Oh well. I’ll try again later…

Several members of the party got to know Mr. Butler over the past few weeks, and we are happy to have him as the newest Democratic member of the Legislature.

Congratulations to Mr. Butler!

The account (@genetaylordem) is relatively young, with only six tweets to date.

I’m not impressed. As an attack offering goes, it is weak. As an innovative means of using social media, it is even weaker. (Here are my personal thoughts on the matter.)

Past that, I’ll say what I said over on my personal blog:

It’s going to take a much more substantial offering to topple someone as popular and well entrenched (not to mention as effective for his constituents) as Congressman Taylor.

After all, Congressman Gene Taylor must be doing something right. Some Democrats are angry at him because of his votes on health care and the stimulus package. Republicans can’t stand him because of his jobs votes and his support of the Democratic majority.

But every two years, the overwhelming majority of is constituents — Democrats and Republicans — return him to Washington because they know he is a voice for the Fourth Congressional District of Mississippi first and foremost. Everything else — especially political considerations — are a distant second to him.

Good luck, Congressman Taylor. We’re happy to have you as our nominee for Congress, and we support you wholeheartedly!

I’ve always thought Michelle Obama was a classy lady, smart and dedicated to her family. You saw all of those traits shine through in her presentation. What you also saw was her genuine approach to making lives better for our nation’s children.

The First Lady is taking on childhood obesity. She’s got a four-pronged approach, which includes commitments from parents, students, schools and food producers.

Here’s what else the First Lady is doing:

• Traveling the nation to inspire students to eat better and exercise
• Pushing for new regulations on school food choices
• Meeting with food manufacturers asking them to use healthier ingredients

Unlike a lot of “health” initiatives we see, Michelle Obama is taking this seriously. She’s not just doing PR tours and starring in clever TV campaigns. She’s trying to back it up with good policy and working directly with the businesses who make our foods.

It’s nice to see an initiative that so many people can get behind. After all, you had Gov. Haley Barbour and First Lady Michelle Obama on the same stage talking positively about the same thing.

Politico got their hands on confidential fundraising presentation, which they promptly review:

In neat PowerPoint pages, it lifts the curtain on the often-cynical terms of political marketing, displaying an air of disdain for the party’s donors that is usually confined to the barroom conversations of political operatives.

The presentation explains the Republican fundraising in simple terms.

“What can you sell when you do not have the White House, the House, or the Senate…?” it asks.

The answer: “Save the country from trending toward Socialism!”

Manipulating donors with crude caricatures and playing on their fears is hardly unique to Republicans or to the RNC – Democrats raised millions off George W. Bush in similar terms – but rarely is it practiced in such cartoonish terms.

One page, headed “The Evil Empire,” pictures Obama as the Joker from Batman, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leaders Harry Reid are depicted as Cruella DeVille and Scooby Doo, respectively.

The document, which two Republican sources said was prepared by the party’s finance staff, comes as Chairman Michael Steele struggles to retain the trust and allegiance of major donors, who can give as much as $30,400 a year to the party.

Now, try to tell me that Republican leaders are more interested in what’s best for Mississippi, America and the voters than they are in what’s best for their own pocketbooks.

H/T @Cogneclecticism

Majority in Mississippi posted about an email sent from the chairman of the Prentiss County Republican Party. From that post:

The e-mail raised the possibility that McGlowan was “a plant for Travis Childers,” adding, “Angela has previously stated that she intended to run a positive campaign focusing on the defeat of Travis Childers. Good advice that she needs to heed.”

He called on her to withdraw from the race if she can not support the eventual GOP nominee. “I, for one, believe McGlowan should run her race in a respectable manner, keep her mouth shut and support the Republican nominee whether it be her, Ross or Nunnelee and if she can’t do this we as a party should demand that she withdraw from this race today,” Gray said.

The Prentiss County Republican said in his email that McGlowan must not have heard of Reagan’s 11th Commandment for Republicans: Do not speak ill of fellow Republicans. This was, ironically, before he suggested that McGlowan keep her mouth shut, demanded that she withdraw from the race and accused her of being a plant by Congressman Childers.

You can read the full email at MIM.

Salter explains the reasoning for the bill and the Senate GOP’s desire to kill it in a blog post:

During the tort reform fight, nursing home operators, their lobbyists and the insurance industry begged for damage caps based primarily on the notion that it would enable them to afford liability insurance and give them a ceiling and a floor on damages. It also protected them from “jackpot justice” and irresponsible juries.

But it appears now that a number of nursing homes aren’t carrying sufficient liability insurance even to compensate vulnerable elderly victims or their families up to the $500,000 damage cap. Their strategy is to be underinsured and if the verdict is too large, take bancruptcy.

The House passed House Bill 536 with Republican support. But it’s being killed in the state Senate. Why? Because the nursing home operators, their lobbyists and the insurance industry — some of which supplies some nursing homes with so-called “eroding” policies that really screw nursing home abuse victims by taking the nursing home’s legal fees out of the available liability insurance — are leading the Senate leadership around like obedient lap dogs.

Few things are as clearly right or wrong, but this bill embodies what is right and fair. What the GOP is doing in the Senate embodies just the opposite.

From the White House:

The First Lady will travel to Jackson and be joined by Governor Haley Barbour and Mississippi First Lady Marsha Barbour at a local school to discuss ways to promote healthy schools as part of the recently launched Let’s Move! Campaign. One prong of the initiative focuses on promoting healthy eating, nutrition education, and physical activity in schools – all elements of the USDA’s Healthier US School Challenge program. The First Lady will visit an elementary school and hear from officials and experts about state and local efforts to combat childhood obesity. Media coverage details will be announced next week.

Here’s the gist of what Harrison is saying:

People should not be upset with Gov. Haley Barbour for exerting his influence in the legislative process.

That is what governors are supposed to do. That is why they run for office. The fact that Barbour probably does it better than any other governor in history is no reason to be mad at him.

People can be mad at him over the positions he takes, his philosophical stands, but not because he uses his influence in the legislative process to get his way.

For years, it has been argued that the Mississippi Constitution sets up a system where the Legislature is strong and the governor is weak. But that certainly has not been the case under Barbour. He has turned that axiom upside down. It will be interesting to see if the dynamics that have existed under Barbour remain in effect for future governors.

A few thoughts come to mind:

1. Bobby is right. Haley Barbour is doing what a governor is supposed to do: Influence the Legislature to further his agenda. That’s the role of just about any governor in any state.
2. Haley Barbour is a political genius. I’ve said that many times. I’ve not met too many people (Democrats, Republicans or Inedependents) who disagree.
3. Haley Barbour has had more legislative success than just about any other governor in our state’s history.

But those observations speak nothing to the real truth about Gov. Barbour and his administration.

Here are a few more thoughts to consider:

1. Gov. Barbour has built his Republican “coalition” out of fear. Stories abound about the consequences of any Republican who dares get in his way.
2. Gov. Barbour has done nothing to try and build a consensus in the Legislature. He has rebuffed just about every Democratic compromise ever offered him.
3. Gov. Barbour has wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars to exert his influence through the calling of special sessions. Why? Because he didn’t get his way the first time, and he can brow-beat legislators better in a special session where he controls the agenda rather than in a regular session where each chamber’s leadership controls the agenda.
4. Gov. Barbour’s approach to governance — especially budgetary matters — is to put faith in businesses, corporations and a wealthy few instead of in the people, their needs and their abilities to create a stronger state through their hard work.

The governor’s legacy may well be his work in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, but that would be a disservice to any serious historian. Once the initial shock was over, when we went about the hard work of rebuilding, Gov. Barbour focused on rebuilding businesses, not homes. He has helped divert federal money for home rebuilding to economic development projects that existed before Hurricane Katrina. And while the casinos are operating, many of the people who once called the Mississippi Gulf Coast home have been forced to relocated to other places.

And what of the governor’s record on unemployment, job retraining, health care and public education? No governor has worked so stringently to defund these areas. He can wrap it in the cloak of “fiscal responsibility”, but there is nothing responsible about turning down federal stimulus money that would have helped the unemployed train for new jobs, kicking well deserving people off of their health care plan and forcing them to buy more expensive private plans (where they could afford to do so) or taking away money from schools that are already struggling to meet the demands of their area.

Yes, Gov. Barbour is a political mastermind. Yes, he’s been able to lead the Republicans in the Legislature around by their noses. And yes, he’s had more legislative success than just about any governor in our state’s history.

If only he’d set out to do what was best for the State of Mississippi instead of blindly following some outdated political doctrine designed to enrich his supporters, raise his political profile and position him for greater success once he leaves office.

In short, if only he’s used his powers for good instead of wasting them on selfish pursuits.