A great thing about having a blog is that you get to comment on current events. But an active law practice often prevents a blawger from commenting about current events when they happen. That has been the case as the story has unfolded over the last few days involving the approximately 200 pardons that Gov. Barbour granted this week on his way out of office. Since I haven’t been able to write a blog post since Monday (many posts are written days in advance of posting), much of what I could say has already been said.
As in many areas, blogs are covering the issue more thoroughly than the main stream press. Among the blogs that I read regularly, NMC, Jackson Jambalaya, Anderson and Cottonmouth have all made significant contributions on the story. The public’s revulsion over the pardons is captured on the Victims of Mississippi Pardons Facebook Page.
Even Frank Corder with the pro-Republican site Ya’ll Politics criticized the pardons in this post. I don’t agree with everthing in Corder’s post, but I agree with most of it. Corder notes that even for Republicans, the way Gov. Barbour handled the pardons was bad policy and bad politics.
In particular, this point by Corder is close to exactly what I planned to blog about the fiasco, if Corder hadn’t stated it so well before me:
Barbour’s actions and communication strategy spoke of a political tone-deafness that is uncharacteristic for him. Looking at it truthfully, Barbour would not in a million years have made these pardons en masse were he a presidential candidate at this moment. It just would not have happened.
So, why he does it now is truly a headscratcher. It’s situational politics and for someone who prides himself on his principles, it will leave a small but noticeable mark in his history.
Not only would Barbour not have done this if he were a presidential candidate, this indicates that Barbour has written off Vice President or serving on the cabinet of a Republican presidential administration—both of which were still the subject of at least some speculation. This was not the move of someone who views a return to the public sector as a possibility. It creates way too much heat.
This is an unbelievable WTF moment for Barbour. Despite the fact that I often disagreed with Barbour, he always looked smart and politically savvy to me. And I appreciated his candor, even when I didn’t like what he was saying. I never imagined that Barbour would do something so unwise, while simultaneously handling it so poorly. It is—as Corder says—truly a head-scratcher.