The following was written by Matthew Krell for Cotton Mouth.  He writes at Street Prophets and Daily Kos under uID mkrell.

...

Haley Barbour has led, by most accounts, a fairly charmed life.  He's gone from being a Republican in a single-party Democratic state, to being the second Republican governor of Mississippi since Reconstruction.  Along the way, Gov. Barbour has been chairman of the Republican National Committee and the lead partner in the most influential lobbying firm on the Republican side of the aisle.

But Barbour may have reached his apogee, and although I know it's hardly Christian of me, I think his star may be about to fall - and it's about time.

Crossposted at Cotton Mouth

There's a higher level of scrutiny for those of us in this business.  I've heard that it mostly only applies to US Senate and White House staffers, those people who speak with or on the authority of the office.  But there is a maxim that most of the people I consider to be professionals adhere to-

"the appearance of impropriety is tantamount to the act itself."

Crossposted (with small edits) at Cotton Mouth

There is a divide among Southern Republicans that hasn't really made it into the public eye yet in Mississippi. It is highlighted in Thomas Frank's book What's the Matter with Kansas? The divide is between the so called "Country Club Republicans" who care more about economic issues and are more libertarian on social issues and "Religious Conservatives" who tend to be moderate on economic issues, but are very conservative on hotbutton issues like abortion and homosexuality.

I believe that Phil Bryant is closer to the first variety and doesn't particulary care about the issues Christian Conservatives often focus on and if this gets out it could begin to open that rift in the Mississippi Republican Party.