Oh, What a Tangled Webb
Novak, Robert D. & Novak, Zelda
Robert D. Novak and Zelda Novak Oh, What a Tangled Webb... Who Webster Hubbell was. E arly last year, as the Senate prepared to consider President Clinton's nomination of his good friend Webster...
...Rather, he wanted to show the world a coziness between politicians and businessmen that was close to corruption—and to which the new president of the United States and his first lady were tightly linked...
...When federal regulators learned of Hubbell's connection to Ward, they secured a letter from him stating that "I have not represented Mr...
...Former Republican Gov...
...Hubbell sided with Stephens, a client of the Rose Firm over the years...
...TAS readers as a special report...
...attorney in Little Rock, whose jurisdiction covered any inquiries into the Clintons' Arkansas days, including the investigation of Madison Guaranty...
...Hubbell is a convenient scapegoat...
...In fact, Hubbell was a proper subject for Senate scrutiny...
...In his place, Clinton appointed Paula Casey, a former law student of his at the University of Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville, who later worked on Clinton's campaigns...
...But the Whitewater tide was running against Hubbell...
...At age 31, less than a year later, he was appointed mayor to fill out the term of his predecessor, who resigned The American Spectator June 1994 25 after public protest over racist and sexist comments he had made...
...District Judge Jerome Turner denied the Justice Department requests, calling the actions "repugnant to this court's sense of justice...
...Largely overlooked is In Little Rock, he is remembered fondly as a prototypical good old boy— football player, country clubber, regular fellow, distinguished citizen...
...Arkla, he told us, was a stock "that was normally bought by bank trust departments and people who wanted dividends...
...Hubbell grew close to Bill and Hillary Clinton, as a frequent golfing partner and counselor of the governor...
...So are James Ring Adams's two reports on the Whitewater scandal, John Corry's "The MIA Cover-Up," Michael Fumento's report on Magic Johnson & AIDS...
...In 1978, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the City Board of Little Rock...
...owned 14 percent of the company...
...At least one prospective nominee for attorney general, Appeals Court Judge Patricia Wald, could not accept Hubbell's role as a pre-condition...
...Drew became more suspicious when, the day after Hubbell's purchase, two other people sought to open up new accounts for the purpose of buying Arkla stock...
...I don't believe the deal with the Consortium gives them a new-found religion...
...When last year he granted us a brief interview restricted to accusations of insider training, his calm demeanor broke momentarily and he bristled when we asked him about his answers to Senate Judiciary Committee questions: HUBBELL: Can I ask you a question...
...Seth Ward in connection with any issue or matter relating to his disputes with Madison Guaranty," and a pledge to refrain from representing Ward...
...This provoked an outcry from Cablecom, the company ranked first by the consultant, which organized a successful petition drive to hold a referendum on the board's decision...
...E arly last year, as the Senate prepared to consider President Clinton's nomination of his good friend Webster Hubbell for associate attorney general, the Judiciary Committee received a request from a Little Rock stockbroker named Roy Drew...
...171 LCity: State: The American Spectator June 1994 29...
...On a visit to the Arkansas capital, we could find nobody—friend or foe—who would speak harshly of Webb Hubbell...
...Webb certainly was in the machine...
...In a 4-3 vote, the board awarded the franchise to Riverside...
...In their efforts to vein the cable franchise Stephens Inc...
...In the end it was not a bad investment for Stephens, which purchased its Riverside stock for a mere $14,000...
...I don't know specifically why I bought that stock ten years ago...
...President Clinton went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, on February 12-13, ostensibly to visit the husband of his late mother, and brought along Hubbell to play golf...
...The Incredible Shrinking AIDS Epidemic report...
...On June 26, the New York Times published the first report that Arkla was "an attractive takeover target...
...The award to Midwest was defeated by a 56-44 percent margin, due largely to the efforts of the Little Rock Business and Community Development Consortium, a group of black leaders, who pointed out that Midwest was the only bidder that hadn't promised the Consortium a financial share of the franchise...
...That wound up a transaction with a neat profit of $3,462.50 on a $9,125 investment...
...The American Spectator, P.O...
...After receiving an engineering degree from the University of Arkansas in 1970, where he was a star offensive tackle for a Sugar Bowl–bound Razorback team, Hubbell went on to law school and landed at the Rose Law Firm in 1973...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0549 Yes, please send me: copies of James Ring Adams's "Beyond Whitewater" $ copies of James Ring Adams's "The Whitewater Obstructionists" copies of John Corry's "The MIA Cover-Up" copies of Michael Fumento's "This Magic Moment" copies of Daniel Wattenberg's "Gunning for Koresh" copies of Daniel Wattenberg's "Lady Macbeth of Little Rock" copies of Daniel Wattenberg's "Love and Hate in Arkansas" copies of Terry Eastland's "Rush Limbaugh: Talking Back" copies of "The Incredible Shrinking AIDS Epidemic" copies of Lisa Schiffren's "The Unauthorized Clinton Financial Audit" copies of David Brock's "Living With the Clintons" copies of David Brock's "The Real Anita Hill" copies of David Brock's "The Travelgate Cover-Up" Sub-Total VA residents add 4.5% sales tax Total Enclosed $ Zip Code: RP9406 r 1 He clearly did not appreciate how the inquiring press functions...
...David Brock's investigation of Anita Hill and his "Living With the Clintons...
...He told us that while he was "really upset with what 26 The American Spectator June 1994 was going on" fourteen years ago, the issues involved were more complex than it might first appear...
...At the time, Thomas "Mack" McLarty, a friend of Hubbell and now White House chief of staff, served on Arkla's board, and was positioned to become the company's president...
...Orrin Hatch, the committee's ranking Republican, was not in a mood to cause trouble...
...During his 1990 gubernatorial campaign, Clinton called Hubbell his "best friend...
...Drew wanted to testify about what he considered a very peculiar stock transaction Hubbell had made with him a decade earlier...
...Janet Reno could and did...
...When he submitted to an interview with the Washington Post upon his April 2 nomination as associate attorney general (nominally the number-three slot at Justice), it was only the second since he arrived in Washington...
...Daniel Wattenberg's profiles of the real Hillary Clinton, Love and Hate in Arkansas, or his report on David Koresh...
...There are a million reasons why I might have bought...
...As a member of Arkla's board, McLarty would have been privy to this information prior to its release in the press...
...The explanation satisfied the Senate committee, but it also reinforced Hubbell' s Washington image as a figure of mystery...
...I've always held him in high regard...
...Five days later, Hubbell approached Drew with a different proposition...
...So Drew was not called as a witness, and Hubbell received a free pass...
...Herb Coleman, the convener of the Consortium, said, "From what the mayor [Hubbell] said, I think they felt they should give it to a company who knows what's better for this community than we do...
...Joseph Biden, Judiciary's Democratic chairman, that Drew was well known back in Arkansas as an anti-Clinton pest...
...U.S...
...On June 6, less than fifty days after his purchase, Hubbell sold 300 of his 500 shares of Arkla for $25.625—a meteoric jump for a regulated utility that had been poorly rated...
...In the end, Stephens Inc...
...This yielded $7,687.50 for a 40 percent profit...
...A Little Rock attorney describes Hubbell, a long-time friend, as "one of the finest men I've ever known, who doesn't lie, cheat, or steal...
...The Stephens' influence had something to do with it, don't get me wrong," he said, "but there are always numerous factors involved...
...One was Doug Buford, an attorney with the Little Rock firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings, McLarty's family firm, where Clinton worked in 1981 and 1982 when he was temporarily out of office...
...It was not until an article in the Arkansas Democrat, reporting on the secret sale, that Stephens moved to transfer the funds to various charities...
...I don't remember any lawyer being involved...
...Tommy Robinson, but endorsed Clinton's candidacy when Nelson was nominated...
...I'm here, so I'm in politics, but I like to think that if you are honest and open then it can be an honorable pursuit...
...Nonetheless, Clinton in 1990 reopened the Arkla-Arkoma study, appointing as commissioners three of his own political supporters...
...The owner of Madison, James McDougal, was a business partner in Whitewater with Hubbell's law partner Hillary Clinton, who had represented the thrift before state regulators...
...went bust, and eventually led to the conviction of Bevill's officers on fraud counts...
...It could have been one of my brokers advising me to buy Arkla stock...
...In Washington, he is viewed, however dimly, as a slightly sinister figure who represents the unfortunate Clinton conjunction between personal affairs and government...
...A fter he finished his stint as mayor, and later as Clinton's appointed supreme court justice, Hubbell returned to private practice, in which he was often helpful to Bill Clinton...
...On November 1, Casey threw them out in a letter to the RTC, citing "insufficient information...
...The White House advised Sen...
...Because I have a lot of respect for Mack...
...Hubbell did not seem to seize the reins of power with relish...
...As a losing party in the cable debate put it, "Webb did the dirty work," In December 1978, Little Rock's city board 'of directors voted to award the franchise to Midwest American Cable Company, although that company was ranked fourth out of six bidders by a consultant hired by the city to help choose a cable franchise...
...was trying to call [Storer's) attention to that to get it broadcast on their public access station...
...to warrant the initiation of a criminal investigation...
...He achieved his third office, as chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, by way of a six-month interim appointment from Gov...
...Just before his Senate confirmation, he had hearkened back 24 The American Spectator June 1994 to his days as a University of Arkansas football player...
...Long before President-elect Clinton began his tortured search for an attorney general, he had decided on Hubbell to direct the Justice Department from behind the scenes...
...Hubbell and the Rose Law Firm represented Worthen through the bank's rescue...
...During the 1992 presidential campaign, he was discussed seriously as a possible nominee for attorney general as a stepping stone for the United States Supreme Court...
...NOVAK: Yes, sir...
...He arranged a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and acting attorney general Stuart Gerson, a Bush holdover...
...him to purchase 500 shares of Arkansas Louisiana Gas Corporation (Arkla) stock at $18.25...
...On June 29, Sheffield Nelson, then chairman of Arkla, told the the scenes, granting few interviews to reporters curious about his undefined role as Justice Department liaison to the White House...
...That sounded like the real Address: Webster Hubbell...
...I'll be honest...
...There he was thrown into Little Rock's center of power, as the firm, including partner Hillary Rodham Clinton, became the place to go for those who had business with the state government...
...They know someone will cover up for them...
...What's more, Hubbell was buying the stock in June, "at a time of year when they're not selling any gas...
...The only one to refuse to even come to the table with the black leaders was Riverside Cable Television...
...In Arkansas," he continued, "because the Democrats have been in power so long, they feel comfortable doing whatever they want to...
...But I thought there was a rule that the Senate was not supposed to talk aboutNOVAK: I didn't say they told me, but I found out...
...One: $5 Twenty-five: $75 Five: $20 Fifty: $130 Ten: $35 One hundred: $250 (Quantity discounts apply only to orders for the same report...
...In February 1993, Jesse Jackson and Ford, in separate meetings with White House aides., appealed for Justice Department intervention...
...In January 1985, Stephens secretly sold its Riverside stock for $2.7 million, and deposited the proceeds in Stephens's Worthen Bank and Trust Co...
...In 1987, Clinton appointed him to the state's ethics commission, where he participated in the drafting of a state ethics law that excluded the governor from any...
...That study found that there would be no adverse effect...
...Nonetheless, Reno said, the president had "had a direct conversation with Webb Hubbell...
...It eased over the occasional friction created by a one-party state, where business and politics are inextricably tied and conflicts of interest are perceived as inevitable...
...American Spectator Reprints Available David Brock's hot new exposé of Travelgate is available te...
...He had arrived as one of the Rose Firm quartet, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton and two lawyers given senior positions at the White House, William Kennedy and Vincent Foster...
...is totally, totally improper," said Bryant...
...The Stephens family supported Nelson's opponent in the Republican primary, Rep...
...Orrin Hatch, the committee's ranking Republican, was not in a mood to cause trouble...
...Drew was reluctant to mention Buford and Herbert by name to Senate investigators and refused to tell us about his conversations with them...
...They remembered me for the only time my man beat me and sacked the quarterback in the Sugar Bowl...
...T he Ford intervention was followed by Hubbell's unprecedented order that all U.S...
...NOVAK: Well, I found out...
...In 1990, a federal judge ordered a retrial for Ford, after a Memphis jury deadlocked along racial lines, and determined that Ford's appeals to racial solidarity eliminated the prospect of a fair trial...
...Hollingsworth, the attorney for the Consortium, cast the board's decision in a different light, saying that Jackson Stephens was presuming to have "better ideas for the black community than the black community itself...
...That self-portrait is now more apt than ever...
...On April 14, 1983, Hillary Rodham Clinton called Drew, then a broker with E.F...
...Then–University of Arkansas coaches Lou Holtz (football) and Eddie Sutton (basketball) each owned 3 percent...
...In Little Rock, Hubbell was viewed as destined for greatness...
...In addition, Hubbell's father-in-law, Seth Ward, had failed to pay back most of $1.15 million in loans from Madison for a questionable land deal...
...attorneys resign and leave their posts, even before a successor had been found.fire at the Branch Davidian compound...
...They're ideal for distribution to your friends, colleagues, teachers, and political representatives...
...But his role at the center of the great Little Rock cable television debate sheds more light on Hubbell the politician...
...P.A...
...In tossing Hubbell to the wolves, the Rose firm could hope to maintain that business, and avoid punitive action by the feds that could prove fatal to the firm...
...The first lady's name appears under Hubbell's in a legal document relating to the case...
...Terry Eastland's dissection of Rush Limbaugh's Revolution...
...Attorney Edward Bryant resigned in disgust...
...I thought, and I may be wrong, but whatever I told the Senate committee was supposed to be confidential...
...Hutton, to open up an account—to be named Midlife Investors—for her and her law partners Vincent Foster and Webster Hubbell...
...His life has been too good not to benefit from the benefit of the doubt...
...A friend who sees loyalty to Clinton as his downfall, says he hopes Hubbell's reputation will be "restored," adding: "He has an apparent willingness to take all the gunfire on himself...
...The media's interest in Whitewater peaked with Casey's actions, and she was forced to recuse herself from the investigation when her personal ties to Clinton were revealed...
...Hubbell did not tell the regulators about his connection with Ward, despite his involvement in procuring a loan that ensured that Ward would not be liable for repayment...
...Nothing better typifies the difficulty of transplanting to Washington the special culture of Little Rock...
...HUBBELL: Somebody talked to you...
...Hours before the Little Rock board was to vote, each director received a letter from Jackson Stephens, the billionaire investment banker, promising that a nine-member committee would be formed to administer distribution of the funds to charities...
...The whole concept of a congressman being able to call into play this kind of power to intervene and affect an ongoing trial...
...On July 19, Hubbell sold the rest of the stock for $24.50, yielding a 34 percent return...
...nevitably, and fatefully, Hubbell became involved in the Clintons' investment in the Whitewater Development Company and its association with failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan...
...It's like the good old boy network, but it's different—it's the Democratic Party...
...Hubbell's client, Gene Fortson, a former head of Worthen Bank, told the Associated Press that he had hired Hubbell to arrange to have the hearings taped for broadcast...
...I don't believe a leopard changes its spots overnight...
...But Hubbell won little applause in Washington...
...Shunning the limelight, Hubbell told a reporter, "I see the job as a ceremonial position...
...T his method of doing business was brought to Washington when Hubbell was installed at the Justice Department to represent the interests of his client, Bill Clinton...
...He quickly jumped in to deal with the government's six-year-old prosecution of Rep...
...All my experiences with him personally and professionally have been positive," Hollingsworth says...
...He asked Drew to open a personal brokerage account, instructing Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Arkla had had takeover discussions...
...I can't tell you why...
...The conclusion in Washington, correct or not, was that the president was down there to check out documents that might bear on Whitewater, and that he had brought along his lawyer...
...The stock transaction that Roy Drew unsuccessfully tried to tell the Senate about is a case in point...
...Reno learned to be less candid, but there was no doubt Hubbell was in the inner circle...
...A year later, Hubbell was headed back to Little Rock, leaving the government in order—he said—to better defend himself against allegations by his former partners at the Rose Law Firm that he had played fast and loose on billings...
...In 1983, Clinton instructed the Arkansas Public Service Commission to conduct a study evaluating the impact of the Arkla-Arkoma deal on ratepayers...
...Fortson told us he has no recollection of the events of three-and-a-half years ago...
...As one Little Rock attorney, a Republican, described it, "Arkansas has been done in by one political party ever since Reconstruction, and you're either in the machine or out of the machine...
...F rom the Clintons' standpoint, Hubbell had changed from an indispensable fix-it man at Justice to a net embarrassment...
...Offensive linemen are remembered for their mistakes...
...Hubbell expressed reservations that Riverside had refused to negotiate with the group of black leaders, but noted that the company has "an excellent record in dealing with minorities...
...Quarterbacks and running backs are remembered for their achievements...
...Send for your copies today...
...And when that company decides, it will tell us...
...Hubbell was never to make another trade on his account with Drew...
...He yearned for the closed world of Little Rock, where secrets were secrets and the lines between politics and business Name: were fuzzy...
...The following day Gerson announced the Justice Department's decision to dismiss the jury...
...Upon taking office as mayor, he said, "The term politician has a connotation that is not respected...
...HUBBELL: So, they told you...
...But in Little Rock, people who knew Hubbell, partisans and opponents alike, profess themselves shocked and incredulous at Hubbell's alleged ethical violations...
...But according to Ward's lawyer, only four months later Hubbell advised his father-in-law of the existence of a contract in Ward's Madison loan that eventually netted Ward $400,000, money that he was eventually forced to hand over to the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC...
...I don't plan on using the position in any way...
...I thought it would be nice if the public could see it because it was an issue during the primary...
...Clinton decided to reopen hearings held seven years before, to investigate whether Nelson, then-chairman of Arkla, had engaged in a "sweetheart deal" by selling drilling rights to his friend, Jerry Jones of Arkoma Production Corporation (who later became the owner of the Dallas Cowboys...
...The $2.7 million windfall had come just as the bank was stuck with a $52 million loss—a government securities investment with the New Jersey brokerage of Bevill, Bresler & Schulman Inc...
...This was the most favorable arrangement offered to the Consortium, which attempted to negotiate deals with each of the original bidders...
...Hollingsworth has known Hubbell as both a fellow interim appointment on the state supreme court and as a foe in litigation, where he found Hubbell to be "a tremendous lawyer...
...On October 8, 1993, the RTC sent Casey nine criminal referrals regarding its investigation of Madison...
...The first was to a colleague's nineyear-old daughter writing for her school newspaper...
...Such prominence and connections paved the way for Hubbell's ascent to three prestigious offices without having to run for election to any of them...
...Hubbell cast the deciding vote, explaining that he opposed Midwest's bid because they are "historically opposed to public access...
...As mayor, Hubbell took an active role in a campaign to remove billboards from Little Rock's streets, and pushed for a new convention center and athletic dome...
...W ho was this man, totally new to Washington and national affairs, that the new president insisted on giving such great power and responsibility...
...Among the others bounced was the Republican-appointed assistant U.S...
...I'd be shocked if he's a crook, and I'd be shocked to think he sent out a dishonest bill...
...It was Hubbell, not Reno, whom Clinton turned to after the Hillary Rodham Clinton's own involvement in Hubbell's representation of POM, Inc...
...attorneys he was trying to suppress the investigation of corruption charges against House Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski...
...By his own account, Drew was not interested in destroying his fellow townsman...
...promised to sell its Riverside stock within five years to Storer, and to donate the proceeds to Little Rock charities...
...This is the plight of the offensive lineman," he said...
...Drew was puzzled by the purchase...
...He agreed to resign...
...indicated it believes charity begins at home, with the help of Hubbell's Rose Law Firm...
...Justice reversed itself, and the trial continued—resulting in Ford's acquittal...
...In an interview with NBC shortly afterwards, Reno insisted that she was accountable for the FBI's raid, but admitted that, in the aftermath, she had not spoken to the president...
...After federal regulators took over Madison in 1989, Hubbell was hired by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in a malpractice suit against Madison's auditors, Frost and Co...
...But the call did summarily remove Jay Stephens as U.S...
...Frank White, who defeated Clinton for re-election in 1980 and then lost to him in 1982, considers Hubbell "a very competent attorney," who was "well-thought of—a low-profile person who didn't 28 The American Spectator June 1994 Boy Clinton's Big Mama by Daniel Walterdwg throw his weight around, and who never did anything that raised any ethical questions...
...The other was Dr...
...Zelda Novak is a reporter for the Evans and Novak Political Report...
...Drew wrote that it "is possible that Mr...
...I mean I'm not upset about it, I'm just curious who told you...
...Right now I'm drawing a total blank," he said...
...Hubbell helped out...
...Is that true...
...What I think I told them when they asked why I bought the stock," Hubbell later told us in his deep, slow, rumbling tones, "I had seen the newspaper articles and I said that one of the possible reasons was that Mack [McLarty] was going to be president [of Arkla...
...Jury selection for the second trial took place in mostly-white Jackson, producing a panel of eleven whites and one black...
...H ubbell presided over the selection of a cable television company to receive Little Rock's franchise...
...Even with Attorney General Reno confirmed and on board, Hubbell remained the driver at Justice's wheel...
...Yet Hollingsworth, the Consortium's attorney, today bears no resentment against Hubbell, and was prepared to testify in his behalf before the Judiciary Committee when Hubbell was battling charges of racism relating to his country club membership...
...The furor did not reflect well on the Rose Law Firm's already tarnished image...
...In 1990, as a lawyer with the Rose firm, Hubbell helped Clinton in his re-election campaign against Republican Sheffield Nelson...
...and Lisa Schiffren's exposé of the Clintons' Tax Returns...
...The hearings then were broadcast on Storer Cable's public-access channel with the help of Webb Hubbell, who, at the request of a former head of Stephens's Worthen Bank, made the arrangements for the televised broadcast...
...In the course of the selection process, the city's black leaders fought a losing battle against Stephens Inc., the gigantic Arkansas investment banking house, which thrives on a lax regulatory climate and a chummy relationship with government in Little Rock...
...Storer Broadcasting Co., a Florida-based firm, was the majority owner of Riverside, but Stephens Inc...
...Hubbell denied that in calling for the resignations of the U.S...
...The only hard questioning he Robert D. Novak is a nationally syndicated columnist, television commentator, and editor of the Evans and Novak Political Report...
...R. Wayne Herbert, who was married to Kathlyn Graves, a partner at the same firm...
...In a move that would result in Hubbell's eventual resignation, the firm went public with claims that Hubbell had overbilled clients and the firm for personal expenses and that he had caused the firm to absorb $500,000 in expenses incurred by his unsuccessful representation on a contingency-fee basis of POM, Inc., owned by his brother-in-law Seth "Skeeter" Ward...
...To Senate Judiciary staffers, Hubbell categorically denied ever trading on insider information...
...Whatever his personal problems, Hubbell had gone from indispensable Clinton ally to inconvenient reminder of what is troubling about the Whitewater affair...
...For many weeks before his confirmation, Hubbell was running the Justice Department, making controversial political decisions as the de facto Attorney General of the United States...
...Hubbell may have traded on the basis of insider information...
...They had reached an agree-ment whereby Midwest would pay the Consortium 2 percent of its annual gross revenues, sell them up to 15 percent of its stock, and pay the Consortium to train minority employees for the company...
...HUBBELL: I don't mind...
...I know I was disappointed in what Webb did, but it didn't change my overall impression of him...
...faced was an exercise in trivia: his membership in the whites-only Country Club of Little Rock...
...attorney for the District of Columbia, and set the Rostenkowski proceedings—then on the brink of indictment—back to square one...
...Harold Ford of Memphis, an 18-year black Democratic congressman and member of the Ways and Means Committee, on charges of accepting $1.2 The American Spectator June 1994 27 million for political favors...
...conflict-of-interest disclosure requirement, but that gave Hubbell a reputation as an expert on government ethics...
...With FDIC and RTC investigations of possible conflictof-interest violations at Rose underway, the firm is in danger of losing its lucrative business with the federal government, which accounts for about 40 percent of its total billings, according to legal experts...
...It could have been my parents buying and saying it was good...
...On a visit to the Arkansas capital, we could find nobody—friend or foe—who would speak harshly of Webb Hubbell...
...Hubbell did nothing to dispel this image, preferring to work behind Sen...
...I hope that his character is recognized, whether we question the wisdom of his loyalty, I hope his courage in absorbing the blows himself is recognized and applauded...
...So Drew was not called as a witness, and Hubbell received a free pass...
...In Little Rock, he is remembered fondly as a prototypical good old boy—football player, country dubber, regular fellow, distinguished citizen...
...In precincts where the Consortium campaigned most heavily, the ordinance was defeated by margins as high as 6 to 1. In a strange twist, four days before the Board convened to vote for a second time, the Consortium endorsed the company they had campaigned against...
...This interpretation is echoed by other Hubbell acquaintances, including a Little Rock consultant who said, "I never agreed with Webster Hubbell's politics, but I never thought he was a crook...
...Hubbelldenied to the Little Rock press that he had anything to do with the arrangement, but conceded that his firm was hired to sign up a video production company...
...Personable and gentlemanly, Hubbell used his charm to get far in Little Rock...
Vol. 27 • June 1994 • No. 6
