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Monday, March 7, 2011
The Vicksburg Post
THE VICKSBURG POST
EDITORIAL
Founded by John G. Cashman in 1883 Louis P. Cashman III, Editor & Publisher • Issued by Vicksburg Printing & Publishing Inc., Louis P. Cashman III, President Karen Gamble, managing editor | E-mail: kgamble@vicksburgpost.com | Tel: 601.636.4545 ext 123 | Letters to the editor: letters@vicksburgpost.com or The Vicksburg Post, P.O. Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182
JACK VIX SAYS: Watch the river.
OLD POST FILES 120 YEARS AGO: 1891 The room of J.H. Gunning is broken into and robbed. • Services are held for Mrs. Loudie Walton.
110 YEARS AGO: 1901 William C. Lowry, popular engineer on the Y&MV Railroad, dies. • Gen. T.C. Catchings returns to the city.
100 YEARS AGO: 1911 “The Rival Delta” is a story by Judge Harris Dickson in the current issue of the Saturday Evening Post. • Alderman C.E. Beer moves from the second to the fourth ward and tenders his resignation.
90 YEARS AGO: 1921 The Floral Club meets with Mrs. J.L. Andress. • Pearl White appears in “The White Mole” at the Alamo Theatre.
80 YEARS AGO: 1931 J.L. Biggerstaff, assistant manager of the Hotel Vicksburg, returns from Tupelo. • L.J. Pico, longtime theatre manager in Vicksburg, is in the city.
70 YEARS AGO: 1941 Dr. and Mrs. L.C. Knox leave for Richmond, Va., where they will attend a medical meeting.
60 YEARS AGO: 1951 Robert Arnot Geary Sr., president of the Merchants National Bank and Trust Company, dies at his home on Baum Street. • Joe Wilson Hicks dies.
50 YEARS AGO: 1961 Services are held for Mrs. Ella Hall. • Julius LaRosa stars in “Let’s Rock” at the Joy Theatre. • John D. Barnes is a patient at Mercy Hospital.
40 YEARS AGO: 1971 John W. Schilling is appointed postmaster of Vicksburg. • Mr. and Mrs. Jesse McDonald announce the birth of a daughter, Jessica Denise, on March 2. • Mrs. J.C. Ivy dies. • Janice Farrish is named Temple High School STAR student and Mrs. Carolyn Strothers is STAR teacher.
30 YEARS AGO: 1981 Services are held for Cleotha Rushing Jr. • Donna Garrett and Mark Hamilton are winners in the Reading Is Fundamental contests at Vicksburg High School. • Christie Nicole Cochran celebrates her third birthday. • Edward Kent Nash of Vicksburg enrolls at David Lipscomb College in Nashville.
OUR OPINION
Legislation
20 YEARS AGO: 1991 A party is planned when soldiers from the Vicksburg area come flying home from Operation Desert Storm. • Kenneth Roy Pee is injured when he loses control of his motorcycle. • Dominique Nicole Bouie celebrates her second birthday.
House is right repeatedly In recent days and weeks, the House of Representatives approved four major pieces of legislation that, if they become law, could stagger the big government mindset responsible for massive deficits and draconian regulations. On three separate bills, the House overwhelmingly voted to prevent federal agencies from spending money to implement Obamacare, and to cut $61 billion from the federal budget and this week to cut off funding to the U.N.’s questionable global warming panel because it “whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomenon which is statistically ques-
tionable at best,” as Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., put it. Controlled by Republicans since January, the House last month voted to rescind the health care law entirely. These votes show lawmakers heard outraged voters last November. Whether the Senate, still under Democrats’ control, joins the effort or resists these changes is problematic. President Barack Obama also has promised to veto any legislation rescinding his signature health care reform, and hinted at vetoing spending cuts that harm “core government functions and investments.” Certainly, it may be easier politi-
10 YEARS AGO: 2001
cally for House Republicans to support these bills if they are ultimately rejected in the Senate, or vetoed. If the bills don’t become law, representatives will have had the luxury of political cover for doing “the right thing” without being held responsible should there later be political backlash or unintended consequences to the laws. Nevertheless, we believe it’s a good sign whenever lopsided majorities line up on the just side of issues. It’s now up to the Senate to approve these bills. We hope voters’ voices reverberate in that chamber, too.
Ashlea Mosley, 18, becomes the youngest person ever to seek an elective office in Vicksburg as she files for the South Ward alderman post. • Columbus Lee is recognized with a Hall of Fame Award for seven years without an accident as an independent driver with Fleetline. • Mary Alice Strong Payne, longtime Utica resident, dies.
VOICE YOUR OPINION Letters to the editor are published under the following guidelines: Expressions from readers on topics of current or general interest are welcomed. • Letters must be original, not copies or letters sent to others, and must include the name, address and signature of the writer. • Letters must avoid defamatory or abusive statements. • Preference will be given to typed letters of 300 or fewer words. • The Vicksburg Post does not print anonymous letters and reserves the right to edit all letters submitted. • Letters in the column do not represent the views of The Vicksburg Post.
MODERATELY CONFUSED by Bill Stahler
Miss. Republicans boasting full statewide slate With the passing of the qualifying deadline, Mississippi Republicans are fielding a full slate of candidates for statewide office, just as they have in election cycles dating back to 2003. Democrats dominated the state political scene for generations, but are fielding candidates this year in only five statewide races. Mississippi Democratic Party chairman Jamie Franks said his party is rebuilding. Republican Party chairman Arnie Hederman says the GOP is the party of opportunity and growth. History shows the GOP has generally fielded a growing number of candidates dating back to 1983. Republicans used to joke that their loyalists — including future governors Kirk Fordice of Vicksburg and Haley Barbour — could all fit in a telephone booth. Now, aside from the fact that phone booths are relics, no small structure could hold the growing ranks of the state GOP. This does not bode well for the Democratic
JACK
ELLIOTT JR.
Republicans used to joke that their loyalists — including future governors Kirk Fordice of Vicksburg and Haley Barbour — could all fit in a telephone booth.
Party. Jere Nash, a longtime Democratic campaign consultant, said it’s all about money. “It is not that the Democrats do not have people who would make good candidates and good public servants. There is just not enough money available to them any longer in Mississippi to pay for a competitive campaign,” Nash said. Part of the reason, Nash said, is because limits on lawsuit awards separated Democratic candidates from sources of money in the business community that previously had been available to them.
“Back in the days of William Winter and Ray Mabus and Dick Molpus and Ronnie Musgrove’s first race, all of them could raise money from health care professionals, businesses, business executives, and so forth, and finance a campaign,” Nash said. “That is no longer the case.” Nash said the tort reform debate in the late 1990s and early 2000s made it clear to national Democratic contributors and organizations that Mississippi was practically a lost cause for electing many Democrats to federal office, and certainly for delivering Mississip-
pi’s electoral votes to a Democratic presidential nominee. “So, why should national funders give money to Democrats in Mississippi when, in their view, there is no long-term political gain? So, the national money is drying up at the same time Mississippi money is drying up,” Nash said. Nash said Ray Mabus got elected state auditor in 1983 by spending $150,000 in two elections. “It takes a million dollars now to be competitive statewide,” he said. First-term state Auditor Stacey Pickering, who has only token opposition this fall from a Reform Party candidate, told members of the Mississippi Federation of Republican Women this past week that a Republican wave was sweeping the nation and Mississippi. “The Mississippi Republican Party is organized,” Pickering said. “We are organized, and we saw what happened last year across the nation when conservatives organized at the county
level, at the precinct level, when that wave swept across our nation and we sent two new Republicans to Washington, D.C. — Alan Nunnelee in the 1st and Steven Palazzo in the 4th. “Waves do not skip states, and that wave will continue as we head into August and head into November and we will elect a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, a Republican majority in the Senate and maintain our leadership statewide in the Republican Party,” Pickering said. Outgoing Agriculture Commissioner Lester Spell got big applause for this line: “The first time I ran, I was a Democrat but I saw the light and came to the Republican Party. I want to be remembered as the last Democrat who was ever elected commissioner of agriculture in the state of Mississippi.” • Jack Elliott Jr. lives near Jackson and covers Mississippi for The Associated Press.