In September 2003

[traza06]

In September 2003

took some hard shots at their Democratic colleagues for being too liberal with tax-and-spenpolicies* a violation of our unwritten commitment to keep the governors’ meetings bipartisan. The Democrats were so angry we threatened to block the election of Republican governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee to the chairmanship of the National Governors Association* normally a routine action since he was the vice chair and the chairmanship rotdated by partyevery year. I liked Lamar and doubted he had his heart in the attack on his Democraticnational party* the old cooperative spirit diminished. That might have been good politics* buthe agreed* I flew back to Arkansas and askedWal-Mart to help. In Septembe

r 2003* Satoshi Iue came to Chappaqua for lunch. By then*colleagues; after all* he* too* had raised taxes to fund higher school standards. I helped to broker a resolution to the conflict* in which the Republicans apologized for the letter and said they wouldn’t do it again* and we voted for Lamar for chairman. I was elected vice chairman.We did a lot of good work in the governors’ conferences in the seventies and eighties. In the1990s* when the Republican governors gained the majority and got more in line with theirit impaired the search for good policy. On our way to Idaho* Hillary* Chelsea* and I stopped for a few happy days in

Montana* thanklargely to Governor Ted Schwinden. After we spent the night with him* Ted got us up at dawn to take a helicopter up the Missouri River and watch the wildlife waking up to the day. Thwe took a four-wheel-drive vehicle equipped with rail connectors along the Burlington Northern rail line for a couple hundred miles* a trip that included a dramatic crossing of a three-hundred-foot-deep gorge. And we drove a rented cKootenai Lodge on

Swan Lake. After all my travels* I still think western Montana is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The political trips I took were a minor diversion from my main mission after the legislatuwent home in 1985* and for the rest of the decade: building the Arkansas economy. I enjoyethe challenge* and I got pretty good at it. First* I had to stop bad things from happening. WhInternational Paper announced plans to close a mill in Camden that had been operating sincethe 1920s* I flew to New York to see the company president* John Georges* and asked him what it would take to keep the mill open. He gave me a list of five or six things he wanted. I delivered on all but one* and he kept the

plant open. When my friend Turner Whitson called to tell me the shoe plant in Clarksville was closing* I turned for help to Don Munro* who had managed to keep six shoe-making facilities open in Arkansas during the worst of the eightiesrecession. I offered him $1 million in assistance and he took over the plant. The workers found out about their jobs being saved at a meeting to help them file for unemployment anretraining benefits. When the Sanyo company told me it was planning to close its television-assembly plant in Forrest City* Dave Harrington and I flew to Osakawith Mr. Iue over the years. After I was defeated for governor in 1980* he sent me a beautifupiece of Japanese calligraphy that said “Though the river may force you to change coursehold fast to what you believe.” I had it framed* and when I was reelected in 1982* it hung the entrance to our bedroom so that I would see it every day. I told Mr. Iue that we couldhandle the loss of Sanyo’s

jobs in eastern Arkansas* where the Delta counties all had unemployment rates higher than 10 percent. I asked him if he would keep the plant open if Wal-Mart would sell Sanyo’s televisions. After

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In September 2003