Haley Barbour for prez, NFW!

The Washington Post has a puff piece about Mississippi governor Haley Barbour. Yeah, just what we need is another Republican good-old-boy in the White House.

He goes back to the Young Republicans with Karl Rove, the Reagan days with Andrew Card, and is well-known among an A-list of senators, congressmen, governors and lobbyists.

Yeah because we need another puppet of Karl Rove's in the White House.

Katrina's aftermath offers a lesson in the benefits of having friends.
Specifically, the benefits of having Haley Barbour's friends -- most of whom have never met Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. snipOne of the striking images from President Bush's first post-Katrina visit to the Gulf Coast was of the president gravitating to Barbour. Barbour was RNC chairman when Bush was first elected governor of Texas, sat on Bush's presidential campaign exploratory committee and has strenuously avoided criticizing the Bush administration's response to Katrina.
"When he got to me he cried," Barbour says of his hug with Bush, in Mobile, Ala. "Tears just ran down his cheeks. It made me cry."

Yeah, because some governors are Republicanmore prepared for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina than others. And nothing says presidential like crocodile tears.

But Barbour was clearly shaken by the storm. He kept saying, "Pray for us," says Republican lobbyist Ed Rogers, Barbour's longtime friend and business partner.
"We've never been 'pray for us' kind of guys."

Is this his Sister Souljah moment for the Christian Coalition? If he runs for president on a "vote for me, I'm a Christian" platform, I hope the press brings this quote out and (um)crucifies him for it.

"There will be no federal account that he won't know about or tap into," says Ed Gillespie, a Barbour protege who served as RNC chairman until last year.

Dayam, you like that Federal tit don't you? Can you say red state welfare queen?

This renaissance, if it occurs, could be a springboard into a run for president in 2008 -- something Barbour had been considering before Katrina. "He is, in some ways, in a very enviable political position," says W. Martin Wiseman, director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University. Wiseman adds that Barbour's fortunes will be determined largely by his ability to bring in federal relief dollars -- a task he is suited to.

Yes, because we know the platform of Republicans to spend other people's money that they don't have. Can you say credit card conservative? Call me impressed when Mississippi's public schools are no longer the laughing stock of the United States. But to vote for someone for president because he is better at getting federal aid from a president of the same party is just plain stupid, which is apparently what Republicans think we are.

Barbour and his wife are unwinding at the governor's mansion after another Katrina-logged day. Marsha Barbour sips from a large tumbler of Jack Daniel's, Haley from a glass of white wine.
"I'm on a diet," the governor says, explaining his choice of beverage. (He normally drinks bourbon, Maker's Mark.)snipBarbour's voice quiets to the tone of a bedtime story. He finishes off his sixth glass of wine. Another visit to the devastation looms in a few hours.

If you're trying to lose weight, why not stop drinking completely? Does this country really need another drunk in the White House? Really, drinking six glasses of wine in front of the press? He might as well be drinking six shots of bourbon, it has the same amount of alcohol and fewer calories. If you can't handle the strong stuff just say so. Good thing you can drink six glasses of wine and not be stumbling down drunk, my grandmother could do that and she died from cirrhosis of the liver.