James Gill of the Times-Picayune on Chip Pickering; me on the coming crisis in the GOP

James Gill's piece in the Times-Picayune begins:

Let me explain why U.S. Sen. David Vitter might hate to be publicly associated with Chip Pickering, who did not seek re-election as a Mississippi congressman last time around.
Hold onto your hats, now. If it is possible to draw distinctions between the fornicating phonies of the GOP, Pickering must be rated creepier than Vitter.

Gill goes on to focus a bit on the $5,000 campaign contribution shell game played by the PACs for Vitter, Pickering, and Gov. Barbour, but the most pointed parts of the article are barbs reserved solely for Pickering:

Philanderers don't come more unctuous than Pickering, who denounced evil at every turn, received a perfect rating from Focus on the Family and urged then-President George W. Bush to declare 2008 the year of the Bible.

Even a congressman who has embraced hookers in private while embracing the Lord in public might not wish to be dragged down to Pickering's level.

All of this brings to mind the most important part of the Pickering scandal for Mississippi Republicans, and the C Street scandals for the national GOP.

Three Cheers for Hispanic Immigrants to Mississippi!

U.S. Representative Gregg Harper (R-Miss) has issued the following press release. Does anyone doubt that there are large numbers of Hispanic workers in the poultry industry here? What this proves to me is (as The Economist magazine documented in January 2008) that immigration is a win-win proposition. The immigrants CREATE wealth, and in turn they earn a living. Immigration is not a zero-sum game.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 17,2009

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Gregg Harper (R–Miss.) joined the Mississippi Poultry Association to announce that Mississippi’s Third Congressional District leads the nation in poultry production, according to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2007 Census of Agriculture.

“Mississippi’s poultry producers should be proud to lead the nation’s competitive agriculture industry,” said Congressman Gregg Harper. “Poultry production provides the Third Congressional District and the State of Mississippi with firm jobs and a steady source of revenue.”

The Third Congressional District, stretching from Woodville to Starkville, includes the bulk of the state’s poultry producing areas generating $1.78 billion in poultry and egg sales. Five additional congressional districts from Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia topped $1 billion in poultry farm sales.Poultry is Mississippi’s largest agricultural product with $2.44 billion in poultry and egg farm sales. The industry employs approximately 20,000 people on farms, feed mills, hatcheries, processing plants and other related industries with a total $6 billion impact on the state’s economy.