LITTLE ROCK — State Sen. Larry Teague of Nashville is a Democrat state senator and president pro tem of the Senate. He is up for re-election, and all but one of the Republican state senators have lent their name to the invitation for his re-election fundraiser.

Some Republicans (Sen.

Bill Pritchard of Elkins and former GOP State Chairman Sen. Gilbert Baker of Conway) are even listed as co-sponsors.

My, what a cozy little club they have up there, while the republic perishes.

“One thing the feds could learn from us in Arkansas is after the election, we put our D’s and R’s away and do our business,” said Sen. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, one of the fundraiser’s co-hosts.

Your business, sir? Is cohosting fundraisers for members of the opposition party “your” business?

While all the Republicans involved, and even Teague himself, said it was not an “endorsement,” it will have an obvious and chilling effect on anyone considering running against Teague as a Republican. How would you like to try to run against a guy where almost every member of your own party in the chamber you hope to join has signed on to a fund-raiser for him to be reelected?

“I don’t think it’s an endorsement,” Teague is quoted by the Associated Press’ Andrew Demillo (sorry I don’t have a reliable source) as saying, “I think it was a sign of solidarity and friendship.”

Teague, as president pro tem of the Senate, has considerable power. He decides what committee bills have to go through, and as such he can kill a bill by sending it to a committee where he knows it will be treated unfavorably. So a lot of this is just sucking up to a guy with a lot of power. That may serve power well, but it doesn’t serve the people well. People who are unhappy with the direction this state has gone under the Gov. Beebe and Sen. Teague want another choice. The actions of the Republicansenators, where they are all one big group of “friends” expressing “solidarity” with Teague, denies the people a loyal opposition to turn to.

Or rather, denies them the Republicans as that loyal opposition.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. Sen. Gilbert Baker had many Democrats attending his fundraiser two years ago in his bid to become the Democrat’s favorite Republican.

My take: It’s bad enough that sellout Republicans back one another so that if a reform candidate tries to take one on in the primary, he has to accept that his opponent will have a string of high profile endorsements and big names at their fundraisers.

The average voter doesn’tknow what a snake the sellout is - they only know that the “big names” are all backing him, so they vote for him. It is a real impediment to changing a system that most folks realize is not serving the country well.

As sorry as that is, this may be worse. Now, not only will the establishment jump all over anyone who dares challenge one of the insiders in a party primary, but the Republicans and the Democrats are to the point where they act to protect each others’ insiders! I have often said that the insiders of both D.C.-based political gangs which have led our nation to both fiscal and moral ruin are more comfortable with one another than they are with the outsiders of their own parties.

The people may have to go outside the system to save the country.

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Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 4 on 06/15/2011