Posted on 11/27/2007 3:33:04 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
In a longshot campaign to use Sen. Trent Lott's retirement as a slap to Democrats, Bush allies are pushing for Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to choose retired federal Judge Charles Pickering, rejected by Democrats for higher office, as Lott's replacement in the Senate.
"It would be the biggest in-your-face move if it happened," said one proponent of the move. Pickering was nominated for a federal appeals court post in 2002 but was blocked, in part because of his antiabortion position as well as charges of racial insensitivity. He was renominated and given a recess appointment but eventually withdrew his name.
Proponents of picking Pickering, 70, say it would also help to revive the issue of the role of judges and presidential preferences on the eve of the 2008 presidential race. Pickering's son, Rep. Chip Pickering, and Rep. Roger Wicker are considered the front-runners for the post, however, and GOP sources close to the situation say that Wicker has the advantage.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
I was thinking an interesting interim appointee would be Charles Evers. A Conservative an authentic GOP party-switcher. It would be a fitting tribute to his brother and a nice middle-finger to Theodore Bilbo.
Leaving on Dec. 31 would be in keeping with so much else that Lott has done. Maybe he'll do it just for spite.
If the special needs to be held within 90 days of the appointment of the temporary Senator, there really isn’t much of an advantage to having the “incumbent” run in the special, and there wouldn’t be an opportunity cost for Barbour to name an octogenarian to the seat. It would be great for the first black Senator from a Southern state since Reconstruction was a Republican, just like every other black Senator from the South.
Mississippi ping!
Poetic justice...
then let Chip run for the seat.
It may be that Charles Evers is not a party switcher but a lifelong Republican. I am not sure.
Well, Haley could always point Alan Keyes to get him out of the presidential race!
Evers switched in the ‘90s. He was the first Black Mayor of any town in Mississippi since Reconstruction when he served 16 years (1969-81; 1985-89) and served as a Democrat. While he served, he ran as an Independent for Governor (1971 & 1983) and U.S. Senator (1978). He received nearly 1/4th of the votes in ‘78 and was credited with denying the Democrats the open seat of Sen. Eastland and helping elect Thad Cochran (then-Rep. Cochran was fresh off of beating none other than Charles Pickering, Sr. in the GOP primary). In those days, Blacks ran many high-profile independent candidacies for Congress separate and apart from White Democrats. Evers’ final run for office, IIRC, was when he attempted to win in 1995 a legislative seat as a Republican. His party label doomed him despite his well-respected name.
Haley is going to do what’s best for Ms.
What or who ever that may be.
Bilbo has been dead 60 years and has no white contemporary in Mississippi I know.
My dad did business with Charlie in (we’re all Charlies..lol) Fayette.....a very rural mossy oak river bottom and loess bluffs county....you expect Uncle Remus and Stephen Foster and Margaret Mitchell to come strolling down a deeply rutted red clay road any second...lol
it was heavy plantation farming pre Civil War and is maybe the blackest county in the state which is why Charlie chose it for theatre of operations in the late 60s.
my memories of Charlie are that of an early teen and he was maybe 50 or so...he’s got to be mid 80s now
Charlie was really cool....there is a jet black guy who is larger than life and been in some movies where he is appropriately a Mississippi black tough guy....really deep voice...anyhow Charlie is like that. Sharp and tough negotiator but funny and likable as hell......very nice to me....would take a keen interest in chatting me up in his office.....he is the kind of guy you like yukking it up with ..... very very keen....much keener than Medgar who was a naive idealist.
Charlie invites corruption allegations which to be fair are probably not wholly untrue.
he is not above race baiting for votes but is not a true believer and is not really GOP or Dem per se but believes in folks standing up for themselves and absolutely loathes blacks being patronized by guilty white liberals
and most important to me....he understands whites and expects the same candor from us and appreciates where he and I both came from without browbeating with the modern sensibilities big stick....he knows they did not murder his brother because they hated his black skin or thought him subhuman despite the rhetoric of the time at times but because they feared him politically and he has charted his course from that perspective....a realist
he’s a helluva guy.....a mix of good and bad but he was taught right and is nobody’s fool
there are a lot of older blacks down here (MS) like Charlie...would that there are more but the victim card is just as alluring to them as the guilt card is to weak peckerwoods.
Pickering will do fine...charlie is old and probably doesn’t want it anyhow
(my dad built and operated public utilities)
That’s a good description of His Honor, I’ve read similar accounts of him. If Haley is to appoint an interim appointee for a few months, it’d be a nice little short-term gig for Mayor Evers. He might be thrilled to pieces and get to give a speech or two. Something nice, y’know, for somebody who has seen and been through a hell of a lot. ;-)
“Haley is going to do what’s best for Ms.
What or who ever that may be.”
.
Being the kind of Governor he is, you just know he will.
No doubt about it...
I like Charlie, too...a lot.
I would rather spend my time in the Charlie Evers Airport,
but that’s not to be.
Judging from your screen name you are as ancient as I am.
I was actually born 8 years after Barry Goldwater ran for president (and first saw an “AuH2O for President” sign in a history textbook). I chose my screen name because I’m a “Goldwater Republican,” as opposed to a “Rockefeller Republican.”
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