Seeing a number of commentaries like this from @jbouie about the Republican candidate for Senate, facing a runoff next Tuesday. I’m not a Mississippian. I know more about the history of Mississippians in Congress than I do anything else about the state. About that, though....
2. Mississippi is a poor state. It’s relied on its Congressional delegation to support its economy by directing various kinds of federal spending there over the years. Its Senators in particular have often punched way above their state’s weight in Washington.
3. James Eastland. John Stennis. Thad Cochran. Trent Lott. Like these guys or not, they were Senators to reckon with: smart & experienced, able to get good deals for their state because they could work Washington. #MSSen
4. Stennis was such a powerhouse in the defense world the Navy named an aircraft carrier after him, one of only 12 in the fleet. I can testify personally how Thad Cochran managed appropriations bills, and got them done on time.
5. There are surely people in Mississippi who care most that their next Senator be a) white and b) a loyal, even slavish servant and defender of Donald Trump. This Hyde Smith woman seems to meet both criteria.
6. But she’s also — forgive me — not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, the sharpest knife in the drawer, the tallest poppy in the field. Faced with some pretty predictable questions about her evident limited enthusiasm for non-white Mississippians, Hyde Smith...
7... chose to go to ground, hiding behind a staff-written statement and having her hairdresser & others give testimonials about what is in her heart. Now Mike Espy, her opponent, has not had an unblemished career. But he’s run a Cabinet department & served in the House.
8. Espy knows something about Washington. As a rare Democratic Senator from the Deep South, and an African American at that, he’d have Democrats in Congress & in the next Administration lining up to help out Mississippi. He’d be much better able to follow in the tradition...
9... of strong Senators from Mississippi than the ordinary & somewhat fragile Hyde Smith. Full disclosure: I just don’t track the racial antagonism, the white power stuff that is so important to Trump & some of his fans. It’s not something I’d weigh in choosing a new Senator.
10. Not everyone agrees with that, I suppose, which I’m sorry about. All I’m saying is, there are other things a state like Mississippi might need in a Senator, things it has had in the past, that Espy can give it and Hyde Smith can’t. That’s all I’ve got. [end]
