And Today, He's Happy

While Ike Brown and Ellis Turnage get the heat for trying to 'get the Republicans out of the Democratic Party,' let's not forget that our favorite whipping boy, Jamie Franks Jr, was one of the state party committee members who were working to get that result.

The math is simple. Jamie Franks Jr is a trial lawyer. His supporters (as documented previously here) are primarily trial lawyers (several of them from out of state). George Dale was opposed to trial lawyers suing the pants off of the insurance industry and destroying it as a profession in Mississippi. Naturally, something had to give. Reality be damned-and the reality is, you can't do much of anything without insurance-if someone stands between the key moneymen of the Democratic Party, they have to get their political kneecaps busted.

Of course, such a move busted the kneecaps of the longest-serving statewide official in the country (I think that's right), and possibly delivered the office into the hands of Republican Mike Chaney. But, doggone it, the trial lawyers got their pound of flesh, and now the guy who's going to have to go around the state convincing people who are going to check their ballots for Haley Barbour (and they're going to check those ballots, folks-nobody knows GOTV like Haley) that sending someone to Jackson who's going to make his life miserable is a good idea is Gary Anderson.

Actually, that sounds like someone I know.

This election will be historic for a number of reasons, most of which have to do with the fact that it's the first time that Republicans will be the incumbents in a majority of the offices (Gov, LG, Ag Commish, Treasurer, Auditor). It'll be the first after Katrina. And it'll be the last before our legislature figures out how it's going to re-organize the voting rolls (good luck on that; you're better men than me if you can do that).

The ramifications of it are already out there; two challengers are entering the fray against Billy McCoy for Speaker. I don't take the race for granted-there are suckers who will eat Mr. Franks' stuff up, and not all of them work at the Universities and newspapers-but when the dust settles there may be a new political reality in this state.

It's just too bad that the Luca Brasi's of Mississippi Politics are the ones who helped to usher it in.