Eaves and His Political Grenade

Eaves and His Political Grenade

The gentle attacks are sometimes called “barbs”, and even front-runners will throw out a barb from time to time. Often they are tongue in cheek jokes about an opponent’s pet project or voting record. Barbs don’t tell you much about who’s going to win a race.

A little sharper edged attack is the “shot across the bow”, in which a candidate will issue a comment or statement that clearly is designed to set out his turf and characterize his opponent. Front runners are usually on the receiving end of shots across the bow, but those kinds of attacks don’t necessarily indicate desperation on the part of a candidate and can often be quite effective.

Then there is the political “grenade”. Such as the one John Arthur Eaves just lobbed at Governor Haley Barbour. In a news release a couple of days ago, Eaves claimed that Barbour was somehow responsible for the fiasco of crime and mismanagement in the City of Jackson. If there was any doubt remaining about Eaves’s own thoughts on whether he could win his race against Barbour, those doubts are surely erased now.

M-Braves Manager Phillip Wellman lobbed a mock grenade in the form of the resin bag at the home plate umpire on his way off the field after being tossed in a game against Chattanooga. Now, John Arthur Eaves, Jr. has thrown his mock grenade at Haley Barbour as Eaves, like Wellman, heads to the showers.

Andy Taggart
Clarion Ledger
6/7/7