First it begins with how Barbour made his bones telling Reagan off color jokes. It appears this was his great asset. But Katrina changed his long held way of conducting politics....
"This deal is like anti-politics," says Barbour, who often refers to Katrina and its ravages as "this deal." "You just feel like people are dependent on you. Maybe it's supposed to be like this all the time. But not like this."Anti-politics? Dealing with the needs of the people? This Deal?
Well true given the way uber lobbyist Barbour has dealt in the political world. Barbour knows about "the Deal".
The buddy story ends with a little retrospect from Barbour....
In retrospect, Barbour had prosaic goals for his first term. He mentions tort reform, balancing the state's budget and creating jobs. "Now it turns out my governorship is gonna turn on this deal," Barbour says, adding that if he could have foreseen Katrina, "I could have made a lot more money doing other things."So true. As a lobbyist Barbour’s firm had the highest lobby revenues in Washington in 2000 ($10.8 million).
So what does this matter for people outside MS?
Well Barbour is thinking of running for Prez in '08 and Katrina may have been a blessing for him......
This renaissance, if it occurs, could be a springboard into a run for president in 2008 -- something Barbour had been considering before Katrina. "He is, in some ways, in a very enviable political position," says W. Martin Wiseman, director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University. Wiseman adds that Barbour's fortunes will be determined largely by his ability to bring in federal relief dollars -- a task he is suited to.
"There will be no federal account that he won't know about or tap into," says Ed Gillespie, a Barbour protege who served as RNC chairman until last year.
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