Barbour Has His Way With The Facts On Charlie Rose

Haley Barbour recently appeared on the PBS show "Charlie Rose." In it he made himself out to be the hero of Mississippi. He had come in and saved us and everything was doing better. He was the ultimate in smooth and the host let him have his way.

Bill Minor offers his take:

And here's Barbour again, telling Rose that the surprise to him after taking office was having to contend with partisanship in the Legislature - "particularly the House of Representatives" and its speaker, Democrat Billy McCoy, said Barbour.

Mind you, this comes from the longtime professional Republican operative, who is the first Mississippi governor to install partisan politics in the Legislature. So much so that he had a staff member monitor House floor debates and send e-mails to Republican members, telling them how to vote. And if a Republican lawmaker voted the wrong way, Barbour went into his district to blast him.

Contrary to Barbour's contention, Speaker McCoy, the combative old hill country Democrat, assured Republicans were well represented on committees. Seven House committees are chaired by Republicans, including such major committees as Insurance, Banking, Public Buildings and Oil and Gas.

Bill Minor's Article