From Arkansas comes this, somewhat confused, story of legislative overreach by one Bob Mathis:”…when Mathis filed a bill Wednesday evening to ban smoking in cars carrying young children who are restrained in car seats, a lot of people laughed. They didn’t take him or his bill very seriously, Mathis says. But he showed up Thursday morning ready to fight. He got his bill through the House Rules Committee at noon, then through the full House just before 5 p. m., representatives approving it 58-13, with 29 House members not voting. The bill went to the Senate on Thursday night, shot through the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor around lunchtime Friday, and wound up on the Senate floor just before 2 p. m. Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, the Senate sponsor of the bill, said the measure means adults would be barred from smoking in vehicles with children in child safety seats. “Let’s do something for kids,” Smith said in a brief introduction of the bill. “

Uh oh. When a politician says that he’s going to “do something for the kids” you just know that the story is going to end badly. And so it does: “Senators passed it 33-1, sending it to the governor [Mike Huckabee]. Huckabee at one point Friday told Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, that Mathis “was basically doing the bill as a joke and the darn thing passed both ways.” Huckabee said Friday afternoon that the bill sounded like a great idea. “It’s obviously protecting the child against secondhand smoke,” the governor said at a news conference Friday. “I think it’s a great bill. I’m glad that’s cleared both houses. Delighted…”

And Mathis, it turns out, is something of a martyr for his cause.

“Mathis, who is term limited, says the bill would become part of his legacy as a lawmaker. He said he regularly hassles other drivers when he sees them smoking in a car with children. Sometimes they give him dirty looks, Mathis said. Sometimes they give him “the obscene gesture.”

Well, Bob, old chap, I just can’t imagine why someone would give you “dirty looks” or even, let angels avert their eyes, “the obscene gesture”, for hassling them.

Actually, come to think of it, the only really obscene gesture in this story is Bob’s bill.

Hat-tip : Jacob Sullum at Reason and Mike at the Rest of the Story, both of whom have plenty more to say on the topic.