Senate President Michael Lamoureux is apparently one of those guys who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.

He told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, according to the morning paper, that he’s too busy worrying about the private option health insurance plan that Mrs. Dr. Sen.  Missy Irvin is about to scuttle to worry about piddly stuff like the fact that four Republican hacks are sucking $22,000 a month off the state teat to do precisely nothing — be staff to a non-existent person, the lieutenant governor of Arkansas. Said Lamoureux:

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The more I think about it, the less [deciding the future of the four staffers in the lieutenant governor’s office] becomes a priority, The scope of the two don’t seem to be equal policy matters. It’s not the No. 1 thing I am working on.

It’s complicated stuff, I know. But just so Lamoureux will know that there is more than one person who’s had an objection to this boondoggle besides John Brummett, here’s my column on the subject for the Times this week.

My point is not only welfare payments to the Gang of Four, but the fact that they are being protected by Republicans normally anxious to cut REAL working people to the quick — whether in minimum wage, health insurance, food stamps or any other small comfort.

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Lamoureux has already signaled a free pass for the Gang of Four until after the fiscal session. THEN, he says, he might look into it. That means at least six weeks of doing nothing for the Gang of Four. Maybe they could be looking for real work in the interim. Republicans are always telling us there are plenty of jobs out there for anybody who truly wants to work.