Thursday, July 3, 2008

Barbour family profiting off later election

According to Senate Guru, there may be another reason Governor Barbour wanted the election in November.

Mississippi: George W. Bush was just in Mississippi for a high-dollar fundraiser for the ethically questionable Roger Wicker. But the fundraiser was behind closed doors. Now why would Wicker want to hide his devotion to George W. Bush? The response from Wicker's camp:

"Sen. Roger Wicker is honored to have President Bush to Mississippi to support his campaign," Wicker campaign manager Austin Barbour said in a news release. "President Bush has offered America strong leadership in a unique moment of danger in our history."

Before you swallow your tongue over the declaration of George W. Bush's "strong leadership," it's worth pointing out that Wicker's campaign manager is Austin Barbour. Who is Austin Barbour? Austin Barbour is a lobbyist and the nephew of Republican Gov. Haley Barbour. On that point, it's worth recalling that Gov. Barbour bent Mississippi election law as far as it would go to delay the special election in which the younger Barbour is now managing Wicker's campaign against former Governor Ronnie Musgrove. It's good to see that Haley Barbour's family can profit off of ol' Haley's shady political maneuvering.

6 comments:

  1. I'm as anxious to see evidence of Haley's ongoing and documented political corruption, I don't see that there's any "there" there.

    Got the same email from Senate Guru last night, and wasn't sure how it reflected poorly upon Barbour or his nephew at all.

    The reason Barbour wanted the special election in November is simple: he was counting on a historically strong Republican turnout in a presidential election to ensure his hand-picked toady would win. That was, of course, before the Obama-phenom and the Childers win threw the proverbial monkey wrench into his conventional wisdom.

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  2. I think the bigger story for us could be this:

    "Sen. Roger Wicker is honored to have President Bush to Mississippi to support his campaign," Wicker campaign manager Austin Barbour said in a news release. "President Bush has offered America strong leadership in a unique moment of danger in our history."

    Unfortunately the sourced the campaign manager and not Wicker so it can't really be used in ads I suspect.

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  3. If there hadn't already been some shady dealings before with Barbour and his family post-Katrina, I would not have thought twice about it.

    I do agree with what Mitch wrote- they really thought they can win in November, so they wanted to hold off until then. It's just another view to share with readers.

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  4. Because as a campaign manager Austin Barbour has to work harder and get paid less than when he was lobbying...clearly corruption.

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  5. Wicker campaign manager or lobbyist, what is the difference?

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  6. Oooh, you got me. Brilliant political analysis. I yield.

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