We interrupt our coverage to bring you this special report.
Yesterday, the big appellate court showdown at the Mississippi Supreme Court went down. But before it could really get going, Chief Justice Bill Waller dutifully surveyed the attendees and had a rather curious admonishment.
MS Chief Justice Waller: "I don't want to see anyone making any facial reaction to the argument. no gestures, no hand movements." #MSSen
— Emily Wagster Pettus (@EWagsterPettus) October 2, 2014
It’s a real headscratcher why he picked McDaniel v. Cochran to pull that one out, aint’ it?
But only a true pro-libertate could really appreciate the legal back and forth between the Magic 8 Ball Legal Team, Cochran’s lawyers and the Honorable Court. All of that talk of statutory construction, separation of powers and section one of the Constitution is enough to make you want to go wave a flag or shoot a semi-automatic weapon somewhere.
One thing seems pretty clear based on yesterday’s arguments. Even when this mess is over, it won’t be over. It seems fairly clear that McDaniel will strike out at the Mississippi Supreme Court, but Mitch Tyner ended his remarks while abruptly running out of allotted time talking about First Amendment issues. Specifically, he is back to the “freedom to not associate” arguments . The office pool at Y’allPolitics says this case somehow gets jumped over to federal court on a First Amendment claim by McDaniel himself or a cozy outside third party (FUNDRAISING!) and that we will all still be dealing with a court fight on this after the new year begins.
A few hours after the courthouse showdown, Matt Boyle over at Breitbart giddily broke the news that Travis Childers executed a big pander move to pledge fealty to the McDaniel faithful. The Clarion Ledger soon followed suit on the news. Childers has apparently pledged allegiance to the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
Not content to merely be “anti-illegal immigration” (or not depending on what Nancy Pelosi commands), Childers was in such a rush to pander to disaffected McDaniel voters that he hauled off and pledged allegiance to a Southern Poverty Law Center designated “hate group”. By the way, the Anti-Defamation League does not think very highly of FAIR either.
Of course, he’ll have to pander a lot harder. In 2010, he only had a 43% score from Club for Growth while in Congress (Cochran got an 81% rating). But the unions loved Travis. He got an 83% rating from IBEW (Cochran got a 14% rating).
Rickey Cole didn’t seem particularly enthralled with Childers pandering. But TEA Party Patriots Citizens Fund’s Kevin Broughton was as happy as an Alabama fan at a Walmart. “Haley, Henry and Austin Barbour are great at playing the race card. Now I guess we’ll see how they do playing the green card.” And this episode with FAIR now puts the whole “appearing with white bread and 2% milk” event in a lot of perspective. Maybe Travis was sending us a signal.
Seriously though, offending a huge chunk of your base by pledging undying political allegiance to a SPLC-designated hate group is pretty dumb politics. But it will be fascinating to see how media voices (like editorial pages, Jerry Mitchell and Bill Minor), state Democratic party leaders and leaders throughout the black community reconcile this move. Will folks call Childers out on this or will it be business as usual?
But since we’re on the issue of pandering, Hotty Toddy and #HailState. Should be a good weekend.
That’s the way it was – Day 101 of the McDaniel Hostage Crisis.
Good day Mississippi – and good luck.
Magnolia Tribune
