I noted a day or so ago on Twitter that I had burned off a couple of Louisiana based Tweeps, who were no doubt tired of my incessant Mississippi congressional election coverage on Twitter. I also know there are some of you that look at Twitter and scratch your heads in a manner that a horse and buggy owner must have likewise done a hundred years or so ago looking at the automobile. The bottom line is if you are a newshound or power user of information and want the best coverage of an important event like an election or a court proceeding, Twitter literally puts you in the middle of the action. Lest I digress because I have heard from a couple of good folks over NOLA way that have found the analysis contained in the Thad retiring post and comments highly enlightening. I appreciate the kind remarks and so this post is directed more to you and others from across the country that have watched the national political news on the McDaniel/Cochran Senate race and are trying to figure out if Mississippians are really a bunch of right-wing nuts as some of the media coverage implies or if there is something far more nuanced and complex at play.
First off about Thad. He is Mississippi’s kindly grandpa and he looks physically well for a 76 year old man. Thad’s had a remarkable career and is the quintessential southern gentleman. He has a powerful position in the United States Senate, spends most of his time in Washington D.C. engaged in Affaires d’États but more importantly appears to have lost touch with the people that elected him to the US Senate six times. But there is something else at play here and for that you gotta understand the history, which can found found in insightful reader comments sprinkled through out that earlier Thad retirement post. [Begin with this comment and scroll down]
“If you don’t vote, you don’t count”
To understand what is happening with the dead heat Senate election, you must understand some Mississippi history going back to the civil war. Paul Hampton over at the Sun Herald covered that part yesterday:
Analysis: Mississippi’s Pine Belt, a key in elections, has anti-government history
Like many folks in Mississippi I’ve gotten to know a few of the good folks in Jones County and my work related travels often take me right past the historical marker commemorating Vernon Dahmer’s murder in 1966 at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, an act that outraged the Hattiesburg area community. That event shaped subsequent events profoundly and this is where the PIckering surname enters the narrative.
Charles W. Pickering is a titan in South Mississippi Legal Circles. As a young man, he swapped from Democrat to Republican in 1964, way before that was fashionable, in part because the all white Mississippi Democratic delegation sent to the Democratic National Convention was made to take two civil rights activists by the National party at the 1964 Convention, an act of exclusion that would haunt him later. But it is more complicated than that because Pickering believed in the rule of law and as a young prosecutor actively worked with the FBI to bring Sam Bowers and the Ku Klux Klan to justice for the heinous crimes they perpetrated in the 1960s. Pickering paid a price for standing up for the rule of law though as he and his family needed FBI protection and he would later lose an election to the Mississippi legislature because of his work against the Klan. In 1978 Pickering ended up losing the GOP US Senate primary election to the man that is the subject of this post, Thad Cochran.
That 1978 election was the next key event and it involved another civil rights activist in Charles Evers, brother to slain Jackson civil rights legend Medgar Evers, who ran as an independent in that race along side Democrat Maurice Dantin and Thad. Evers got 25% of the vote and Thad took the election with a 45% plurality. Having Evers in the race certainly cost Dantin that election. According to Mississippi political lore Cochran paid Evers to run. I have always personally subscribed to that theory.
Worth noting during this time period there was a somewhat new Congressman representing what was the Mississippi’s 5th Congressional District and his name was Trent Lott. Given the fact that Republicans were at that time still the minority party in Mississippi and a very small world, it is no surprise that Lott and Charles Pickering would end up cultivating a close political relationship through time.
Fast forward to the 1988 where Pickering delivered the Mississippi Southern Baptist Convention to then US Senate Candidate Trent Lott and literally from there 20 years. Throw in Haley Barbour’s ascent within the ranks of the National GOP and you end up with the political triumvirate that has come to dominate Mississippi politics like nothing else in recent state history. The McDaniel candidacy represents a dagger at that heart of the old line GOP guys still left in politics.
There are multiple undertones at play from the consulting money train, parts of which are recycled back to re election campaigns to McDaniel successfully tapping into Mississippi’s rich history of populism. I knew Thad Cochran had an election problem back in January when I attended the general meeting of my local gun club. McDaniel had brochures distributed to the membership that night. Such a grassroots ground game is impressive and that is what a war chest that runs into the millions can do for a candidate. Thad was in trouble.
The rise of Chris McDaniel means we see a rare moment of secular change in Mississippi’s one party political landscape that happens maybe every 20 to 30 years. I plan on enjoying the moment.
How does all of this tie into the Conspiracy at the DMR? What does the Lyman Hatchery and the private hatchery in Perkinston have to do with all of this? Is the Klan planning on setting up house on State property?? Is Billy the Boy Hewes still calling the shots at the DMR via Phil Bryant? I sure hate to think that but it looks like that is the case.
What does all of this mean? Why tie up State agencies in money laundering conspiracies? That just isn’t too smart is it? Something is still missing in this puzzle. 2 + 2 is not equaling 4. Do the Feds know something that we don’t know?? When is it going to all come tumbling down?
A couple of other question that I forgot to ask. How many more State agencies are involved in this conspiracy? Is everyone on the take in this administration???
My Fellow Americans,
Marcus makes a very good point regarding “conspiracies.” I am one who freely believes that the investigation itself may be a conspiracy to protect certain individuals and sacrifice innocent ones in order to do it.
As most may already know, there is another story in the SH today about the DMR:
http://www.sunherald.com/2014/06/09/5637694/dmr-asks-judge-to-reverse-sanctions.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1
This story calls out how the DMR has hired an outside attorney to attempt to get Judge Schloegel to reverse her decision about the public records. All in all, it sounds like the Radical Republican Regime can’t stand the taste of its own medicine when the judicial system doesn’t go their way.
The article talks about how it was found that the auditors office acted in bad faith, willfully and wrongfully denied public records upon request, and the DMR, Pickering and his clan used a cloak of grand jury secrecy to hide records. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a poor example of our elected officials and our own state government fighting its own citizens and spending tax payers money to do it.
At this point, public opinion does exist regarding how the investigation appeared to stop short and how it attacked a few innocent victims so I suspect the Regime will exhaust any public resource it can in order to turn the table for political gain.
Folks, we are dealing with a bunch of “high and white, hillbilly thugs” from the upper ranks of the DMR, Pickering and others teamed up against the public.
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it”
― Frederic Bastiat
Nice to see Bastiat cited, rfp, but most don’t get it, giving the propensity to favor the gang giving goodies to you over the gang giving goodies to someone else.
One tends to recall an undoubted expert once opining that it is not if you vote but rather who does the counting.
I don’t know WHO is running DMR but it certainly is not Jamie Miller. Miller is just another spoke in the political wheel who is told what and when to do it.
And as far as Thad Cochran’s imminent defeat, we may be trading one out of touch, incompetent, incumbent for the devil. We will just have to wait and see. But at least it will not be Haley Barbour running the show. And that in itself is GREAT!
Oh, come on John Rodgers – you mean to tell me that you aren’t going to miss old Fata$$??? Other than being a car salesman, he can’t make a living any other way but the Taxpayers supporting him. He doesn’t have any right to talk about giving out food stamps and checks to the poor. It costs us a lot more to feed him than what it costs to feed them!!! I am about ready to throw all of the Rinos under the bus and vote another way this time. And it might be for the Democrat – even if I have to hold my breath a little when I do it. I am tired of being robbed by the rich and clannish. Have they ever heard of the word “work”? As in, “work for a living?” Nothing but a bunch of worthless, lazy thugs that think we owe them something.
Doug, don’t drink the Kool-Aid. There is nothing new or refreshing or principled in McDaniel. He’s saying the same things Republican challengers have said since 1964 and he doesn’t mean them either. They all talk about the debt but they always add to it by voting for more tax cuts with only token budget cuts aimed at what they think are black programs (Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance) but really support as many old white widows.
Let me say this about earmarks. If Thad or Gene had earmarked the CIAP funds they would have been spent on the most deserving coastal restoration project instead of buying DMR family members and cronies out of bad investments. I would compare a cost/benefit analysis of Taylor earmarks any day against the state’s allocations of federal dollars or what federal agencies did with the money they controlled. Gene and the staff vetted every request and we had to write an explanation and justification to the relevant committee and certify that there was no conflict of interest. We turned down a lot of stupid requests from the state and local governments that ended up being funded by the state or locals using federal money. It was one of the most frustrating thing about the job – working with both parties in the House and Senate to get funds to do legitimate beneficial projects where there was a great need and then watching a lot of the money get pissed away in the state and local crony network.
I thought I have called this race straight, without sharing my personal opinions of the candidates. I remain on the record as supporting free trade and a rational controlled immigration policy. I have repeatedly decried the scapegoating of Hispanics and immigration by the GOP and stand by it all to this day.
There is an old saying about money being the only thing in politics. That and a combination of factors got Gene beat and gave us a Senatorial runoff election. McDaniel will win the runoff, of that I am sure. To the extent Boss Hogg is all in on the opposite side of this race makes it all the sweeter from a journalism standpoint.
My Fellow Americans,
Over the past year or so, there have been numerous comments regarding the working conditions at the DMR since the new regime has taken over. Since that time, I have received solid intelligence from inside operators that do not paint a pretty picture and it seems as if its turning into a living nightmare under Satan’s control.
I would love if the media were able to publish a story about the DMR and it’s current working conditions since they are funded by the people of Mississippi. More specifically, if they were able to obtain a list of employees who have suddenly quit, were fired or have scrambled to submit retirement papers since Miller took office last year. Once obtained, a story based on interviews (anonymous by request) from former employees to enlighten the public to what is really going on “between the sheets.”
I agree with all the comments but it appears we are in the minority. Yes, I think McDaniels will come out on top and I will hold my nose and my breath when I vote for the idiot. But it would be worse for Boss Hog Barbour to run the Senate seat from Mississippi and that is what is happening now and will continue to happen if Cochran is reelected. Maybe the Democrats will be successful in November but I will not bet on this hope.
Reading in today’s Sun Herald, I was not surprised that our great state has another honor; being the MOST corrupt state in the Nation followed by Louisiana. And still we continue to vote for the same ole, same ole politicians who grease their pockets daily in perks, including their big retirement, while the average Joe has to scrape by to make a living and support his family.
And yes, DMR adds to the overall picture of corruption in Mississippi and things do not look any better. With a ‘YES’ man such as Miller running the show for Bryant and Barbour, there will be no changes!