Salter on Hood: "I am flippant about Mississippi’s endless parade of demagogue politicians"

A piece of political advice for Jim Hood, don't pick a fight with Sid Salter.

After reading Attorney General Jim Hood’s guest column I found it clear that Mr. Hood was displeased with my July 8 column. Hood rated a one-paragraph mention in that column.

I’m not sure which observation of mine regarding the special legislative session to address the Public Service Commission budget irked him more. Perhaps it was this one: “What the standoff is about is partisan politics — and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can make any claim whatsoever to the moral high ground.”

Well, I can certainly see how Mr. Hood would see that as objectionable, can’t you? It’s so, what’s the word, fair.

Or perhaps it was this line: “Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood has sued Entergy over its rate practices and unsuccessfully challenged Mississippi Power’s application for the clean coal plant.”

Yes, that line would set ol’ Jim off , too, considering it was exactly the same assessment drawn in the June 10 Associated Press account of the Mississippi Power permit application by AP writer Timothy Brown: “The Mississippi Public Service Commission has denied two motions, including one filed by state Attorney General Jim Hood, challenging the application for a planned $2.2 billion power plant in Kemper County.”

Hood says he isn’t opposed to Mississippi Power’s clean coal project in Kemper County and I have no reason to doubt that. But the fact is that Hood and some environmentalists did challenge Mississippi Power’s application for the plant before the PSC — and as the AP reported correctly on June 10, Hood’s motion was denied.

But the lowest political common denominator is a perceived political alliance between the elected PSC and Hood. For good or ill, true or false, that perception and the existing long-term partisan enmity between Hood and the Republicans is at the root of the PSC budget standoff.

Hood’s been attorney general since 2004. Strange that changing PSC governance wasn’t on his radar screen until he got in a contentious 2008 lawsuit with Entergy, isn’t it?

Flippant about utility rates? No, Jim. I struggle to pay them, too, like everyone else. But I am flippant about Mississippi’s endless parade of demagogue politicians seeking to channel “Kingfish” Huey Long by unfairly demonizing public utility companies.