Obamacare drives Mississippi Democratic elected official to the GOP

Democrats should take note of the impact their faith in Obamacare is having on their grassroots and farm team. Another Mississippi Democrat has switched to the Republican Party and he says it was because he is fed up with Obamacare.

The occasion was used to recognize Neshoba County Chancery Clerk Larry McMillan, who announced his intentions to switch to the Republican Party, having been a lifelong Democrat.

Steele joked with McMillan, noting all the big-name state Republicans who came out for the event.

"You really bring them out Larry," Steele said. "It's a great honor that I get to welcome you to the Republican party."

Barbour also welcomed McMillan, saying they were "tickled to have him," and that he's sure when he looks back on it "you'll only wish you'd done it sooner."

In his fifth term, McMillan attributed his switch to being fed up with the Democrat Party's push for health care reform.

McMillan is the 9th county or municipal elected official in Mississippi to switch to the Republican Party this year.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele and Governor Haley Barbour were on hand to welcome McMillan to the Party.

A Mississippi Democrats Christmas

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Nancy Pelosi's Defense of Tax Increases

Unlike the prior post, this one is not intended to be satire. It is from a few months ago, but worth posting still.

"That wasn't a tax increase. It is eliminating a tax decrease that was there." - Nancy Pelosi on CNBC 10/21/2009

Obama: Fight Fire with Words

Obama To Enter Diplomatic Talks With Raging Wildfire

(Hat Tip Conservative Belle)

More Problems for Bennie Thompson: Report that lobbyists paid Thompson staffer to do fundraisers for Thompson

Y'all Politics dug up another item breaking this week about Bennie Thompson. The website TPMMUckraker reports a Thompson staffer has been paid by lobbyists to conduct events honoring Thompson. The plots thicken...

A party planning side business run by three current and former congressional staffers raked in over $20,000 last year from lobbyists holding events to honor Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) -- whose own communications director is co-founder of the firm.

The apparent arrangement between Thompson and the business, Chic Productions, at once allows private interests to get closer to the congressman's office and gives the staffers a way to dip a straw into the river of outside money flowing through Capitol Hill.

The three women who run Chic are: Dena Graziano, Thompson's communications director since 2006; Michone Johnson, chief counsel for the House Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee; and Michelle Persaud, formerly of the House Judiciary Committee, now corporate counsel at T-Mobile.

Graziano's bio on Chic's Web site says she has "straddled the fine line between politics and entertainment as an event and communications strategist to some of the nation's most well known personalities."

A Chic floral display with the congressional seal at '07 Thompson eventThe extent of the business Chic has done for Thompson remains unclear because lobbyist disclosure statements that reveal the arrangement have only recently been required, and comprehensive data is available only for 2008. But besides the lobbyist receptions, Chic has put on at least six other Thompson-linked events.

Thompson at Chic "Chairman Reception" in 2007

In a six-week period in late 2008, four companies paid Chic $22,500 to plan events to honor Thompson, according to lobbying disclosures reviewed by TPMmuckraker. The companies were private prison contractor Corrections Corporation of America ($10,000), lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs ($5,000), Pepsico ($5,000), and software giant Oracle ($2,500).

Chic's links with Thompson are not limited to the 2008 lobbyist receptions.

The congressman's campaign committee paid the firm $5,000 in December 2007 for a fundraising event, and Chic's Web site shows Thompson giving a toast at a "Chairman's Reception" that year. Chic also planned the Congressional Black Caucus Back to Blues event in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. The invitation for the '06 party -- held at the landmark 101 Constitution Ave. -- identifies the host of the "celebration of Blues" as Thompson.

The spread at the 2007 "Back to Blues" party

And finally, Chic's Web site says the firm organized a 2008 CBC "policy conference" in Tunica, Mississippi -- Thompson's home state. The four-day conference featured a target shooting event, the Bennie G. Thompson Sporting Clays Challenge.

According to financial disclosure statements, Graziano, the Thompson staffer, claimed $12,000 income from Chic for 2006-2008. Johnson, of the Judiciary Committee, claimed $4,000 in 2008 and some amount over $5,000 in 2007.

Fifth Circuit: Paul Minor Still Guilty

Per our post yesterday about Oliver Diaz defending the integrity of Paul Minor, Y'all Politics breaks the story that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals finds that Minor is still guilty.

Just a bit of an update here. Paul Quinn and Tom Freeland weigh in. Quinn says it just leads to more questions. But this is an important comment from Freeland:

1. Paul Minor bribed judges by guarantying loans for them and paying them off.

2. Paul Minor did not violate 18 USC §666, the federal program bribery statute.

As it stands now, Paul Minor’s conviction for bribery as a part of a mail fraud scheme still stands, so he in fact is still convicted of bribing a judge.

Now an investigation into Bennie Thompson's Tunica event

Brian Perry at the Madison County Journal covers the investigation of Bennie Thompson broken by the Washington Post that we discussed here and here. Perry and the DDT appear to be the only print media in Mississippi covering this story. But we did hear Sid Salter talking about it on his radio program yesterday and again today.

But Perry's column also brings up another investigation, this one broken earlier this week by the New York Times into a Congressional Black Caucus event hosted in Tunica and apparently funded through corporate sponsors through the Congressional Black Caucus Institute of which Bennie Thompson is the Chairman of the Board. Perry mentions in his blog that the New York Times also editorialized on the investigation yesterday quoting the Ethics Committee Chairman as saying that if nonprofits like the Congressional Black Caucus Institute

are being used “as a pass through” for corporate players, then “that is a fraud.” It looks that way to us. So who will fix it?

If your answer is the House Ethics Committee, don't hold your breath.

Paul Minor's corruption hurt "the little guy" too

Oliver Diaz writes in the Northside Sun of his objections to the new book "Kings of Tort" by Alan Lange of Y'all Politics and former U.S. Attorney Tom Dawson.

Diaz, a former Simpson County Youth Court Public Defender, defends Paul Minor who was convicted by a jury of his peers, and attacks Tom Dawson who prosecuted Dickie Scruggs. But the interesting part was an online comment posted to the column that linked to www.NancySwan.com.


Nancy Swan had retained Paul Minor for a lawsuit. Nancy writes that Minor's corruption didn't just hurt big defendants he argued against, but also hurt her, his client.

After waiting fifteen years and suffering through two successful state supreme court decisions, my second judge, Judge Jerry O. Terry was ruled out of order and kicked off my case for bias. My case was sent back to Harrison County Circuit Court, then assigned to the third judge, John Whitfield. In the interim, I had been educating myself on the law, ethics, and court procedure. Experience had taught me to document everything, including license numbers and letters, and to record phone calls, conversations, and meetings, even those with my own attorneys.

My case was finally scheduled to go to trial in February 2000. With less than a week to go, I knew something was wrong. My attorney, Paul Minor, was still not prepared for trial. He had not returned my phone calls, no witnesses had been notified, no exhibits prepared, and no instructions had been given. I was fearful and reminded Mr. Minor that out of courtesy he should call my doctors to schedule their testimony.

Minor revealed he was not planning to take my case to trial because Judge Terry had been bribed twice to delay my case, my case was now too old, and I would never receive any money because of an offset from my prior settlements. From Minor’s list of settlement amounts it was obvious more than $200,000 was missing.

When I demanded an accounting, Minor threatened that if I did not accept his settlement, he would have my case dismissed. I refused to be bullied, reminding Mr. Minor that he had used threats and bully tactics to force me to settle with the other defendants.

The day before my trial was to take place, Judge Whitfield allowed Minor to secretly withdraw from my case without accounting for the missing settlement. Judge Whitfield withheld this information when Minor failed to show for the docket call for my trial, then continued the intimidation by threatening to dismiss my case if I did not accept the settlement.

I responded by filing two judicial complaints against Whitfield. Whitfield immediately announced he was stepping from the bench, but not before he dismissed my case on his last day. He then sealed all court records and personally removed court documents to protect himself and Paul Minor.

Abandoned and betrayed I fell into the abyss of despair.

Somehow, I don't think Alan Lange or Tom Dawson had anything to do with Minor's treatment of Swan. If Nancy Swan's allegations are true, Paul Minor deserves the punishment he has earned.

Nothing is more important to Harry Reid than healthcare, except fundraising

Healthcare is so important for Democrats they won't even take the weekend off in the Senate.

The next weekends, plural, we will be working. I have events, uh, this weekend that I'll have to postpone, some I'll have to cancel. That's the way it's going to have to be with everyone. There is not an issue more important than finishing this legislation. - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Dem-Neveda), November 30, 2009 on working the weekends in the Senate

Well, unless there is a fundraiser, of course!

But Reid, who wants to get a healthcare bill finished by Christmas, urged Republicans on the Senate floor to forego a debate on several conference reports this weekend in order to give Senators and staffers the weekend off.

"I understand the Republican leader doesn't want us to do health care. I appreciate that. He and I have different positions on that," said Reid. "I see no reason to punish everybody this weekend and I hope the minority will give strong consideration to the proposal that i've made."

It turns out Reid has a 1,000 plus per plate fundraiser scheduled for Saturday in New Orleans, according to one local paper, which also reports that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA, a key swing moderate in the health care debate, will also be in attendance.

Jim Hood & Bailey Perrin "slaughtered" in Zyprexa lawsuit

Y'all Politics shares this piece (Blogging attorneys dissect Miss. Zyprexa decision) from Legal News Line that discusses a recent post by attorneys James Beck and Mark Herrman describing Attorney General Jim Hood's (represented by Bailey Perrin in a no-bid contingency fee contract) recent defeat in the Zyprexa case. They write at Drug and Device Law blog and title it "Pigs Get Fat, Mississippi Got Slaughtered."

Legal News Line explains

Twelve states didn't participate in a 33-state, $62-million settlement last year. Of those 12, six have reached eight-figure settlements while six are still holding out.

Three of those states -- Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Mississippi -- are represented by Bailey Perrin Bailey of Houston.

The entry makes a note of Mississippi's inability to settle. Weinstein had pushed for a mass settlement, appointing a special settlement master and even ordering the states to take 30 days off from their suits to try to reach an agreement last year.

"Mississippi was - again unable or unwilling - to come to such a settlement, so its claims, which were legally meritless in any event, come to naught," the entry says.

We've previously posted that the federal judge called Hood's case "slash-and-burn-style of litigation would arguably constitute an abuse of the legal process" and a Mississippi legal blogger called the ruling "a disaster for General Hood."

DDT: Thompson puzzled by investigation

Our fellow blogger and captain of Franks Tanks at The Great Red Spot notes that Mississippi's journalists have not picked up on Saturday's front page story from the Washington Post on an investigation involving Bennie Thompson. We mentioned it here.

But the Delta Democrat Times has broken the Mississippi silence.

According to the DDT - "Ethics investigation of Homeland Security puzzling to Thompson"

Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Crime Rate In The World

Another investigation on Bennie Thompson

Y'all Politics picked up this item from the Washington Post that reports Bennie Thompson is under scrutiny for credit card related hearings: Homeland Security panel faces ethics scrutiny after credit card hearing

At a hearing in late March, the nation's credit card companies faced the threat of expensive new rules from an unlikely regulator: the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.).

The committee had never before dealt with credit card issues, but Thompson warned Visa, MasterCard and others that Congress might need to impose tighter security standards costing millions of dollars to protect customers from identity theft.

Behind the scenes, some of Thompson's staffers sensed a different motive -- an attempt to pressure the companies into making political donations to the chairman, according to several former committee staffers.

Now the House ethics committee is investigating the propriety of the committee's operations, and whether its members' interactions with companies compromised its work. Within a few weeks of the hearing, Thompson collected $15,000 in donations from the credit card industry and its Washington-based lobbyists, a Washington Post analysis shows. No legislation on card security has been introduced.

Several former committee staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have told The Post that the credit card hearing was one of several committee actions that caused staff concerns because of their consideration of potential donors and contractors friendly to Thompson. The current ethics inquiry was prompted this summer, according to an ethics document obtained by The Post, when a former committee aide alleged she was fired after complaining to her bosses that a lobbyist made improper requests of staff members.

"That's incorrect," [Thompson] said of the suspicion. "We do hearings all the time -- sometimes we are able to generate legislation earlier, and sometimes we have to [build] a public record."

He added that he has never been told of staff complaints about his hearings and was not aware that a committee staffer said she was fired for raising objections about inappropriate lobbyist requests.

"I would assume if discomfort was there with the staff they would have shared it, " he said. "I have not heard this."

Committee staff director Lanier Avant, who also serves as the congressman's chief of staff, said the credit card hearing was prompted by a data breach at a payment company, Heartland Payment Systems, that compromised the credit information of millions of customers.

Sarah Dufendach, a vice president at Common Cause, said the House ethics committee should take the staffer's allegation against her former boss seriously, especially because Thompson's office has had a number of staff departures. She questioned whether credit card security was a top committee priority, given terrorism threats and the need to plan for pandemic flu.

"You have to wonder: Did this take precedence over everything else that was on your committee's plate?" she said. "Homeland Security is not a committee that should be wanting for things to have hearings on."

Joshua Levy, an attorney for the fired staffer, Veronique Pluviose-Fenton, declined to comment.

At this point, let us insert these observations from the Hot Air Blog:

No one doubts that identity theft is a major issue, but jurisdiction for that would be with the Judiciary and Finance committees. Homeland Security’s jurisdiction includes national security, immigration, and emergency response, not normal legal matters. Even the corollary between identity fraud and immigration fraud would have more to do with Judiciary, and certainly that issue’s impact on credit-card regulation would be the purview of Finance.

Small wonder Thompson’s staffers wondered what Thompson wanted with this issue. It smells like a shakedown attempt. Thompson had no business threatening to impose credit-card regulations in the name of national security. One also has to wonder how much free time the HSC has under Thompson’s leadership. Have they completed visa reform before starting on Visa-card reform? Has Thompson done anything to focus on American border control before trying to control American Express?

Now, back to a few more items of interest from the Washington Post story, which really should be read in full.

Thompson's committee has been roiled by turnover this year, with at least 10 staff members resigning or being fired, according to congressional payroll records. Former and current staffers said many departures came after employees objected to committee operations. Many blame the staff turmoil on Avant, a 30-year-old Thompson confidant. Avant played a role in planning the March 31 credit card hearing, hosted by the subcommittee on cyber-threats.

Avant said politics have not guided his committee decisions. "I've never asked anything that they would be uncomfortable with," he said. "I ask people to come to work and work hard, to help our members do the best they can to oversee the department."

Legislation never surfaced. Avant said that the hearing helped inform lawmakers and the public about the issue, and that the committee might consider legislation at a later date.

In April and May, donations of $250 to $1,500 came in from lobbyists registered to represent Visa, American Express, MasterCard, Heartland and the National Installment Lenders, among others, as well as from the American Bankers Association political action committee.

Much more in the Post piece than we should quote here, be sure to read it. Also, as readers here know, the House Ethics Committee is also reviewing Bennie Thompson's behavior on another item.

Who made the decision? Jim Hood or Bailey Perrin

Who made the decision to forgo an easy settlement with Eli Lily and instead overreach to be rebuked by a federal judge? Was it Jim Hood or his contingency-fee firm Bailey Perrin?

Attorney General Jim Hood often argues that his no-bid contingency-fee contracts benefit Mississippi, but not this time. It seems the Attorney General could have joined a majority of states in agreeing to a settlement himself. But that would not have been as profitable to Bailey Perrin, reportedly connected to $75,000 in campaign contributions to Hood.

Law.com reports :

Mississippi now finds itself in the uncomfortable position of being one of very few states that hasn't collected on Zyprexa-related claims against Lilly.

Like several other states, Mississippi opted not to participate in Lilly's record-setting $1.4 billion False Claims Act settlement last January because it wanted to pursue its own litigation against Lilly. But most of those other states have since settled. Last fall, Lilly reached a $62 million deal with 32 states, leaving only 12 states with pending claims. And of those 12, according to LegalNewsline, most have reached official or tentative settlements, including Connecticut ($25.1 million); West Virginia ($22 million-plus); Idaho ($13 million); Utah ($24 million); and South Carolina ($45 million).

Did Hood's outside lawyers decline to settle in order to pursue larger claims and in return rake in more millions? Or did Hood make that decision? Was the decision based on what was best for the client - Mississippi - or did the terms of the contract fee affect the calculations?

Philip Thomas posts at Mississippi Litigation Review that the "loss in Zyprexa Case was a disaster for Attorney General Jim Hood."

This looks like a disaster for General Hood. First, Mississippi loses and collects nothing while other states settled similar claims and made substantial recoveries...Eli Lilly hemorrhaged money to settle the Zyprexa claims and Mississippi, with its budget in ruins, gets nothing. Second, as if the loss was not bad enough, the article revealed that Hood’s hand-picked outside counsel donated substantial money to Hood...$75,000??? From a law firm in Texas? Why in the world, other than the obvious reason, would a law firm in Texas be donating $75,000 to the Mississippi Attorney General?

This is more ammunition for Hood’s critics in general, and the critics of the State’s system of allowing the A.G. to hire and pay outside counsel in particular.

I do not have a problem with the A.G. hiring outside counsel, in theory. But a Texas firm who donated $75,000 to Hood? Let’s be honest—that does not look good. There are plenty of good lawyers in Mississippi who could represent the State and need the work. But there is probably a shortage of non-incarcerated (former) Mississippi lawyers who donated $75,000 to Hood.

Hood is going to end up giving his critics enough ammunition to get the State Legislature to enact a law that restricts the A.G.’s ability to hire outside counsel.

But Hood's office is "pleased."

"While we are disappointed with Judge Weinstein's ruling on some of our claims, we are pleased that the Judge saw the merit in our claim for the millions of inflated drug costs Eli Lilly charged our state over the course of several years," Hood spokesperson Jan Schaefer said.

"We remain confident that our state will ultimately prevail."

Eli Lily is also "pleased."

Weinstein's ruling left standing only Mississippi's claims based on the difference between the market price of Zyprexa and the value the state received. According to Weinstein, that issue is before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...Lilly...told LegalNewline it was "pleased" with the decision

Federal judge calls out Jim Hood on "slash and burn" litigation, "an abuse of the legal process"

Judge Jack Weinstein, Senior U.S. District Judge in New York, handed Mississippi Attorney General a legal defeat yesterday, accompanied with a side of smack down.

In his decision, Judge Weinstein granted Eli Lilly & Company's motion for summary judgment except on one issue still before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals; and denied Hood's own motion for summary judgment. Judge Weinstein said the fines and damages sought by Hood are unConstitutional under the Eighth Amendment as applied through the Fourteenth Amendment and called it

"grossly disproportionate to both the injury Mississippi has suffered and the seriousness of Lilly's allged misconduct."

Judge Weinstein wrote,

"the State's claims could result in serious harm or bankruptcy for this defendant and the pharmaceutical industry generally....For the legal system to be used for this slash-and-burn-style of litigation would arguably constitute an abuse of the legal process....courts cannot be used as an engine of an industry's destruction."

Y'all Politics noted:

Eli Lilly has paid massive criminal penalties and settled with the federal government and most states. It seems that what Judge Weinstein is saying is that even considering all of that, Mississippi's suit (seeking BILLIONS in damages) is way over the line.

LegalNewsline.com broke the story and noted that the lead law firm representing Mississippi is connected to $75,000 contributed to Hood. Kenneth Bailey, the firm's principle partner, has also come under fire in Pennsylvania for making "repeated and significant contributions" during "the precise time period in which" similar no-bid contingency-fee contracts were "negotiated and executed."

Joey Langston (Hood's largest campaign contributor) and Timothy Balducci (also a major contributor to Hood) formerly worked this case for Hood before they were removed due to their guilty pleas in the Scruggs Scandal.

This is at least the second federal judge this year to call into question Hood's tactics or motives. Back in May, US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff noted:

The Court in not unaware of disturbing allegations that state entities not unlike MissPERS [the Mississippi state retirement system], and law firms not unlike Bernstein Litowitz, have engaged in “pay-for-play” arrangements, by which such an entity will not even consider hiring such a law firm unless the law firm has contributed to the campaign fund of the relevant state elected official, such as the attorney general.

Lawsuits as usual for Jim Hood and his campaign contributors.