The Legal Trail in a Delta Drama
Michael C. Moore, the former attorney general of Mississippi who worked closely with Mr. Scruggs on the tobacco settlement, says he was “astounded” when he learned of Mr. Blake’s payday. “It doesn’t surprise me that Dick would pay him some money, but it’s hard for me to believe that much money would go to P. L. Blake,” says Mr. Moore.
In interviews, other Mississippi political figures suggest that Mr. Blake has played a key role for Mr. Scruggs over the years. “P. L. essentially has done all the back-room negotiating for Dickie, but you’ll never see his tracks,” says Pete Johnson, a former state auditor who is now co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority, a federal agency with headquarters in Clarksdale, Miss. Mr. Johnson, who lobbied the Mississippi Legislature on Mr. Scruggs’s behalf when he was gearing up for the tobacco fight, recalls that his first introduction to Mr. Scruggs came through Mr. Blake in the early 1990s.
“He was the outside confidant that Dickie needed,” Mr. Johnson says. “He was the nexus of his political network.”
Mr. Blake, who now lives in the Birmingham, Ala., area, did not return repeated calls to his home there.
New York Times
1/19/8
Magnolia Tribune
