Has Mississippi politics become a tag team event?

Mississippi legislative leaders have accelerated their efforts to keep Republican Governor Tate Reeves from spending the $1.25-billion in federal coronavirus money as he sees fit.

Just two days ago, Republican Lieutenant-Governor Delbert Hosemann and Republican House Speaker Phillip Gunn said the legislature would convene Monday, May 4, to decide how to spend the money allocated to Mississippi under the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (CARES).

Reeves has asserted that he alone has the authority to spend the federal relief money under an old statute. Both Republican and Democratic leaders in the legislature disagree, which brought about Wednesday’s decision to convene the legislature two-weeks earlier than previously planned.

However, Reeves upped the ante in a press conference yesterday during which he stated, “I really don’t give a damn who is in charge of this money.”

Hosemann and Gunn reacted to Reeves by deciding to convene both houses of the legislature today (Friday May 1) rather than waiting until Monday.

Then, yesterday evening, former two-term Republican Governor Haley Barbour, a supporter of Reeves and now again a wealthy, high-profile Washington lobbyist, waded into the argument.

In a statement released to the Clarion Ledger, a Jackson newspaper, Barbour said, “I have been surprised and disappointed to read reports that some in our legislative branch of state government are trying to disrupt and change how Mississippi has effectively responded to emergency situations for decades. In any emergency, someone has to be in charge, and in our system of government, that is the governor.

“That is not to minimize the important role to be played by the state Legislature, mayors, supervisors and other elected officials. But the governor is ultimately accountable.”

Contrary to what Reeves said in his Thursday press conference, he clearly very much “gives a damn” about how the $1.25-billion is spent. So do Hosemann and Gunn and legislative Democrats.

And former Governor Barbour also gives a damn. For many years, what Barbour gives a damn about has carried a lot of damned weight in the Mississippi Republican Party.

Many Mississippians have been critical of what they’ve seen as weak and indecisive leadership from Reeves in the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Republican leaders have not said much aloud, because Reeves is their own. However, as one of them said, “The boy is way in over his head.”

Now Barbour has thrown his considerable weight into the battle.

Is this a tag-team event?

Mississippi’s confusing coronavirus response:   How MS governor undermined coronaviruis response: