If God listens to politicians ? and believes even half of what they say ? on Tuesday, the Almighty heard the bipartisan, unanimous support of Maryland?s high and mighty for John Arnick, the quick-talking, sharp-dressing delegate from Dundalk who died last week.
The governor, congressmen, senators, delegates, judges, lobbyists, union leaders and some plain old constituents remembered Arnick?s 40-year career in the legislature with fondness, humor and a few tears.
Arnick was not being boosted for sainthood. Preaching on the gospel of the beatitudes, his pastor at Our Lady of Hope church, the Rev. John Ward, said, “Blessed are the meek is never an experience I had with him.” And “he was never one to genuflect at the altar of political correctness,” Ward said.
It was Arnick?s bluntness and frank talk that perhaps cost him a judgeship for which he had been nominated after he made some sexist comments to two women lobbyists.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich, whom Democrat Arnick befriended as a young Republican freshman, recalled his “loud, goofy, inappropriate sighs” and “never staying anywhere for more than 15 minutes.”
Arnick was renowned as legislative strategist.
“No one knew the rules of the House of Delegates better than John Arnick,” said current House Speaker Michael Busch, who counted Arnick as mentor. All four previous House speakers from the last 36 years attended the funeral.
Former Speaker John Hanson Briscoe, now a judge, remembered getting to know Arnick?s skill when he defeated an environmental bill Briscoe was working hard to pass for Gov. Marvin Mandel, who also attended the funeral. They wound up as roommates, fast friends and Briscoe named Arnick his majority leader, a post he held for 12 years under two different speakers.
Despite being the son of working-class Dundalk man and former Marine captain, Arnick was remembered as someone who liked fine fashion ? he walked in “Fourth of July parades in thousand-dollar suits,” Ehrlich said ? expensive, late-model luxury cars, fine cuisine and good spirits. Yet he didn?t carry “an ounce of fat,” Briscoe said, because “he had the metabolism of a gerbil.”
Arnick?s energy was legendary, like “a humming bird on speed,” is how Veterans Secretary George Owens described him, quoting another delegate.
During the funeral mass, Arnick?s daughter, Erin Tribble, read from the Book of Revelation, including a passage noting that “the old order has passed away,” which also might have applied to Arnick?s passing.
“We?re going to miss this throwback to another era in Maryland politics,” Ehrlich said. “We?re not going to see his kind again.”
