[Minor] Barbour Trying Failed Rovian Strategy in Mississippi
In his column this week, Bill Minor argues that Gov. Haley Barbour is trying to turn Mississippi into the latest K Street Project, at any cost:
Evidently Haley Barbour is attempting in Mississippi what Karl Rove failed to do in Washington: create a permanent Republican majority.
Barbour, who believes in top-down management of political power, has obviously set out to elect Republicans to all state offices, creating a Cabinet beholden to him, unlike anything ever seen in Mississippi.
His reach doesn’t stop with putting GOP loyalists in state offices but also into both houses of the Legislature, even by subtly undermining the election of the House speaker.
Posted by ladd at 05:07 PM in Governor, MS Newspapers, Analysis, National, Republicans | Email this entry
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The JFP’s Adam Lynch picks up Mr. Minor’s theme in his JFP cover story this week about Haley Barbour:
It is perhaps Barbour’s political muscle more than anything that both infuriates Democrats and thrills Republicans, and allows him to get away with calling special session after special session to get his way in the Capitol. Barbour is a powerful revenant of Washington dominance come back home to Mississippi to build a final bastion for Rep. Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America and to resurrect a version of Sen. Tom Delay’s K-Street Project to establish Republican dominance.
In the current elections, Barbour is focusing not only on winning his race against Democratic challenger John Eaves—who is drawing a surprising amount of negative attention from an assumed shoe-in incumbent—but on defeating legislators like Rep. Cecil Brown of Jackson, who is popular with voters from both parties. Barbour’s take-no-prisoners political training doesn’t allow for a whole lot of compromise, though—it’s Republican loyalty or the highway.
Posted by on 10/31 at 06:12 PM | #
