You may have heard about outgoing Mississippi governor Haley Barbour‘s controversial decision to pardon 208 prisoners before leaving office, five of whom, many in the state are arguing, did not meet the proper requirements needed to be eligible for pardon under Mississippi’s Constitution. Now, State Attorney General Jim Hood says he may have to launch [...]

Rick Perry‘s comment during last night’s debate about starting foreign aid to all nations at zero certainly raised some eyebrows, but particularly when he included Israel, a country with a special relationship to the United States, in that list. Governors Haley Barbour and Martin O’Malley reacted to Perry’s position on Face the Nation today; one arguing Perry’s proposal has historical bipartisan precedent, the other arguing it was an attempt to pander to right-wing extremists.

On Face the Nation today, Governors Haley Barbour and Martin O’Malley got into a heated discussion over the Republican presidential candidates and whether the upcoming election would be a referendum on the economic policies of President Obama or not. Bob Schieffer asked Barbour why Republicans are so dissatisfied with the current Republican field of candidates.

Now that it appears the media is finally over the hill on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie 2012 speculation, the focus on the governor has shifted to what would happen if he actually ran, and naturally the “is Chris Christie too fat?” question emerges front and center. On last night’s Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell asked his panel– campaign strategist Ed Rollins and columnist Jonathan Alter– what the odds were of Christie making a presidential bid with his figure intact. The consensus? Expect a diet if a campaign was on the horizon.

Governor Haley Barbour may not be running for President, but that didn’t stop him from speaking to Bob Schieffer earlier today about presidential politics, and most specifically, issuing a warning to his party not to prioritize purity over party unity.

Donald Trump‘s monopolization of the news cycle is starting to peeve a number of high-profile conservatives, his run going from entertaining to concerning in about a week’s time. On Friday, he was called a joke by Karl Rove, and today it was Charles Krauthammer‘s turn at bat. Calling him a “provocateur and clown, unserious,” Krauthammer predicted Trump would indeed be running in 2012, and in the process would devastate the Republican Party.

Well, this is reassuring. In an interview with local CNN affiliate WLOX, Marsha Barbour, the wife of Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, described her position on whispers of a potential presidential run for her husband as “horrified” and called the prospect “overwhelming,” especially since his political career has already been a “sacrifice.”

On tonight’s episode of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart decided to take an in-depth look at the way Republicans vying for the chance to become the 2012 Presidential candidate address their base – or, put a little more colorfully, the fine citizens of Base-istan. Stewart named Michele Bahmann the front-runner for her ability to appeal to her base while circumventing the “lamestream media.” Case in point? Her Tea Party address this past January.

Lawrence O’Donnell is popping some popcorn to watch Republican presidential hopefuls sharpening their claws on their way to the 2012 primaries, and he is hoping they are at least as respectable as Alan Keyes. Blasting the Tea Party as “anti-information” and “the most forgiving movement in American political history,” he proceeded to ridicule front-runners (?) Rep. Michele Bachmann, Gov. Haley Barbour, and the ubiquitous Newt Gingrich.

Chris Matthews reacted to criticism from Mitt Romney regarding President Obama’s action in Libya. Romney attacked Obama for being “tentative, indecisive, timid and nuanced.” Matthews laughed at the term “nuanced” being used derisively and thought many of the likely Republican candidates for President were being hypocritical.

Ron Brownstein is the political director of National Journal and appeared today on Morning Joe to make sense of a slate of GOP presidential candidates that currently appears to be wide open. Because the slate has not yet “coalesced,” it seems that the opportunity for a late comer to challenge for the nomination is very real. Brownstein surmised that GOP support falls across two clear categories: fiscal conservatives, who support Mitt Romney, and “blue collar populists,” who support Mike Huckabee. But in the eyes of Brownstein, NJ Governor Chris Christie is the one candidate that truly appeals to both.

Dan Turner, the press secretary to Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, has stepped down from his role after it was revealed that he made jokes about the ongoing disasters in Japan in the daily email he sends out to Barbour’s staff and cohorts.

The joke was a parenthetical noting that Otis Redding’s popular song “Sittin’ on (The Dock of a Bay)” is “not a big hit in Japan right now.”

Republican Governor Haley Barbour appeared on Meet The Press and admitted to David Gregory something that will most certainly come back to haunt him: he actually thinks President Obama could be the greatest politician in history. Even if such a declaration was meant to suggest that Obama is extremely calculating and won’t speak out on an issue unless it is politically beneficial, the sound bite from a potential Republican opponent like Barbour is pretty remarkable.

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), a potential Republican presidential candidate, has an interesting perspective on the tumults of the civil rights era that swept through his Deep South state.

After tonight, a few politicians will have new jobs, while others will find themselves unemployed. But what about Michael Steele, whose position as RNC Chairman isn’t technically up for grabs this evening? That’s the question Neil Cavuto asked Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour today. Instead of giving a straight answer, Barbour instead told a story, one that highlighted the financial hardships his Party has endured under Steele. Cavuto’s highly analytic mind was able to read between the lines: “It seems to be your way of saying, ‘Maybe not Michael Steele.’ “

The Politico story on the GOP “country club elite” plan to overthrow Sarah Palin in 2012 raised a lot of eyebrows over the weekend– and its fair share of ire from the story’s protagonist. But the anonymous sources quoted as conspiring against her have yet to be disclosed. Searching for the source, Chris Matthews went to Mississippi governor Haley Barbour to ask when the next “boys’ club meeting” to depose Palin was scheduled.

Bill Maher returned to HBO this week with a bang. Did he ever. Between revealing Christine O’Donnell‘s ‘witchy’ past on Friday night, and proving the Dems with a new slogan, Maher slammed Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour‘s assertion that we know less about President Obama than any president in U.S. history: “Really? We know less about Obama than Millard Fillmore?” He then launched into an excoriation of the “‘churchers’ who doubt Obama’s religion.”

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said today that he opposes a Florida church’s plan to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11, and said he accepts “totally” that President Obama is a Christian. “I do not think well of the idea of burning anybody’s Koran, Bible, Book of Mormon or anything else,” Barbour told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Haley Barbour is not only the Governor of Mississippi, but he leads the Republican Governor’s Association (which recently received a $1 Million donation from News Corp.) and is also considered a serious Republican presidential candidate for 2012. During a recent interview with conservative website Human Events, Barbour recalled his memories of growing up in a relatively tolerant and integrated South, claiming it was the “old Democrats who had fought for segregation so hard.” Enter Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson to fact-check, and well, it’s not a pretty picture.

Peggy Noonan has decided there aren’t enough adults in charge and that we need old men (I guess old women wouldn’t be of any help). Waxing nostalgic on the anniversary of the publishing of To Kill a Mockingbird, she’s decided that we need Atticus Finch to lead us through life and that he could be personified in, wait for it, former Republican National Committee chair and current Mississippi governor Haley Barbour.

On the evening of the day that Joe Barton apologized to BP CEO Tony Hawyard for having been “shaken down” by the White House for $20 Billion, Jon Stewart sort of explained Barton’s obtuse behavior by putting him on the cover of Disdainful Asshole Digest. But last night Stewart revealed that there was more hay to be made with Barton’s comments, or more specifically how many GOP leaders had gone back and forth on the sentiments expressed by the Texas congressman.

I think this could reasonably be described as damning with faint name-calling. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour , who has been making the media (and name-calling) rounds of late, popped up on CNN’s State of the Union yesterday and managed to make a number of newsy waves. In what Andrew Sullivan called a measure of “how mainstream McDonnell’s Confederate History emphasis is” Barbour told host Candy Crowley that he didn’t think McDonnell’s first proclamation was a mistake. So there’s that.

Everyone from fellow Republicans to porn stars are weighing in on RNC Chairman Michael Steele this week.

In the wake of Steele’s comments about having a “slimmer margin” of error because he’s African American, a former RNC Chairman defended Steele by calling himself a “fat redneck.”

Juan Williams has absolutely no faith in the 2012 Republican presidential field. He brought a healthy dose of “fair and balanced” to the FOX News Sunday Panel Plus online-exclusive segment yesterday, where he predicted to his bemused colleagues that, despite their high hopes, if they didn’t find a respectable candidate soon, Barack Obama would win reelection in a landslide.

Is this emerging as the new party line on Palin among other top Republican politicians? Last week, Haley Barbour told Chris Matthews that Palin is “a lot brighter than she gets credit for,” and on yesterday’s @katiecouric, Fox News Channel host and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee trotted out a similar-sounding soundbite: