Opinion: Too little too late from Tate Reeves

Nobody, not even many of his supporters, expected much of Tater Reeves, Mississippi’s 65th governor.

After William Waller, Jr., formerly chief justice of the state’s supreme court, was defeated by Reeves in last summer’s Republican primary, a Waller supporter and stalwart Mississippi Republican long before 1990, was disappointed, but “Oh, well,” he said.

“It doesn’t take much to be governor of Mississippi,” my friend said. “It’s a weak job under the constitution. Delbert (Lt. Gov. Hosemann) will have all the real power anyway. Tate’ll be able to handle what little there is for him to do.”

Reeves supporters, both the rabid ones and the tepid ones, have no cause for complaint. They didn’t expect much, and not much is what they’ve received.

Tater’s tardy and timid reaction to the coronavirus crisis in Mississippi proved that expectations of him could not possibly be too low.

Amazingly, he was in Spain, already a tragic hot spot for COVID-19, when the first Mississippi case was confirmed two weeks ago yesterday, Wednesday, March 11. Two days later he arrived back at his duty post in Jackson, after a private plane ferried him and his family (At what cost to taxpayers?) from a New York airport.

Then, for a fortnight, he dithered. Meanwhile, Mississippi mayors, county boards of supervisors and emergency management directors issued orders trying to “flatten the curve” and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the state. They waited in vain for Tater to act.

When Reeves finally signed an order addressing the coronavirus crisis in Mississippi late Tuesday, March 24, it was remarkable for how little it did to restrict crowds and mitigate the spread of coronavirus. In fact, Tater’s order was less restrictive than orders already promulgated by many local governments.

Even more incredible is that in Section 3, subparagraph b, of his order, Reeves actually seemed to forbid local governments from enforcing any restrictions stronger than the puny ones he imposed, saying that such more restrictive orders are “suspended and unenforceable.”

As this is written Thursday, the recent numbers showed that Mississippi is 12th in the entire country in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 of population.

As of this morning, six Mississippians have died of COVID-19 and there are 485 positive cases in the state. It was just two weeks ago Wednesday, when Mississippi’s first case was confirmed while Reeves was frolicking in Spain.

Governor Tater Reeves. How much more will Mississippians be expected to lower their expectations while this hand-wringing eunuch occupies our fine old mansion at 300 East Capitol Street in Jackson?

The leadership from Washington has been better, but by no means great. Trump seems mostly to follow the lead of the public health professionals, who actually know what epidemiology is all about, those who recognize that COVID-19 will decimate significant portions of the U.S. populations if left unchecked.

Yet for all his considerable accomplishments as president, Donald J. seems incapable, even now, of resisting the Trumpian impulse to blather away on Twitter. In apparent contradiction to hard data to the contrary, Trump has foolishly vowed to have people all back in church together by Easter Sunday, just 17 days from right now. He even complained this week about “the Lamestream Media” wanting the restrictions kept tight because they want to hurt his chances for re-election.

The only guy that can beat Trump in the 2020 general election is Trump. He has the best opportunity of any president since FDR to “be presidential,” to show strong, dignified national leadership in a  worldwide crisis.

If he does that, he will be unbeatable by Joe Biden or anybody else on November 3rd. If he continues to mouth off like a narcissistic brat, he could still snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.