Jim Hood's Entergy Motivation? Follow the Money

I don't mean this to become the Jim Hood blog. But he has been giving us such great material lately. If I had a silver dollar for every thing I could post about Jim Hood, I could glue them to my car and drive around like Conway Twitty. Yes, I know the Conway reference belongs to the bloggers at The Great Red Spot and Right of Mississippi, but we couldn't resist.



Following Charlie Mitchell's recent column in which Attorney General Jim Hood disclosed (oops) he has a contingency fee contract with Mobile lawyer Vincent Kilborn, Y'all Politics acquired and posted the full contract disclosure.

In it, we discover that if what Hood says is true, that he is seeking "hundreds of millions" of dollars from Entergy Mississippi, then these lawyers stand to make tens of millions of dollars. That is a whole lot more than customers of Entergy Mississippi would ever see, which could be as little as zero (if you look at Hood's contract), or might even make it up as high as ten whole dollars over a period a months (if you look at what happened in Louisiana). So quick math. Jim Hood's lawyers could get one-million times more money than an Entergy customer. Nice deal if you can get it. (You can get it from Jim Hood.)

Two of the partners of the firm Kilborn, Roebuck & McDonald of Mobile, Alabama, are now Special Assistant Attorneys General: Vincent Kilborn and David McDonald. There may be a special bonus to being a special assistant attorney general.

Joey Langston and Timothy Balducci had that title and now, despite having plead guilty in unrelated judicial corruption schemes, and Balducci suggesting he and Steve Patterson had been paid $500,000 to convince Jim Hood to cooperate with them in their State Farm lawsuit, Hood won't touch them. They're like family. AND Jim Hood is helping Langston and Balducci try to get their $14 million as a result of working for Hood during the MCI/WorldCom case (in which, as the Y'all Politics post reminds us, Mike Moore represented the other side).

That is the key. Follow the money. That MCI fees dispute case could have a lot to say on how many lawyers, like these fellows from Mobile, shop lawsuits to Jim Hood. If they don't think they can get millions, I doubt they'd put the time in out of the graciousness of their own hearts. People suggest that Langston/Balducci/Hood will win before Judge Winston Kidd in Hinds County Circuit Court. But things don't look good once the Supreme Court hears an expected appeal. With Entergy Mississippi and Jim Hood in federal court, which could stretch out for years, we likely would see a Mississippi Supreme Court decision on the MCI/WorldCom appeal before a resolution with Entergy. I'd hate to be lawyers with a contract with Hood who after years of work and expense discovered, I don't get anything.

I mean, it isn't exactly the tightest contract. Page 3 of the contract reads, "WHEREAS, the Attorney General has determined that the Claims may include additional penalties, fines and/or restitution payable to the Attorney General, the State of Mississippi general fund, or any other entity;".

Ask the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi how awarding funds to "any other entity" has been going lately. Or perhaps Jim Hood should ask the Supreme Court. Or perhaps Vincent and McDonald should ask Jim Hood.