Jackson Jambalaya

YAWN.

In order to quote goofball blog comments, you should give equal time to Jere Nash.

Charles Barbour has run the sleaziest campaign I've ever seen. He has offerend no ideas, no plan, and no substance, other than "Look at me! My last name is Barbour!"
He has attacked Will Longwitz repeatedly with things he knows are not true. If this is the kind of campaign Charles Barbour runs, what on earth kind of "leader" will he be in the Senate?

Taggart? Grand Poobah? ROFLMAO

In the interest of truth, 9:46, can you cite three things CB has 'attacked with repeatedly that he knows are not true'? OK, two then. One?

It's one thing to call a campaign stupid, childish and hollow, but quite another to state what you just did.

Ooh, ooh Mr. Kot-ter! I have one!
Chuckles has spread the rumor that Will has terminal cancer and wouldn't live to see out the completion of his term.

Is the MS Republican party imploding?

"Institutional control"? You've GOT to be kidding me! The NCAA doesn't hold schools' responsible for things crazy " fans" do off campus when there's no contact with the program or contact with anybody connected to the program. That's like saying the NCAA is holding schools responsible for what their fans say on sports radio programs or for wearing a non-sanctioned tee-shirt with the school's name on it.

Now if the school embraces the crazy fan and let's them act as an agent for the school or accepts their crazy support THAT'S different.

" Supporters" lack so much confidence in their candidate and candidate's choice of campaign staff that they take matters into their own hands without checking with anybody?

If a candidate's own supporters have that little faith in his/her judgment to run his/ her own campaign, why should I have ANY faith the candidate can run an office?

Is this The Tea Party loose cannons run amok?

IF so, the Republican Party needs to get their act together and have Tea Party candidates run on their own ticket before the GOP becomes the laughing stock of the...oh... the world.

From the perspective of the independent voter in the middle, it looks like the looney tunes are taking over the GOP and the GOP either seems to arrogantly think you can control crazy people or haven't noticed that they are nuts.

If that's the case, the GOP IS " institutionally responsible" for the destruction of its own party.

Just normal when a party becomes large. Check out the Democratic party even when it was whites only. They had some donnybrooks.

I have seen less media coverage on murder cases than this stupid postcard.

re: August 22, 2011 6:58 AM

The Democrats are making the Tea Party look "responsible" and concerned for the future of our children.

At least with the Tea Party one know's where they stand and how they will vote - no increase in taxes and cut spending; the Democrats, not so much.

I think your statements sound a bit "extreme" predicting the coming end and demise of the GOP, might as well call it 2012.

I wouldn't know Will Longwitz if he walked through my front door. But I will gladly vote for him.

I know Charles Barbour. Several of my friends know Charles Barbour.
It is difficult for us to imagine a senario where we could vote for him.

To know Charles Barbour is to vote for Will Longwitz.

I talked to a high level official in the Haley Barbour administration about this election. He groaned, rolled his eyes and said, "Because of Haley, I have to support Charles Barbour. But you better hope that Longwitz wins."

Nuff said.

The truth is that Haley doesn't even like Charles. He was ready to disown Charles when he qualified to run against Lynn Posey after Haley had promised Lynn no Republican opposition if Lynn would switch to the GOP. For Haley, this isn't about Charles winning, this is about defending the honor of the last name.

Shadowfax, I will answer your question. First, the Barbour campaign said that Will had violated a promise to run a "positive" campaign. The truth is that Will and Charles never had that conversation...NEVER. Of course, I think Will has run a mostly positive campaign and anything that could be "characterized" as negative was based on actual votes made by Charles while on the Hinds County BOS. Second, Charles alleged that Will was lying about his NRA rating. Will had said that he received an "A" rating and that it was the highest rating available for a non-incumbent. Both statements are true. Even after Will posted his letter from the NRA, Charles and his campaign continued to perpetuate that lie, until they received a phone call from the NRA telling them to cease and desist. Third, Charles sent out a mailer claiming that Will was an Obama supporter. Charles very well knows that isn't true. Fourth, Charles manipulated a U.S. Senator and manufactured a political issue by claiming that Will's campaign was advertising and claiming an endorsement from Thad Cochran. Charles was told that the SINGLE postcard in question had been signed by a campaign volunteer whose name...wait for it...is actually Thad. The content of the card and the signature were not dictated by Will or his campaign. These are the things that can be demonstrated, there are other lies out there that are far worse, but which constitute hearsay.

"Charles Barbour's post card yesterday re-hashing the matter quoted an early draft of a blog post I wrote on the issue, and did not reflect the change I made in the permanent post"

Andy, if you hadn't let Charles's campaign write the first draft of your post, this could have been avoided. I think it was entirely appropriate for them to rely on the post in the form they approved, and your "loose cannon" tactics have me doubting the institutional control of the entire Barbour camp. And if, with Haley's departure, they're losing the ability/will to control things on a local level, what good are they going to be as we move forward? And does anyone really want to be left with Charles when all of the family's brainpower turns its attention, in full, to national politics?

I submit, Andy, that you are the best wind vane East of the Mississippi. We should all follow your lead and begin hedging our bets, too.

"Grand Poobah" has Kingfish been hanging around with Al Underwood.

Anon 10:44: You have mischaracterized and misquoted to serve your own purposes. First, I have heard Will in his own words say that he intended to run a positive campaign and would do so, then he did not. How you can claim a certain conversation never took place is behond me, not to mention irrelevant since the man did break his word.

Second, Longwitz did NOT say he got the highest rating available to a non-incumbent. He clearly said he got the 'highest rating', which was untrue. He only clarified that when called on it by Barbour, although I agree it was meaningless chicken shit to begin with.

I know nothing about your third claim; however your fourth point can't be proved or disproved. If Barbour says he and others either assumed or might have assumed the cards to have been penned by THE THAD, I take him at his word.

If these are your forms of proof that Barbour has lied, I hope you don't have a job offer riding on their weight or relevance.

So to hear you tell it, we have an option of voting for someone who has nothing other than a last name, or we can vote for the other fellow who seems intent (i.e. Charlie Ross) on running for every office that comes along until he scores on one. See ya at da polls.

1:37- You are incorrect on so many levels, but I suspect you already know it.

1) Will has run a positive campaign, unlike Charles. Talking about your ideas and plans, and talking about your opponents actual voting record, is not running a negative campaign. If you want a text book example of how to run a sleazy, shitty negative campaign, look no further than Charles Barbour.

2) Will has had the NRA letter up on his website the whole time. These idiots thought they were going to fabricate something and drag the NRA into it. The NRA did not tolerate any of Charles' lies.

Finally, Charles and his whole cast of enablers ought to look at the most recent lawsuit against Elliot Spitzer http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-spitzer-libel-idUSTRE77L38620110822

Libel and slander is what happens when you knowingly lie about people, folks. And this is exactly what Charles and Co. have done.

I will see you at the polls for sure. People like Charles Barbour have no place in government, and I think his own family knows that. They should let him stand on his own two feet, and stop enabling him.

The full extent of Longwitz's "negative campaign" was to accurately state Charles's record in the Hinds Co BoS. If Charles considers an ACCURATE recital of his voting record to be a slur, what does that say about how he views (and how we should view) his record?

Charles is going to spend north of $200K in this race telling us to vote AGAINST Longwitz. Is Charles ever planning on telling us why we should vote FOR Charles?

Attack ads are not designed to inform, or educate, or even make you switch your vote. They are designed to suppress the vote. They are intended to discourage you to the point that you give up on the democratic process, believing your vote to be worthless, issues to be incomprehensible, and BOTH candidates unworthy.

If you feel inundated by attack ads, don't sit at home and say "fuck it." Go to the polls and send a vote back to the sender that says "fuck you." It'll make you feel better, I promise.

Green Leaf, I didn't say The Tea Party was making the Democrats look " responsible". I think that's impossible. They are just making the Democrats look reasonable by comparison.

"Cut spending and no taxes" is not a plan or solution but a tired mantra that I've heard for decades and which , no shock here, isn't ever carried out. Personal income tax is NOT the only form of taxation. The " spending cuts" actually agreed to by the Tea Party gang were less actual cuts than the Democrats offer.
In case you didn't notice, we have yet another " bi-partisan committee" and I seem to remember we've already HAD one of those.

OH...it'll still be called the GOP but it looks like Tea Party coup to me. Boehner went from team captain to water boy on the national stage...or didn't you notice?

YAWN.

5:23 that you are sleepy headed and not alert is part of the problem.

If you were awake, you MIGHT actually check out FACTS and when you did you might demand an actual specific strategy for cutting spending with no new revenues.

But, you might discover we've some rather complex problems that a political slogan won't fix and that require " smarts" not camera appealing looks and the ability to be glib.