Republican Governors and Presidential Hopefuls Have Problems

Haley Barbour is often mentioned as a potential Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. Although he hasn't announced yet, his schedule of speaking appearances before various right-wing groups and news show appearances suggest it. In fact, he's done it so much that it's starting to draw scrutiny.

Taking the state's jet for a mix of personal and state business is nothing new for Barbour, who says he will make a final decision on a presidential bid in April. He racked up more than $300,000 in taxpayer-funded travel bills in 2010, spending all or part of at least 175 days outside the state, according to the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss.

Yes, that's right, he spent almost half the year outside of the state he was supposed to be governing. That, in itself might raise questions, but Politico points out some other issues:

And through a quirk in Mississippi law, whenever the governor is out of state, Mississippi must pay the lieutenant governor a salary differential as acting governor.

When Politico looked at the flight logs for the state, it turns out that:

The flight logs obtained by POLITICO indicate that Mississippi has spent more than $500,000 over the past three years on Barbour's air travel. That total does not include security and other logistical costs associated with his trips.

But it's official state business, he says, because he conducts state business while away!

Some of Barbour’s travel may well have been worth it to Mississippi, a state that is heavily dependent on federal funds. But much of the time, he has used the plane to go to fundraisers for himself and other Republican candidates and committees, to football games and to at least one boxing match — travel that has a less obvious connection to what Barbour, a former top lobbyist in Washington, has cast as his lobbying on behalf of his state.

What did he say in his latest speech to CPAC? "Our problem is not that we tax too little," Barbour told the gathering. "It's that we spend too much." Apparently spending over $500,000 of taxpayer money traveling in a luxury jet is not "spending too much," except to everyone who is not Haley Barbour.

Meanwhile, in Indiana, another governor who is often mentioned as a potential candidate is having a problem. He's fighting with IBM.

Daniels canceled a 10-year $1.37 billion contract with IBM to update the state's social services system three years in after numerous complaints and critical articles about its effectiveness. Indiana then sued IBM to recover over $400 million it had already paid.

Which IBM didn't appreciate. They counter-sued, claiming the state still owes them $100 million dollars, and they want to depose Governor Daniels.

The latest in the case: whether Daniels should give a deposition. The state recently requested a protective order that would bar Daniels and his chief of staff from being deposed. But IBM’s lead attorney argues that Daniels was a key player in the project and that he has a duty to share information.

According to the lead attorney for IBM:

“Gov. Daniels talks all the time about openness and transparency,” Chicago-based attorney Steven McCormick, who’s representing IBM, said after a hearing this afternoon. “Why, after this was his personal project, would he shy away from coming and being heard on the record? We just don’t understand that.”

And, of course, the Indiana Democratic Party has a position on this:

"Mitch Daniels has no right -- absolutely no right -- to hide behind immunity when he came up with the privatization idea, awarded the contract to his buddies and then watched them drive the bus off a cliff at a tremendous cost to our neediest citizens," Indiana Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker said in a statement this week. "The court needs to understand that there's a huge difference between a Governor being dragged into every lawsuit and a Governor single-handedly creating the basis for the lawsuit through his reckless actions."

In other words, he started this project, and then canceled it, and is trying to get out of giving a deposition as to why he did it. Which is something he'd have to explain while trying to persuade voters that he'd be a good candidate for President, if he chooses to run. But if I were him, I wouldn't count on any campaign donations from IBM.

So now we have two potential candidates for the Republican nomination that have demonstrated that their "concern" for the taxpayers, good government, and careful control of spending is a sham. It's going to be very interesting watching them try to explain that when the time comes.