The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 3/27/8
The perfect squelch? Jim Herring thought so. But Wayne Dowdy had a reply.
Last week, Herring, chairman of the Republican Party in Mississippi, summoned cameras to a press conference in Jackson. The big announcement was that his party would turn over to Boys and Girls Clubs of Mississippi the entire $27,250 Oxford attorney Dickie Scruggs had donated to the party in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The noble gesture – a purge of impure dollars in the GOP’s bank account – was accompanied by a challenge that Mississippi Democrats also cleanse themselves of the taint of Scruggs’ money.
Herring well knows that for every dollar Scruggs gave any Republican cause, he’s given at least 99 to Democrats and their causes. In fact, were it not for Scruggs’ generous support of Democrats, the Republican quest to gain complete control of political offices in Mississippi over the past 20 years might have been acheived.
