Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour (Photo: Gage Skidmore)
Another principled conservative:
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's assertion that he did not personally work for the government of Mexico when his lobbying firm represented the country a decade ago is contradicted by the firm's own federal filings, which describe him as a leader of the team assigned to the account.
Barbour's lobbying work revolved around easing immigration restrictions and creating path to legal residency for undocumented immigrants.
That position was once considered mainstream in the GOP, but today's conservatives think you're a communist if you even dare suggest that we might need immigration reform, so it's no wonder that Barbour tried to paper over his work for the Mexican government. He'd probably rather be accused of lying than admit what the records show he did.
Also noteworthy: Barbour had initially denied his role on Saturday, while attending the state GOP convention in California, which last I checked isn't anywhere near his homestate of Mississippi. That's relevant because last week a homestate paper revealed that Barbour had asked taxpayers to foot the bill for over $300,000 on travel expenses in 2010, spending 175 days outside of the state he was elected to govern. Combined with the news that Barbour had asked taxpayers to cover the expenses of his recent campaign trip to CPAC, it's fair to say that Haley Barbour is having a really bad week.