But Barbour may have reached his apogee, and although I know it's hardly Christian of me, I think his star may be about to fall - and it's about time.
When Barbour was elected governor, he placed his assets in a blind trust. For those of you who don't know, a blind trust is a mechanism whereby a property owner can receive benefits from their property without having to abandon offices of public trust that might have a role to play in determining the value of their property. In a blind trust, the trustee manages the beneficiary's property, but the beneficiary can receive no information regarding the disposition of the property - they just receive the payouts to which the trust structure entitles them.
In Gov. Barbour's case, he was entitled to $25,000 a month in payouts. His initial trust included shares in his old lobbying firm worth over three-quarters of a million dollars. Here's what's interesting, to me, at least:
What we have here is that some times Barbour has made statements that he did hold an equity position in the parent company of Barbour, Griffith and Rogers -- now very much in the news for its representation of the Iraq political ambitions of former Iraq Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi -- and at other times he said he had severed all ties to the firm but was getting a "retirement payment."As Clemons points out in that same piece, Barbour's old firm doesn't provide retirement benefits. So, either the Governor is receiving a benefit that no one else at BGR is getting (which might be legal, but certainly isn't ethical), or the firm is making payments into his blind trust in return for some continuing service.
- Steve Clemons, The Atlantic
What sort of continuing service could the sitting Governor of Mississippi be providing to a lobbying firm? Nothing good for the people of Mississippi, I'm sure. But let's not assume the worst. Let's assume that Gov. Barbour is simply receiving a pension benefit from BGR that no other member or employee of the firm gets. Because you know, that's totally fair.
But that's not the end of the Governor's ethical lapses. Much has been made of the Governor's nephews' lobbying business in the Great State. Particularly impressive has been the efficacy with which their client's causes have made progress through the Legislature. But more important than that, the Governor has seen fit to appoint family members time and time again to various governmental commissions that are overseeing the recosntruction of the state in the wake of Katrina.
Bloomberg News points out that the Barbour family members that have been overseeing Katrina reconstruction have been paid for lobbying services during their time on the panels. Interestingly enough, the clients that paid the Governor's nephews during this period managed to benefit from the work that they did on recovery, to the tune of almost three million dollars. Isn't that a strange coincidence?
I'm not so naive as to think that government doesn't work via the personal connections between people. As the governor's lawyer puts it, Barbour "naturally is not going to be disinclined to help [his nephews] whenever he can." And I accept that. The problem is the interconnectedness of the remunerative relationships. The way that the Governor's family gets appointed to help make recommendations for storm recovery - and the recommendations just magically happen to throw a lot of business to a lobbying client of the family. There's just something about the process that stinks.
And that stink is starting to stick to Haley Barbour. The Clarion-Ledger is pissed about the monumental waste that Katrina recovery has involved. Bloomberg's Tim Burger is knocking the ball out of the park with his reporting on this, and the legalistic arguments of Barbour's representatives ring hollow in a state that has seen two years of bull on the question of recovery.
If John Arthur Eaves is smart - and he must be, or he wouldn't have been so successful, all evidence on the campaign trail to the contrary - he will hammer Barbour's unwillingness to talk. He will ask, what is Barbour hiding? If there's nothing to hide, why won't Barbour let us see?
If Eaves can make this issue have legs, he may be able to make a race of it.
Amen, Mr. Krell I believe you have written a gem. (I won't try to explain the physics of this).
ReplyDeleteI do wonder when the Eaves campaign will go negative? So far they've questioned things in speeches and press releases, but that's just normal behavior. (Unless you talk to Sid Salter and then you've been attacking every member of the Barbour family, right)
Going negative would require pushing a message and connecting the dots and then backing it up with a couple million reasons (dollars) for the general public and Mississippi news-media to stand up and take notice.
Good grief! This is one of the most cogent pieces I've seen written by a Mississippian on the evidence that something indeed does stink about Barbour and his false reputation for having done so much for Katrina victims. Like John says, someone must connect the dots and then drive the message to the people. The voting public will put up with just about anything -- except someone giving public money favors to family members. Let's hope this story stays alive.
ReplyDeleteDarn right this story has got legs!
ReplyDeleteEaves might even get 40% in the general election. lol
I can't understand why people like ya'll yearn to bring the Gov. down. Please don't tell me ya'll think John Eaves, or John Arthur Eaves Jr what ever he calls himself now, is the right man for Mississippi? I hate paying taxes, do ya'll? I like for a leader to have a game plan going into the game, not making it up as he goes as Eaves has done. Not matter how you see it, Eaves will never be a 1/4 of a leader that Haley is and have the connections to go along with it. All this about the blind trust is just a political stunt to confuse voters. Eaves can only go after Haley on such things. Please don't even try to explain all the red tape that shows Haley has done something so bad and terrible that he should lose an election over it. No one can fully explain all the details invovled with this blind trust that read this blog. No one knows all the details because they are private, legal documents. Its only speculation and liberals all over the state are trying to run with something they don't know anything about execpt what they read from other liberals.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be long when we see the debates on TV between Eaves and Haley. Then the state will see, the so called, real plans Eaves has to correct the terrible leadership that Haley has cast on us. You can rest a sure that Eaves has skeletons in his closet, he's a trail lawyer. All those 100s of millions of dollars he has taken from our country and given to foreign countries. When Eaves law firm sues the a government agency and wins we, the tax payers, pay him and his client. Have you thought of that? He has taken enough money from our country, government and private, that could pay for at least half of the recovery efforts on the coast. Suing us tobacco companies on behalf of Ukraine? Come on now!! But ya'll are right, we need a man that does such things to leadour state, a man that can wake up every morning wondering how many millions he can dish out to foreign nations from our pockets. Ya'll want to elect someone who picks tax payers pockets and he's not even in office . Can ya'll fathom what he will do if he's in office?
Just take some time before the election and do some research before you cast that vote. Quit regurgitating someone elses aritcle and do your own research and find out about Mr. Eaves. It might shock you!!
Why is one of Haley's biggest campaign contributors Jamal Amberson, a founder of the BAATH party and Iragi national, who would listed as a Terrorist by The Bush Administraion. I that even legal? I have a lot of friend fighting the Baathist in Iraq and I am outraged. What does an Iraqi Terrorist have to do with the govenor of Mississippi?
ReplyDeleteHa!! Yeah, Amberson sure sounds like an Iraqi nationals name. Get real man. Give me that link.
ReplyDeleteThis is not going to win Eaves the election. As I tell Republicans when they bring up the Partnership: This is all Whitewater stuff, and it only works if the opposing candidate is already in a strong position. Eaves is not, at least not yet, and this will not have legs until he is.
ReplyDeleteMedia Matters has added a story about Barbour's underspending of CDBG funds on lower income households.
ReplyDeletehttp://mediamatters.org/items/200708300010
I'm not sure the issue is low-income versus higher-income as it is owners versus renters, and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, there may in fact be a disproportionately high number of former low-income homeowners. Remember that in the Lower Ninth, for example, 60% of residents owned their own homes despite definitely falling within the low-income demographic.
ReplyDeleteThe whole "ownership society" idea is one that has caught on in some Republican circles, so the $64,000 question for me is whether Barbour is actually discriminating against low-income residents or discouraging rental property in favor of low-income home ownership. The fact that so many low-income households are shut out of the equity-building process, and prevented from establishing a permanent foothold in their community, is a huge factor in cyclical poverty.
This definitely needs more attention, though, and it's a good example of the sort of thing John Arthur Eaves should be talking about instead of 20-minute "voluntary" school prayers.
If you can't stand behind what you've said, don't say it at all. I really have no time for anonymous bloggers.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I would believe that in an elected official, especially in the highest State official, people would want him/her solely representing them. I fail to see how taking exuberant amounts of money from companies, even if blindly, places you above the corruptions of men.
The same was said about John Edwards and his connections to predatory lenders a few months ago.
However it seems here we have a Governor who finds the that the only conflict of interest he's involved in is having tailgates at both Ole Miss and MSU games.
When did we ever have a governor who was beyond the corruptions of men? The only one I can think of who even remotely approaches that moral plateau is William Winter. It's not a realistic standard for gubernatorial candidates.
ReplyDelete