

Mike Beebe: But, and then went to law school at the University of Arkansas. Moved to a town in Central Arkansas called Searcy then, and went to work for an established law firm, and spent twenty years in the Arkansas Senate. And now four-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: But all that time you were in the Senate, I mean, that wasn't a full-time job. You had to be a lawyer.

Mike Beebe: Right.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You had to be in the business community.

Mike Beebe: Right, we-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You had to make a living. Right?

Mike Beebe: That's right. We had to meet a payroll. We had to run a business. We had to ensure that employees were paid and that salaries were met, payrolls were met, and so, a good experience in the business community in that regard. Also had the opportunity, during that time, to serve on a board of trustees of a, of a university. Also had the opportunity at that time to serve on as Chairman of a hospital board. So, I received a pretty good indoctrination as to some of the nuances of problems in healthcare.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You really have, and after twenty years in the Senate-

Mike Beebe: Yeah.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -you've seen just about every issue that state governments work with, haven't you?

Mike Beebe: Yeah, we've seen the good and the bad and the ugly, you know, seen what's been tried and what's worked and what's not worked. I used to think experience wasn't that important until I got some of it, you know. And so-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (laughs)

Mike Beebe: Your values change as you see what's been tried and what hadn't worked.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, you, you became the state's Attorney General in the 2002 election.

Mike Beebe: Right.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And, and it's a four-year term, and so this is the moment that your fans want you to come up and be the governor. How's that race looking?

Mike Beebe: The race is looking good, but we, we've still got almost four months to go. So, we have to work exceedingly hard. The people of Arkansas have been extraordinarily helpful. We've, we've done well with the money-raising. In fact, we've out-raised our opponent two to one in so far as Arkansas is concerned. We, we expect a lot of national Republican money to come in. So,-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hasn't he had like, Rudy Giulli- Let's talk about the opponent for just a second.

Mike Beebe: Yeah. Sure.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Because people-

Mike Beebe: Sure.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -out of the state may not understand

Mike Beebe: Well, it's-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -your opponent.

Mike Beebe: It's- His name is Hutchinson. He was a Congressman and then a Bush appointee as Undersecretary of Homeland Security. He-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: But he had a big role in the Clinton impeachment. Didn't he?

Mike Beebe: He was a lead Prosecutor in the Clinton impeachment trial. And it really, it really affected some people in Arkansas who thought that - as an Arkansas Congressman at the time with his brother actually serving in the Senate, actually being one of the, in effect, jurors, because the Senate ends up-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: -acting as a jury in an impeachment trial - that he would have been better off not actually engaging in, in that role. But he, he vigorously prosecuted President Clinton as the lead Prosecutor in the impeachment trial, and then subsequently went to work as DEA Director, I believe it was, and certainly as Undersecretary of Homeland Security. Then he went to work after that as a, a lobbyist in Washington. So he's, up until, I think, a couple of months ago, he say he gave up his lobbying job in Washington. So, he's been a lobbyist in Washington. but that's the opponent, and certainly, I'm sure, he'll be well-funded by, by his party. And so, we have to be prepared and proceed as though they're going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You know, the other I was - well, a couple of months ago - Gert and I were in a restaurant here in Little Rock, and we got up to leave the restaurant, and we were actually going to go back and thank the chef-

Mike Beebe: Mm Hm.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -who does a really good job. And, and a young man in his thirties was sitting at, at a table with a couple of other couples, and he stood up as I came past. He stuck out his hand. He said, "General," he says, "I want to thank you for your service." Of course, that makes the alarm bells ring in my head, because normally that's a way somebody who disagrees with you begins.

Mike Beebe: (laughs)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: They want to discount your experience, and so they get that out of the way, and then they want to argue with you. And so, sure enough, he said, he said, "Now, but I, I just want to ask you a question." He said, he said, "I believe in, in, in family, and I, and I'm religious," he said, "and I believe in this country," he said, "and I'm a Republican," he said, "and if you say you believe that, why aren't you a Republican?"

Mike Beebe: Well General, one of the - and I know probably some of the folks that are hearing this will, will question where this comes from, and you don't know I'm about to say this - but one of the best things I believe I ever hear said on the subject was the day, several years ago at a Democratic Party function, when you grabbed the corner of the American flag, and in as much eloquence as I've ever heard, said, "This flag and this country doesn't belong to one particular party, and patriotism isn't something that just belongs to one particular party." Faith and family and patriotism are as much a part of my ideals and your ideals as anybody's. I think that it's- that we've reached a pretty sad state when some folks believe that their way is the only way and that one party has a monopoly on patriotism or on faith or on family. Democrats and Republicans alike share those values of faith, family and, and patriotism and love of their country, and-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And it's a kind of question of how they express it. Some of us think that- some of the people on the other side, they aren't too Christian in the way they-

Mike Beebe: (laughs) Yeah.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -go after their opponents. I-

Mike Beebe: Yeah. well, you-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No too charitable, let's say.

Mike Beebe: Oh, we've seen all kinds of just awful stuff on the blogs that personally attack children and personally attack, attack relatives. They, the actually make up stuff and, and-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: People come up to you with those same charges, though. Don't they?

Mike Beebe: Oh yeah. They-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And, and how do you answer it?

Mike Beebe: Well, you have to answer it by saying that I believe in, in god. I have my own faith and believe in the same Christian values that perhaps most of the other people that would attack you would believe. I try to live it in a way that actually understands that we're to help those less fortunate than ourselves. We're to help the poor. We're to, to utilize those values that we were taught in church and in Sunday school. When it comes to patriotism, I point out the, my service in the Army Reserve. You were in Vietnam, and I was within an eyelash of our whole unit going to Vietnam-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Mm hm.

Mike Beebe: -which we were prepared to do at the time. When it comes to family values, you know, family values start with trying to protect those families and those people in our society that are vulnerable, that cannot take care of themselves, whether it's seniors that need to be protected-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: -from abuse and neglect, or whether it's children themselves who need healthcare or who, perhaps, need protection from predators on the internet, and I've got a long track record of doing that.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Family values is not 'leave the weakest behind'-
Mike Neebe: No.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -and let them fall by the wayside.

Mike Beebe: No.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, what do you see as the big issues in this, in this race in Arkansas?

Mike Beebe: Well, you know, the, the Governor has a responsibility, I think to tackle a number of issues simultaneously, and I don't think you can solve the, the problems without attacking about three issues simultaneously: education, economic development and healthcare. And they're interchangeable. Improving the quality of education, which is the number one priority of state government. In Arkansas 70 cents out of every one of our general revenue tax dollars-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Mm hm.

Mike Beebe: 70 cents out of every tax dollar goes to some form of education. So, it's obviously a top priority, but if you've improved the quality of education and you haven't addressed economic development simultaneously, all you're doing is educating you people to go to Dallas or St, Louis-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: (laughs)

Mike Beebe: -or Atlanta-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: -or Minneapolis to get a job. So, at the same time that you're improving the quality of education, you have to have an economic development policy that works to the strengths of any given region of the state and provides the jobs of the twenty first century, good paying jobs and new jobs and the kind of jobs that allow our people to, to stay in the state and raise their families here.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: What are some of your ideas about economic development that you'll be talking about in the campaign?

Mike Beebe: It, well, they, they vary by region. For example, we have the opportunity in, in traditional manufacturing perhaps to land a manufac- a major automobile manufacturing plant in the area around West Memphis-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: -in Eastern Arkansas. But we can't do things the old way. So, what we have to do is: we have a community college that can train a workforce specifically to the needs of an automotive opportunity. And so, we, we tell Toyota or Henyo or General Motors or, or, or Ford or whoever may be interested in the site that we, we have a building. We will staff it, and teach, have the curricula that you need to train your workforce to best do that.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That sounds good.

Mike Beebe: And we'll, we'll put the equipment in it that you specifically need.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: Now, we go down farther in the state to the, throughout the Eastern Delta area where there's a huge opportunity in soybeans, and we have alternative fuel opportunities that exist for economic development. And we already know that you can do up to a 20% blend with soybean for bio-diesel-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: -to reduce the dependence on diesel, to lower the dependence on diesel. It provides an additional market for our farmers. It- you have to have soybean crusher that provide job opportunities for our people, and it, it also has national security implications in removing us from so much dependent, dependence on foreign oil. We go to South Arkansas, and we switch a little bit in the alternative fuels to ethanol. What we now know is that in ethanol, we actually have, with wood products, a four to one higher BTU ratio than with corn on the manufacturing of ethanol with a wood base as oppose to-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's really important.

Mike Beebe: That's absol- And we have so much timber industry in South Arkansas. We're not talking about supplanting what their normal, where their normal products go. We're talking about the stumps that are left over and the wood waste, and just providing an additional market for our timber people that also gets us down the road toward energy independence. Northwest Arkansas, for example, is already a booming place with Walmart and Tyson and, and JB Hunt and so many of the entrepreneurs that bless Northwest Arkansas. The, the issue for them in economic development is not so much trying to figure out what new things can be done, but to provide the kind of infrastructure that keeps that area from imploding. The only thing that seem, would seem to slow them down, at this juncture, is not having the sufficient roadways and sewers and water opportunities to allow them to continue to expand. And so, then we have bio-science's opportunity. We put together a bio-sciences institute that allows us to be able to do medical research that's based on, on agricultural opportunities, and we actually have the opportunity to put certain kinds of cancer in remission with organic-based compounds, but the spinoffs and the patents from that are applicable to so many different areas. And this represents the research and jobs of the twenty first century. You know Friedman said in his book, India and China know what they're going to be doing ten years from now. They're going to be doing what the United States is doing today.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.
Mike Beebe; The challenge for the United States, the challenge for all of us, is to figure out what we're going to be doing ten years from now that nobody on this planet has yet figured out, and that's the strength of the American entrepreneurial system.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's a great way to put it. Now, you were talking about education and education being 70% of what the state does. I, of course, I'm a public school graduate just like you are down here, and yet we know that America's public schools, they just haven't, they don't seem to keep up. After the fourth grade tests, which seem to show that we're about on a par with everybody else, we seem to just fall further and further behind in comparison with other countries in the world. What do you think we can do in a state like Arkansas to help our young people?

Mike Beebe: One of the things I think that we have to do - and it's a long-term solution, it's not a quick fix - is good quality preschool, particularly for at-risk kids, gives those youngsters the opportunity to be competitive when they start school.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And this is not baby-sitting and childcare.

Mike Beebe: No, no, no, no.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: This is real schooling.

Mike Beebe: This is real. The kind of opportunities that are afforded children that have mommas and daddies at home working with them even before they start school on their ABCs and cutting out things and colors and all of the things that-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: -that prepare a youngster for kindergarten and first grade, and we've got a whole segment of our populace that start so far behind, either because they don't have a momma and daddy at home or maybe they just got a mamma and she's working two jobs just to put enough bread on the table. And so, when they start behind, they stay behind. It not only effects that whole group. It effects the rest of the class, because the, the, the teachers have to try to, to bring them up, and it slows the progress of the rest of the class down. So, a good, quality preschool program that's not baby-sitting, but is indeed intensive training and forming a basis for public schools, in the long-term solution, will help tremendously. But you can't abandon that generation that's already there.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Mike Beebe: So, after school programs, summer programs and individual tutorial programs to elevate those youngsters who already missed out on that opportunity for a good, quality preschool program, would be essential to elevate those youngsters, as you mentioned, that once they get to the fourth or fifth grade, seem to start lagging further and further behind. And then we have to, obviously, have a mindset that what, what used to be just to be a high school graduate now is more difficult in today's competitive world, and some degree of post-secondary education or training is necessary for most of our youngsters to be able to be competitive in today's job market. And if we can instill that thought process in everyone, then the expectations will go up, and expectations will drive the performance.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And you think we've got the, the money here in the state to deal with these problems.

Mike Beebe: I do. Arkansas's fortunate in that we've, our economy has rebounded to the point where we have a significant surplus. That significant surplus is such that, applied in the right ways - primarily to education, workforce training and infrastructure development - will allow our people, I think to reap the benefits of an improved economy and an improved educational system for years and generations to come.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: So, as I listen, listen to you talk and I think about these issues, you sound like, you sound like a real leader. You're into business. You're into education. You know the state, all four corners of it, and obviously in Central Arkansas as well. And this is, I think, what Americans is what Arkansans are looking for. I think people today, they're looking for, for public servants who are genuine, who are committed. You've got a long-term track record of doing, doing everything that you can to help people in the state. It's not about you. It's about other people, and I think people really admire that in you. Is there anything else you'd like for our audience to know about the state and the campaign and how you're doing?

Mike Beebe: Well, I, I'd like the audience to know that we need all the help we can get. (laughs) We, if they've got friends or relatives in Arkansas, be sure and call them, and ask them to support-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, that's true. And one other thing, you know, I would say that, you know, these state elections, they're not subject to the, the, to the, to the federal restrictions on funding. So, if people are maxing out to congressional candidates, that doesn't count in terms of giving to your campaign. Right?

Mike Beebe: Yeah, the maximum anybody can give, and they can give, anybody in the country can give up to $2000 per person or per entity, even in Arkansas, even businesses and corporations can give up to $2000 in the general election. So, that opportunity's always there and the opportunity to, for people across the country who have friends, neighbors, relatives in Arkansas to at least talk to their, to the people in Arkansas that they can talk to to ensure they're aware of this race.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I hope you'll do that, for all of you that are listening to this. I think Mike Beebe's a real leader. I think he's good for the state. I think he's good for the country, and he's the kind of American that I think we all want to boost. You know, I was leaving that restaurant after I had that discussion with that young man, and his buddy jumped up and he pointed his finger at my chest and he said, "I'm from Fort Smith, Arkansas," he said, "And I'm a Republican, and I'm proud to be a Republican," he said, and he said, "Arkansas is the last Democratic state in the south, " he said, "and we're going to take it away from you." And of course, this made me greatly concerned, because it made it sound like politics is like a football game. It isn't. It's about the welfare of the people. It's about the way you shape the future of the country, and it's a very serious endeavor. But I will say this, Mike, that that guy from Fort Smith, he never met you.

Mike Beebe: (laughs)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Because they are not going to take Arkansas away from the people of Arkansas. They're not going to take it away from pubic servants who care about the people, who have their heart in the right place, who have spent their lives in dedicated service to ordinary folks in this country, people like Mike Beebe. You're going to be our next Governor. We're proud of you, Mike, and I'm glad you're on here.

Mike Beebe: Thank you, General, and thank for the opportunity.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thanks