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It seems like a century ago, I cleaned my first catfish on the banks of the muddy St. Francis River in northeast Arkansas, where I grew up. Everybody laughed at the mess I created as I tried to duplicate what so many before me had done so well.

Blood and guts were strewn all over the top of the makeshift fish cleaning table, a homemade fabrication of wooden legs and a top covered with a small piece of roofing tin to make cleanup easier.

I’m reminded of that mess as I read in the local newspapers and hear on the street that the political party in control of our lives at the state and local levels is trying to keep its tabletop from getting too messy.

In Polk County, where a modicum of decorum has usually existed between the Democrat and Republican parties, turmoil among local GOP officials has erupted, with fellow members engaging in something akin to a slingshot fight at close range using marbles. Or, to use one of the favorite words of the macho set, a smackdown.

Tryon Daily Bulletin publisher Jeff Allison is a skilled community tightrope walker, so he assigned himself to report on it this week, especially since the marbles were flying and making contact.

The Bulletin story was chock full of detail and description of the swirling dervishes of it all, right down to the fact that the former Polk GOP’s finance chairman had been arrested, charged, and convicted of trespassing at the GOP’s headquarters. He was actually a member of the executive committee when he was trespassed. Also trespassed was a sitting member of the Polk County Board of Commissioners. She, like all the other members of the commission, is a Republican, but apparently, some members of the Polk GOP leadership don’t like her too much.

It’s not as if any of this publicity about fish guts on the GOP’s tabletop is going to harm the party, for heaven’s sake. But what it indeed shows once again is how invaluable our local free community press is to all of us, regardless of whether we are affiliated or not.

Larry McDermott is a local retired farmer/journalist. Reach him at hardscrabblehollow@gmail.com