With two young children, a third due any day, and her husband in an Arkansas prison, you’d think Amy Scruggs would be too overwhelmed to pay much attention to the campaign for “Uncle Trent’s” Senate seat – but clearly that’s not the case and she’s not only noticed, she’s speaking publicly about her concerns. h/t Clarion-Ledger
Amy Scruggs is the first family member to speak publicly about the legal troubles of her husband and her father-in-law, Dickie Scruggs.
She disagrees with numerous Republican attack ads attempting to link disgraced trial lawyers with Democrat Ronnie Musgrove. Democratic groups attacking Republican Roger Wicker also have mentioned the family’s legal woes.
The most visible attacks, however, have come from the GOP, and Amy Scruggs said the “final straw” was receiving campaign fliers in the mail recently.
“I think it just got to the point where you couldn’t ignore it anymore. There’s no pity party going on, … but at some point, somebody’s got to say, ‘OK, if they’re going to use our name, at least get it right,’ ” she said in a telephone interview from her Oxford home last week. She described the ads as “hypocritical and hurtful.”
I’ve not seen the ads; but, so many “hypocritical and hurtful” comments have been made about the Scruggses that I’m not surprised by those reported in the story – or by this comment from former Governor Ronnie Musgrove.
“I don’t think it makes either one of us a bad person,” Musgrove said of the support he and Wicker have received from the family.
As usual when it comes to issues of character, Musgrove misses the point. There was no need for either candidate to mention the Scruggses and both did.
Both Wicker and Musgrove have made references to the Scruggs family during their campaigns.
In a July speech, Wicker alluded to Dickie Scruggs when he mentioned “trial lawyers trying to buy judges and trying to buy elections.” The name “Scruggs” briefly appears in Wicker’s TV ad blasting Musgrove supporters.
In a debate earlier this month, Musgrove named Zach Scruggs as one of Wicker’s former staffers and cited the family’s contributions to Republicans.
As the story in the Ledger points out…Scruggs and his family have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to both sides of the political aisle.
The Scruggses have contributed to GOP presidential hopeful John McCain. Lott, a Republican and Dickie Scruggs’ brother-in-law, also has benefited. Dickie Scruggs was scheduled to host a fundraiser for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton until he was indicted.
Curtis Wilkie, an associate professor at Ole Miss who is writing a book about the Scruggs case, said a recent letter from Zach Scruggs indicated he was troubled by the campaign ads. Wilkie said he has not heard about the issue from Dickie Scruggs.
Mrs. Scruggs, however, did not limit her comments to the campaign ads.
Asked if she believes her husband of seven years is guilty, Amy Scruggs said, “I’ve never once doubted Zach’s complete innocence in this matter.”
“There are a lot of emotions I feel about this, but shame or humiliation is not one of them. From day one, we knew that this is just not right,” she said…
Zach Scruggs is now teaching GED classes to inmates at the Forrest City, Ark., prison, his wife said…
“There’s no playbook for any of this, … how to handle ourselves, how to adjust to all these changes,” Amy Scruggs said. “We just do the best we can do, and take one day at a time. We’re trying to move on.”
Without a playbook to follow, Amy Scruggs is doing a good job writing her on. JMHO