Personhood Miss. Responds To Lawsuit

Personhood Mississippi sent out a press release yesterday responding to the lawsuit filed by groups who say the personhood ballot initiative is unconstitutional. It appears that opponents of the amendment, those filing the lawsuit, want Jackson attorney Robert McDuff to be the headliner for their cause but Personhood Mississippi is focusing on the main groups backing the lawsuit- the ALCU and Planned Parenthood. I don’t know if you can find two less popular groups in the state.

Here is part of what Les Riley, the sponsor of the amendment, said: “This is clearly a preposterous lawsuit, intended to interfere with Mississippi citizens’ right to vote, and to protect Planned Parenthood’s abortion cash cow. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are seeking to protect Planned Parenthood’s one billion dollar a year profit, while Mississippi voters are seeking to protect innocent life. We intend to fight this suit, defending our rights as Mississippi voters and the most basic right of preborn children, the right to life.”

The group, who had the backing of most state officials, including Phil Bryant, also had the lieutenant governor comment on the new situation: “It is unfortunate that certain people would want to block the protection of innocent human life here in Mississippi by filing suit. Not only are they trying to stop pro-life policy but are also trying to deny the voters of Mississippi an opportunity to voice their beliefs on this issue. Those of us who believe there is nothing as important as protecting the unborn will continue to fight to give Mississippians the right to vote to end abortion in our state.”

If you tell a lie enough times, does that make it true? Here is part of what the Travis Childers campaign said in a presser earlier this week related to campaign contributions: “Mr. Nunnelee…is losing additional support every day for caving into his party ladership’s plans to privatize Social Security and raise the retirement age for senior citizens.”

Now I suppose Nunnelee can not send out taxpayer funded emails proclaiming his opposition to social security (as Childers did a couple months back), but I figured surely his team would read Nunnelee’s interview with the Jackson Free Press.

And here is what he said about privatization: “One option put on the table in the Republican Primary (that I refused to adopt) is complete privatization. There’s a problem with complete privatization… At this point, I don’t have the silver bullet, but I know we must honor the commitment we have made, and we cannot continue to make problems.”

Read the entire interview. The Republican speaks fairly candidly about social security. Good to see at least one person is being honest on the issue.

The impact of Haley even if he isn’t talking 2012. Jonathan Martin of Politico has a column looking at the Republican contenders in 2012- mainly focusing on the obvious choices right now (Pawlenty, Romney, Palin), but offers this regarding the decision by Haley Barbour to run or not to run: “It appears that many GOP mouths and wallets are staying shut until Haley Barbour and (Indiana governor) Mitch Daniels reveal their intentions.”

Another point: most think that if Barbour enters, Daniels wouldn’t- and vice, versa. Look for Barbour’s profile to continue its uptick as the GOP stands ready to have an excellent year winning gubernatorial races across the country- with Barbour as the head of the RGA.