Vote for Me in '07

[muskrat]

With Haley Barbour putting all these poor people off of Medicaid and teachers being laid off, don't you wish I were still your Governor?

Under my administration, we brought Nissan to Mississippi and funded the largest comprehensive teach pay raise in state history. So what if I tried to change the state flag and put the state in the biggest money mess it has ever been in! MISSISSIPPI NEEDS A GOVERNOR!!

MUSKRAT '07...GLORY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!

[Sir Mickey Mouse]

So you really think Haley is a better governor than Gov. Musgrove was?

In my opinion, he is terrible at leading our state. He doesn't care about the average person. I am not a "registered Democrat" by any means, but Musgrove is a heck of a lot better person than Barbour has ever thought of becoming. Musgrove actually took steps towards getting real jobs like Nissan here, got computers into classrooms - not just in Madison or Oak Grove, but in the Delta and Tchula. Barbour said no new taxes, but now we are "fee'd" to death with local tax increases and more fees for other things.

[lamarrebel]

MISSISSIPPI NEEDS A GOVERNOR!!

Mississippi has a Governor and his name is Haley Barbour. He is doing a tremendous job in terms of economic developement and rather than raising taxes every time the economy slows b/c of too much government fat, Haley has held the line.

Yes, the people of our state have had to make sacrifices because of the excesses of the Musgrove years. However, Haley Barbour is the right man at the right time, and I can't wait to wait to vote for him again in 2007 or to put a Barbour for President bumper sticker on my car.

[Sir Mickey Mouse]

So he is doing a good job of economic development even though two of the companies WE are financing with bond money... Baxter and Northrop Grumman... are laying people off left and right... special sessions that have costs nearly half a million dollars THIS year... schools continue to slide down on national rankings... doctors STILL leaving after his precious tort reform... "We need someone who can talk on TV and not embarrass the state and change the attitude to Mississippi"... but "Crossing Jordan" on NBC still 'came down to Mississippi' Friday night, went to the delta, filled up with gas on those old antique pumps and someone firebombed a house for looking into an old black man's murder 40 years ago... even has a son who got arrested for DUI at Mississippi State, but he is such a strong Christian who does no wrong... (not being a hypocrite, just don't claim to be perfect with that kind of stuff... mistakes are forgiveable, but at least don't play it down)... fighting against the partnership money after LOBBYING for big tobacco for years in DC... If our budget is so tight, then why can't he waive his salary like Frank Melton did at MBN? He is loaded, so we have heard time and time again... donate that money to Mississippi to make a statement... don't renovate the governor's mansion, even with private donations... don't buy a new state jet when we got Miss' state's old one a couple of years ago... I am sure I will think of more.

[Sir Mickey Mouse]

By the way, it has nothing to do with him being REPUBLICAN... I LOVE Pat Fordice and would LOVE to vote for her as governor... her husband was also very good.

[ynotme297]

With Haley Barbour putting all these poor people off of Medicaid and teachers being laid off, don't you wish I were still your Governor?

Under my administration, we brought Nissan to Mississippi and funded the largest comprehensive teach pay raise in state history. So what if I tried to change the state flag and put the state in the biggest money mess it has ever been in! MISSISSIPPI NEEDS A GOVERNOR!!

MUSKRAT '07...GLORY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!
we need to take a look at all the law makers in jackson also. the beef plant was a big screw up and lined someone`s pocket. if you become gov. will we have a nissan and steaks in every home in mississippi?

[aaron]

My question is, why would someone make up a username just to make this topic?

[Sir Mickey Mouse]

My question is, why would someone make up a username just to make this topic?


Very good point... people can speak their opinions about public officials, of course... but let's lay off a guy who served his state several years... if you want to make comments, do so in a real thread, but don't create a name "Muskrat" making fun of the guy. That is very disrespectful.

[lamarrebel]

I suspect this thread is a follow up spoof to shawn o hairy's thread below us. Didn't I see a post or this sn somewhere over the weekend?

Seriously, medicial malpractice insurance companies who had quit issuing policies are now returning to do business in Mississippi, and insurance premiums at the largest insurance provider for medical insurance did not increase this year (first time in a long time that has happened). Some of the pre-tort reform lawsuits (filed just before the reforms took place) are still making their way through the court system, and obviously cannot comment about any individual doctor's decision to leave Mississippi, but I would surmise that it is not our tort laws that are the reason.

Let's review some history. In 1992, our state was at the bottom level of a recession, and our state was in a deep financial bind. Kirk Fordice, like Barbour, fought raising taxes, including vetoeing the one percent sales tax increase. There were few Republicans in the Legislature in 1992, and the Demos easily overrode him.

Raising taxes is not the way to increase jobs or prosperity for the working people of Misissippi. You cannot wisely go around raising taxes every time the economy slows. Haley Barbour understands this. He inherited a huge fiscall mess from the Musgrove years (went in four years from having the largest unallocated surplus "rainy day fund" in Mississipppi history to the largest budgetary shortfall). He's had to make tough, sometimes unpopular decisions, and I salute him for it. Ronald Reagan would be proud.

[Sir Mickey Mouse]

I did a google search "Haley Barbour" "lobbyist" "tobbaco" and came up with more hits than can be read... here is one from cnn.com (3rd or 4th down if you do the same)

Where There's Smoke...

...there's Barbour. And Congress still reeks of tobacco

Margaret Carlson/TIME

It was one of the darkest mysteries of Congress: who was the mastermind behind the biggest heist of the year--the delivery of a $50 billion tax break for tobacco companies? Now a prime suspect has emerged: former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour. Two Republican Party officials told Time last week that Barbour, now a millionaire tobacco lobbyist, had gone to House Speaker Newt Gingrich and majority leader Trent Lott and persuaded them to slip a giant gift to his clients into the must-pass balanced-budget agreement just minutes before it was inked. For weeks it looked as if the two g.o.p. leaders had pulled off a classic fix: looting the general Treasury in the interest of a specific client with a laser-like incursion into a massive bill that no one had the time or inclination to read. Tobacco executives--the guys who raised their right hands and swore that tobacco does not cause cancer, must have been spiking cartons of Marlboros in the end zone. Joe Camel lives!

Sadly for Gingrich and Lott (but not for Barbour, who gets paid no matter what), a couple of goody-goody freshmen had to go and ruin everything. Calling the move "midnight madness" that "shines and stinks like a mackerel in the moonlight," Democratic Senator Richard Durbin and Republican Susan Collins exposed the tax credit, which would have offset industry costs in the now ill-fated tobacco deal, to the light of day. No one came forward to defend the stinker once it was yanked from its protective package, so it went down, 95 to 3, in the Senate and was killed by the House in a unanimous vote. Such consensus is normally reserved for measures like proclaiming Mother's Day.

Why didn't Lott and Gingrich spread the blame by giving up Barbour? After all, he makes big bucks--$50,000 a month--fronting for the industry. But fingering Barbour would force the two leaders to choose between pleading stupidity (We were tricked into it) or venality. And neither Lott nor Gingrich is inclined to annoy tobacco's top ambassador in Washington, who controls thousands if not millions of dollars in political contributions. In the past 18 months, Republicans have pocketed $1.9 million from tobacco. (Democrats got $300,000.) Barbour makes Roger Tamraz, the star of last week's campaign-finance hearings, look like a sucker. For the $300,000 Tamraz proudly admitted spending for access, he got only a few minutes with the President at one of his six social visits, and he never nailed the help he needed for his pipeline. Barbour, in contrast, got actual results. Neither Lott nor Barbour would comment.

But Gingrich's staff has chosen to plead something between stupidity and disloyalty. An aide says Gingrich defended the tax break because he didn't really understand its political liability. When staff members sat him down and explained it, Gingrich felt, one says sadly, "betrayed."

You would think that getting caught in a clear exchange of cash for a tax break might pique the interest of the two committees busily looking for just that. But you would be wrong. Republicans (tacitly supported by many Democrats) are trying to preserve this kind of money flow by putting on a show trial of past violations. After the House killed the tax break on Wednesday, members of Congress piled onto a United States Tobacco Co. jet that very night to fly to a--this is hard to believe--tobacco-industry fund raiser in Manhattan. How's that for remorse? When the posturing at the hearings is over, the Capitol will still be for sale, and that's just what most of the Congress intends.

[lamarrebel]

You make it sound like it is a crime to be a lobbyist -- a lobbyist represents and promotes business or other interests in state legislatures and Congress in a way somewhat analogous to what I do for my clients in the courts. I agree the tobacco is bad for public health, but to borrow the words of a certain chancery judge in our area, if most smokers in today's time want to meet the person behind their problems, all the need to do is find the nearest mirrow, pull up a chair and stand squarely before it.

Haley just built the largest lobbying firm in the United States after having a remarkable record as Chairman of the RNC (GOP takeover of both Houses of Congress for the first time in over 40 years under his watch). Not bad for a guy from Yazoo City.

[just-Wynn]

pull up a chair and stand squarely before it. Wynn was just wondering why pull up the chair if you're going to stand? :smt102

[Hillary44]

Good stuff, Mickey

[noway]

HIGH TECH BARBER SHOP


A popular Des Moines Barber shop had a new robotic barber installed. A fellow came in for a haircut.
As the robot began to cut his hair it asked him, "What's your IQ?" The man replied, "130." So the robot proceeded to make conversation about physics, astronomy, investments, insurance, and so on.
The man listened intently and said, "This is really cool."

Later, another gent came in for a haircut and the robot asked him as it began the haircut, "What's your IQ?" The man responded, "100." So the robot started talking about football, baseball, and so on. The man thought to himself, "Wow, this is
really cool."

Later on, a third guy came in to the barber shop. As with the others, the robot barber asked him, "What's your IQ?" The man replied, "70." The robot then said, "So, I understand you Democrats are really excited about Hillary running for president?"

[AlphaMale]

Why don't we continue this tread on the Mississippi section. How did we get from introductions to State and National politics?

[muskrat]

I'm BAAAACCCKKK...HALEY LOVERS BEWARE!