Well, there really was not much mystery, but blogger Chuck Johnson followed through on his promise to publicly punk MS Attorney General Jim Hood by not showing up after being validly served with a Lauderdale County grand jury subpoena last month.
For the YP Nation, a Chuck Johnson vs. Jim Hood battle really doesn’t have any bad outcomes. It’s the sort of political no-lose showdown that political gadflies live for. Hood could get strident and start really going after the McDaniel insiders OR Johnson could just get away with punking Hood in public. Like NASCAR, we’re all just waiting for the big wreck.
But Johnson making a fuss about this is curious. He did offer in July to cooperate with Hood and other authorities for everything he knew.
I offer @AGJimHood the same deal I gave the @FBI & the FEC. I'm happy to give all the evidence I have. #mssen
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) August 6, 2014
But man, he has had a change of heart.
Today I have defied an illegal subpoena issued by AG Jim Hood for committing journalism in California by exposing voter fraud in #mssen.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) September 22, 2014
And bless his heart, Johnson is strident to the last . . .
I'll be publishing audio soon that will destroy Jim Hood's political persecution. #mssen
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) September 22, 2014
We’ll see how Jim Hood handles this. If Johnson ever does come back to idolized in person by the Mississippi TEA Party, he could be arrested and may find out that Orange is the new Ginger in Parchman.
Of course, since Hood had subpoenaed Johnson to testify about Chris McDaniel Campaign Communications Director Noel Fritsch’s role in the payments to Stevie Fielder, Hood could now just as easily subpoena Noel Fritsch to testify in front of the grand jury. Even for Fritsch, that subpoena would be pretty hard to ignore. It’d give the Magic 8 Ball legal team something else to ponder in any event.
Again, the takeaway here is that this is the sort of circus that would have followed McDaniel through a general election campaign and possibly on to Washington DC as our senator. That’s why Mississippians got it right.
The actual election legal challenge is pretty milquetoast at this point. NMC has been doing a good job in retrieving some nuggets including the one from the McDaniel team that says if their argument is not accepted then Philip Gunn is not legitimately in the House of Representatives. Also, it seems like the “Conservative Action Fund” is at it again by filing an amicus brief in the McDaniel challenge (after unsuccessfuly suing Delbert Hosemann after the runoff).
Poetically, Emily Wagster Pettus this weekend wrote an article pondering whether McDaniel, by losing, was actually #winning. That may pretty succinctly boil down the difference between the TEA Party and the establishment. The TEA Party seems to believe that you can win by not actually winning, which may be why they continue to lose so much. The establishment would counter that you cannot effect policy when you don’t hold the gavel.
Winning by losing is like saying you lose weight by gaining weight, but her ultimate point was that being in-famous may be better than no fame at all. At least it makes it easier for fundraising. Sure, people still talk about in-famous folks like Anthony Wiener and OJ Simpson, but probably not in ways they’d want you to remember them for.
And finally, Travis Childers (remember him) has not had a campaign appearance since his last rally with milk and white bread last week in Jackson.
That’s the way it was – Day 91 of the McDaniel Hostage Crisis.
Good day Mississippi – and good luck.
