What’s next for Bob Riley: A 2012 run at the White House?

Published today in the Mobile Press-Register, a story from George Talbot discussing the buzz about outgoing Alabama Governor Bob Riley’s plans for the future. Five words that accurately describe the former rancher, Alabama business school graduate, US Congressman, and two-term Governor: Folksy.  Intelligent. Capable manager. Staunch conservative. Political opportunist.

There’s one more that friends and political observers like to toss around: Reaganesque.  This one fits primarily because Riley’s political interests were sparked by the charismatic President who served from 1981 through 1988. Riley was first elected to Congress in the 1996 election, served a self-imposed three-term limit and left in 2003.

His 2002 election as Governor was by a 3,000 vote margin, the closest in the history of the state.

Riley’s reputation as a capable manager is impeccable. His handling of the Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina disasters was praised by local and federal emergency management officials, and his management of the Gulf Oil Spill crisis of 2010 was similarly lauded. To this day, Riley remains a fierce antagonist of current Oil Spill Claims Czar Kenneth Feinberg and his handling of compensation payments to affected residents and business owners.

At 66, Riley says he’s still got some “racing” in him:

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A national run for Riley, 66, would in some ways be easy. His children are grown and his schedule is open. Experts are predicting the Republican primary could swell to include a dozen or more candidates. In such a large field, the race essentially becomes a beauty contest.

Early voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina would quickly narrow the contest to three or four candidates. Make the cut, and you could be on the fast track to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

For now, however, the road leads home to Ashland.

“I’m tired. I’m ready for a break,” Riley said between meetings in New York. “Patsy told me I need to do something, or else I’ll get bored. And I told her I’d like to try doing nothing awhile and just see.”

He is tinkering with the idea of a cross-country motorcycle trip -- perhaps to Alaska -- in springtime. The long ride would allow him to clear his mind and make a decision about his future. But for now there’s still work to be done.

“I had an old track coach who taught me to run through the tape, not to it,” he said. “I’ve still got a little race left to run.”

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Wait. What? A road trip to Alaska?  What could he possibly hope to achieve by visiting Alaska?

Should Riley decide to enter the race, he’ll almost certainly be up against a formidable opponent in the form of neighboring Southern Governor, Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, whose potential 2012 run was analyzed here, back in June 2010. Or perhaps Barbour would be content to team up with Riley and use his considerable political network to give the Reaganesque Riley a leg up in the 2012 beauty contest.

 

 

Obama playing politics with Oil Spill money?

Alabama Governor Bob Riley is seeing red over the Obama regime’s plan to restrict use of Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) funds and exert near complete federal control over the types of damage assessments that will be conducted. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 authorizes NRDA assessments to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to determine the damage to natural resources and the human uses of those resources.

Months ago, during the height of the spill, federal officials told Riley and other states’ Governors that NRDA funds would be allocated for studies of both ecological resources and the economic activities that depend on them, and that the states would take the lead in identifying the projects and studies that go forward. 

Now however, Riley says that the Obama regime has broken both of those promises:

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gov. Bob Riley slammed President Barack Obama and other federal officials last week, saying they are breaking promises on how states can spend money expected as a result of the oil spill and who must approve the spending.

“For the federal government to come up and say that all of this NRDA (Natural Resource Damage Assessment) money has to go out for ecological restoration, and not for economic, is typical for a federal bureaucracy, telling the people what their needs are,” Riley said in a telephone interview.

“We never need to get to the point that any state has to have permission from the federal government to spend money that is rightfully ours,” he continued.

A White House official, who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss the matter, gave the following statement to the Press-Register:

“Statutes define what responsible parties must pay and how those monies can be spent, and we have to follow the law,” the official said.

The administration declined further comment.

Riley’s concerns center on the NRDA environmental review and Clean Water Act fines, which could together bring billions of dollars to Gulf Coast states.

Federal officials told Riley months ago that NRDA money could be used for either economic or environmental restoration, the governor said. Now, they’re saying that the money should be limited to environmental use, according to Riley.

He also expressed concern that the federal government wants to approve recovery projects selected by the state, from both the NRDA and Clean Water Act funds, rather than letting the states decide on projects for themselves.

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Are we shocked that the regime would break its promises? Not in the least.

Every one of the affected states—Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida—either have Republican Governors or will inaugurate new Republicans, and each state has leveled harsh criticism on the regime for its handling of the spill response, the deepwater drilling moratorium and the spill claims process. In short, the Obama regime has done absolutely nothing right, from the “day one” through the administration of the NRDA program.

Nothing documents the regime’s failure better than this site’s Deepwater Horizon Incident Timeline, a comprehensive chronology of events from the explosion of the rig through the final “bottom kill” of the leaking well.

At every turn, at every key decision point, whenever this regime has faced a choice between doing what’s right for the affected areas of the Gulf Coast or using the crisis for political gain, the regime has chosen politics. The NRDA issue is no different.

Instead of allowing the states to determine what resources need to be evaluated to determine the degree of damage, and in turn the amount of money to be collected and applied via the fines authorized by OPA 1990, the federal government intends to limit the NRDA studies to ecological resources. To make matters worse, the federal government intends to be the sole and final arbiter of what resources are included in the studies.

This is political bureaucracy run amok.

Who is better suited to determine what resources have been damaged—the states, with significant portions of their economies affected by the damage, or the Obama regime, which has never missed an opportunity to expand and consolidate the power of the central government?

The five governors of the Gulf Coast states should band together, develop a united front, and press its new allies in Congress to force the regime into allowing the states to identify NRDA priorities.  Furthermore, the federal government should not be allowed to restrict NRDA studies to ecological resources and ignore the important economic, cultural and recreational activities that depend so heavily on the Gulf of Mexico.

If last Tuesday night’s election said one thing loud and clear, it was that the people have had enough of the heavy handed approach of the Obama regime. It must stop, and it must stop NOW.

The de facto Chairman of the Republican Party

Interesting story in Politico today, exploring the power wielded by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

This is Politico’s second feature in two months on the man many people in the GOP regard as the de facto Chairman of the party.  The fact that a left-leaning online publication has twice tried sounding the clarion bell on Barbour means that the chattering classes are worried about him. 

They should be worried. They should be absolutely petrified. No one controls more money or has more to spend in the 2010 mid-terms than Hailey Barbour, and no one seems to have the organization or network of power players that he does.

Even if he doesn’t make a run at 2012 (more on that, later), he will have tremendous influence over GOP politics in the next three years.  From the Politico piece:

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Barbour, who runs the Republican Governors Association, has more money to spend on the 2010 elections — $40 million — than any other GOP leader around. And in private, numerous Republicans describe Barbour as the de facto chairman of the party.

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It’s not just because he controls the RGA kitty but, rather, because he has close relationships with everyone who matters in national GOP politics — operatives like Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and other top Republicans running or raising cash for a network of outside political groups. Together, these groups are essential to Republican hopes of regaining power because Democrats are cleaning their clocks through more traditional fundraising efforts.

The political class, in particular, is consumed with Barbour’s behind-the-scenes endeavors — this week, with the $1 million he got from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Yet the reality is that Barbour has been uniquely adept at leveraging concerns about President Barack Obama into huge contributions from many others. Bob Perry, the Texas businessman who funded the Swift boat attacks in the 2004 campaigns, has given more than twice as much as News Corp.

Barbour’s stature has grown at the expense of cash-strapped, gaffe-prone Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, and he has funded his various efforts by tapping into broad dissatisfaction with Steele — at one point, Barbour complained to donors that he needs to raise even more money because Steele is stumbling. This past quarter, Barbour’s RGA actually matched the Republican National Committee in fundraising, something that hasn’t been done in at least five years and probably much longer, according to a POLITICO analysis.

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The 2010 mid-term elections represent a juicy red meat opportunity for Republicans to take back the House of Representatives, and there is even serious talk about getting the 10 seats needed to take the Senate as well.  With Barbour set to play a huge role in financing successful takeover campaigns, there will be a lot of very powerful Republicans who will likely be in his indebtedness. But there will also be a lot of new Republican office-holders in his debt, too.

When Politico ran its first piece on him in late June, the Gulf Coast was mired in the mess created by BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  The story really didn’t generate much buzz, but I blogged about it on June 28:

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Remember also that Barbour was elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 1993.  He is credited by many observers on both sides of the aisle as being one of the chief architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution that swept Democrat majorities from both houses of Congress.  Barbour sensed blood in the water 16 years ago, and is credited with organizing a party-wide feeding frenzy that nationalized Congressional elections for the first time in the post-war era.  In his 2003 campaign for Governor of Mississippi, Barbour beat a conservative blue dog Democrat in a campaign that the Jackson Clarion-Ledger called "relentlessly well organized."  The incumbent, Ronny Musgrove, was pro-life, anti-gay rights and wrote a letter in praise of the Alabama "Ten Commandments Judge," Roy Moore.  Musgrove would have made conservative Republicans in other states blush, but he was beaten by a machine he simply couldn't compete with in, terms of fundraising, organization or message management.

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The chattering classes keep tossing about the same old names when it comes to speculation about who might seek the GOP nomination in 2012.  Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Pawlenty, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

None of those people have the clout Barbour does.  As I said back then, if he decides to run,  he’s going to be hard to beat.  He out-raises, out-organizes and out-works his opponents, and if the 2010 mid-terms go his way, he’ll have the entire party apparatus eating out of his hand.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.

Barbour in 2012?

There's been quite a buzz in southern political circles that not only is Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour considering a run at the White House in 2012, he's all but certain to go all in.  The former lobbyist, Republican National Committee Chairman and current governor of a dyed-in-the-wool Red State has the national political connections and fundraising apparatus to make a serious run in 2012.

A story ran in Politico last week, touching on how he's been constructing a political machine that rivals anything assembled by other potential 2012 GOP hopefuls:

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His apparatus, which has socked away hundreds of thousands of dollars this year alone, will get a major boost — as will the Barbour 2012 buzz — when the governor takes some time away from the Gulf oil spill threatening his home region’s shorelines to attend a big fundraiser Thursday for one of his three political action committees.

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Barbour's political instincts are as keen as a well-honed Mississippi Buck Knife.  During a June 6 interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News' Sunday, Barbour was asked about Barack Obama's performance in dealing with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Barbour famously replied:

“The American people will make their own judgements… Like Napoleon said, ‘Never interfere with your enemy when he’s in the process of destroying himself.’”

While the other two Republican Governors--Jindal in Louisiana and Riley here in Alabama--have pulled no punches in criticizing the federal response to the oil spill, Barbour has stayed above the fray.  The quote above aside, he has not been as vocal as his colleagues in blasting the Obama regime for its ineptitude.  Instead, he's presented a level-headed "let's work together and solve this problem" approach. 

Remember also that Barbour was elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 1993.  He is credited by many observers on both sides of the aisle as being one of the chief architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution that swept Democrat majorities from both houses of Congress.  Barbour sensed blood in the water 16 years ago, and is credited with organizing a party-wide feeding frenzy that nationalized Congressional elections for the first time in the post-war era.  In his 2003 campaign for Governor of Mississippi, Barbour beat a conservative blue dog Democrat in a campaign that the Jackson Clarion-Ledger called "relentlessly well organized."  The incumbent, Ronny Musgrove, was pro-life, anti-gay rights and wrote a letter in praise of the Alabama "Ten Commandments Judge," Roy Moore.  Musgrove would have made conservative Republicans in other states blush, but he was beaten by a machine he simply couldn't compete with in, terms of fundraising, organization or message management.

If Governor Barbour makes a run at the White House in 2012, then he's doing so because it's a battle he thinks he can win. His reputation as a "super-lobbyist" is sure to make him a target, but he's overcome that in the past with a record of getting sh__t done.  Should he make a run, he'll make a formidable opponent simply because he out-raises, out-organizes and out-works his opponents.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.