BILOXI, Miss. After Hurricane Katrina roared in, Gov. Haley Barbour quickly convened a special legislative session and, just 10 days after the storm, appointed a commission to study rebuilding Mississippi's coastline. The former Republican National Committee chairman and influential Washington lobbyist also traveled to the nation's capital several times to extract promises of federal aid from friends in the Bush administration. Because of the Barbour's take-charge approach to the disaster, even some of Mississippi's staunchest Democrats are saying he may be tough to beat if he seeks a second term in 2007. In Louisiana, it is a different story: Some...