Daily Journal: Wicker following Barbour plan

Roger Wicker along with his Republican cohorts are repeating the old Haley Barbour attack that Ronnie Musgrove has a bad record on jobs. When Musgrove left office the unemployment rate was 5.7%. After 5 years of Haley Barbour, we now have an unemployment rate of 6.9%. Granted the U.S. rate has gone up as well, which accounts for the loss of jobs. The same thing happened when Musgrove was in office. Any increase in the Mississippi unemployment rate during either administration can be traced to a national trend. This is a misleading line of attack.

From the Daily Journal:

In 2003, Barbour, a former Republican National Party operative and Washington, D.C., lobbyist, defeated Musgrove by hammering on the state's budget troubles and job loss.

As can be expected in politics, Musgrove has a response. He cites Department of Labor statistics that show the state lost 1,085 jobs during his tenure - not 38,000 - and those losses came at a time when the entire country suffered from a net loss of jobs.

He goes on to point out the unemployment rate when he left office was 5.7 percent compared to a 6.9 percent rate this past June.