Haley Barbour: The Most Powerful Republican in Politics?

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Or at least such is the title of an article on Politico, later picked up by Yahoo News and Michael Tomasky on the Guardian UK.

This business with Haley Barbour is fascinating, no small part due to the $1 million FOX "News" gave to the Republican Governor's Association (RGA),  of which Haley Barbour is head, following the resignation of Mark Sanford.

It is easy to see his appeal to the Red State mentality.

Regarding the rest of us, well, remember that he dismantled Mississippi's youth tobacco-prevention group, no doubt at least partly due to the money his former lobbying firm took from Big Tobacco, which has been estimated at about $3.8 million. While in office, he vetoed legislation which would increase his state's cigarette tax while eliminating Mississippi’s grocery tax.  He only recently allowed for a raise in the cigarette tax, which would be the first time this tax has increased since 1985.  It was only considered after Mississippi faced enormous budget shortfalls in a poor economy.  At least through 2007, Barbour has been continuing to receive payments from his former lobbying firm.

In spite of his complaining about "Big Government Spending", he was very grateful to government workers for helping his state after Katrina, taking over $15 billion in federal aid. The wife of his nephew picked up over $300 million in contracts from FEMA, mostly for "trailer maintenance."  The FBI started investigating in 2007. In addition, he skewered the receiving of those funds to target only wealthy homeowners, waiving a HUD requirement that 70% of those funds go to low and moderate income people. 

Apparently, he's one of those Republicans who only thinks government should help only him and his interests, most notably Mississippi's many casinos and wealthy donors. Additional Barbour family members and friends, as well as his old lobbying firm, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in hurricane-related business. 

As a lobbyist, he represented the firm indicted in Tom Delay's money laundering scandal. While he was chair of the RNC, he was involved in illegally raising money from oversees sources.  He has described himself as a "fat redneck" with "an accent", who also defended Virginia's Confederate History Without Mentioning Slavery Month.  He stated that while everyone knew slavery was a bad thing, Gov. McDonnell's proclamation was the equivalent of making "a big deal out of something that doesn't amount to diddly."  

When Mississippi contemplated removing the Confederate stars and bars from off of its flag, Barbour chose to wear it on his lapel. This has not stopped MSNBC's Joe Scarborough from stating that Barbour will be smeared by the media for being a racist, simply due to the fact that that Barbour is a Southern governor who has criticized Obama.


I am guessing that, for a Republican, that would make more sense than admitting that excluding slavery from "Confederate History Month" or wearing the Confederate Battle Flag on a lapel might be considered racist actions.


He cut Mississippi's deficit by cutting Medicaid (health care in the nation's poorest state for its poorest citizens).  According to Bill Moyers:

When Barbour signed the cuts into law earlier this year, he complained about the state having to pay for "health care for people who can work and take care of themselves and just choose not to." Among those cut were cancer victims, kidney dialysis patients, even the mentally ill… and all of them poor. Frightened recipients turned out at the state capitol in desperation.

Barbour had stated that the problems with Mississippi's budget shortfalls was not because they taxed too little but rather that they spent too much.  Under the old Medicaid rules, an elderly or disabled person could not earn more than $12,600 a year.  With the new rules which Barbour signed, that amount was dropped to $6,800 a year.  In other words, to be considered for Medicaid, an elderly or disabled person must have an income of less than $567 per month.

Mississippi also consistently has the highest rates of infant mortality anywhere within the country.  A 2008 report stated that infant mortality peaked in 2005 to 11.4 per thousand births.  Among black infants, that rate rose to 17 per 1000, putting professional black women at higher risk of infant mortality than low birth weight children born to white women.  Some public health workers blame this on Barbour's cuts to Medicaid and children's health insurance programs.  This was done by a man who describes himself as "pro-life". 

He pushed for radical tort reform, which both he and former senator Trent Lott promoted until Lott's house was destroyed by Katrina.   The hypocrisy award in this case goes to Trent Lott, who decided to make an exception of his anti-tort policies by and sue State Farm for not covering his loss.  This was in spite of the fact that Lott did not purchase flood insurance through State Farm but instead purchased it through a federal flood insurance program, which was insufficient to cover the loss on his $400,000 house.  Haley Barbour still pushed through what is considered the toughest tort reform laws in the country, making it more difficult for the poor to receive compensation from large corporations, even if they were victims of predatory practices or carelessness.


This was from a governor who stated as recently as June that the oil spill in the Gulf was not a big threat to residents living on the Gulf.  He later went on to state that Mississippi was not prepared to deal with the crisis and needed more federal aid.  Good thing he still remembers how to get his share of Big Government spending.  Hopefully, no one in his state will get the urge to sue BP for their loss of health and incomes.


I suppose I can see why Republicans are thinking that he is everything they would want from a leader.  He has repeatedly shown he knows how to protect his own interests and the interests of his family, friends and former employer.  He has been the epitome of the "I've got mine" attitude of those who think Washington should only help people like themselves. Still, in spite of the Politico puff piece, he is still only polling in the single digits behind Romney and Huckabee as being on the 2012 ticket.