AG Watch

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood fought a fierce battle with Rhetoric this afternoon; all reports suggest that Rhetoric won. General Hood’s press conference in Jackson’s Carroll Gartin Justice Building was a brief, but brutal, three-round bare-knuckler.

In Round One, the forces of Rhetoric hit a solid blow, reducing Hood’s description of insurers to the playground jingle, “Delay, delay delay, we hope they go away.” Badly stung by petty assonance, Hood retreated to his corner at the bell.

With Hood reeling on the ropes of rhyme, Rhetoric slashed in a violent rhetorical hook (and a swift, ugly jab) in Round Two, forcing Hood to utter, “If they’re so sure of [victory], why are the cowards running?” With a round still to go, the bettors preemptively exchanged their dough; Mr. Hood was done.

But Rhetoric wasn’t finished. In a stunning combination, Rhetoric amplified the Round Two question in Round Three, making Mr. Hood follow his rhetorical question with another rhetorical question: “Why are they spending all of this money and dragging it out in federal court?”

Unfortunately for Mr. Hood, the answer to that last question undoes his whole argument. The insurers seek a federal venue precisely because a Mississippi chancery court trial would offer them about as much fair-mindedness as Mr. Hood himself. Their cowardice—if “cowardice” applies to those seeking an unbiased trial—owes to Mr. Hood’s extrajudicial statements and the accompanying statewide attitudes. The insurers have been reviled in Mississippi, indeed, by the Mississippian elected to execute justice; can they reasonably expect a fair trial in Mississippi?