It's nice to see that Haley Barbour, GOP candidate for governor of Mississippi, is feeling a bit of heat now that his picture is prominently displayed on the Web site of the racist Council of Conservative Citizens -- "Barbour Won't Ask CCC to Take Photo Off Web Site" is the headline of this story in The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi.

But the story's somewhat deceiving. It says:

A photo on the CCC national Web site shows Barbour and several other casually dressed people — including state Sen. Robert "Bunky" Huggins, R-Greenwood — at the Black Hawk political rally this past summer in rural Carroll County, about an hour's drive north of Jackson.

Bill Lord of Greenwood, field director for the CCC, said critics are "trying to make something out of nothing." Lord said the CCC does not endorse candidates and the Barbour picture was included on the group's Internet site because the "Web master was just seeking some publicity for our organization."

Lord said the CCC held a separate barbecue the same day as the Black Hawk rally, which traditionally attracts a broad spectrum of candidates, Democratic and Republican.

That makes it sound as if the rally and the barbecue are unconnected, and the Council has connections only to the barbecue, while Barbour was photographed at the rally. But let's go straight to Council's Web site and read the caption under the offending picture:

The election year Mississippi Black Hawk Barbecue and Political Rally held on July 19 drew dozens of political candidates and was attended by a crowd of over 500. The Black Hawk Barbecue is sponsored by the Council of Conservative Citizens to raise money for private academy school buses. (Pictured L-R: Chip Reynolds, State Senator Bucky Huggins, Ray Martin, GOP gubernatorial nominee Haley Barbour, John Thompson, and Black Hawk Rally emcee and C of CC Field Director Bill Lord.)

Note the word "was" -- the barbecue and rally was attended by a crowd of over 500. I don't think that's an error, or bad syntax (these people are racially ignorant, but their English is just fine). I think they regard it as one event -- until the mainstream press comes nosing around.

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By the way, in the Clarion-Ledger article, Barbour says,

"Once you start down the slippery slope of saying 'That person can't be for me,' then where do you stop?"

For all his faults, Ross Perot answered that back in the '92 presidential campaign -- he said, in the first presidential debate (and, as I recall, on several other occasions),

If you hate people, I don't want your vote.

That's all you have to say, Haley.