Barbour: Stock crash, bailout "knocked Republicans back"

Former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour came to town Monday to promote Kenny Hulshof's campaign for governor and he didn't try to sugarcoat the problems besetting his party. The economy, shaken by the need for massive financial company bailouts and a stock market crash, is the big issue and Republicans are getting the blame, he said.

"I think you saw in the polls two weeks ago Republicans dipped over the economic fear and people have a reason to be fearful," Barbour said in an interview after the rally.

Interestingly, Barbour was appearing with one member of Congress — Hulshof — who voted twice against the $700 billion federal bank bailout and another — U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau — who voted twice for the bill.

"Most people do not fully approve of the solution, if you will, because they recognize it is not a full solution," Barbour said. "It is probably going to help some. I hope so.

"But there is no question that that knocked Republicans back," he said. "But the good news is it knocked them back a month before the election and Republicans have a chance to recover and I think you will see many of them who will, the kind like Kenny Hulshof, who has a strong record of his own, who is well known."

Barbour did not take a stand himself on whether he would have voted for the bailout bill. But he said it was a big enough issue that he would have urged members to vote their coinscience.

"My advice when I was chairman of the Republican National Committee is to always be for what you are for. Don't try to vote for what you think's politically popular, vote for what you think's the best thing. Sometimes you have to vote for something that is far from perfect. In fact there is very little legislation that goes through Washington that doesn't have something in it that's objectionable. A member, whether it is Kenny or Jo Ann, has to be the one to draw the line and say, this has got so much bad stuff in it that I can't vote for it or it doesn't have some of the things that definitely ought to be in there and therefore I can't vote for it. Or others will make the decision, it is far from perfect but we have got to do something and it is the best thing we have to choose from now. My advice as chairman was always do what you think is the right thing.

"If you try to hold your finger up in the wind and see what is politically popular, you are going to look in the mirror and see what has changed is not the country, what's changed is you."