Interesting Note From the Picayune Item

A week ago, Mr. Franks was in Picayune campaigning. He made his standard speech-especially used on the coast-about hitting the insurance companies hard, oops, I mean, making them more responsive to customers, and about his economic development credentials, which, of course, includes the Toyota plant.

Therein lies the rub.

The Item reported that Mr. Franks claimed to have brought the plant to his native county of Itawamba.

Of course, Mooreville is located in Lee County, just a few miles outside of Tupelo. I would expect the Picayune Item to know where Mooreville is located; a few years ago, one of their local high schools hired Mooreville's football coach.

And of course, the plant is to be located in Blue Springs, which is not in Lee or Itawamba county. It's in Union county, which is on the west of Lee County. Itawamba is on the east.

I guess the story doesn't sound as good when all those facts-and also the ones about Haley Barbour being the guy who did the heavy lifting, and about the PUL people doing the leg work on the actual site and whatnot-don't make as good an impression on people who don't know better.

It's classic Franks and company, using misdirection and hoping for a sloppy or complicit press. They might have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for this darned kid. Too bad I don't have a dog.