Mississippi Democratic Party chairman Rickey Cole spared no harsh words for former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in a Facebook post late Thursday evening, comparing the GOP establishment titan at the center of the effort to re-elect Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) to a pig who’s used the U.S. treasury as his own piggy bank.
Cole’s message was to Democrats in Mississippi who have been pushing back on his efforts to expose alleged voter fraud and irregularities in the June 24 Republican runoff. While he’s a Democrat, and many Democrats crossed over to help Cochran get more votes than conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel, Cole has been particularly vocal in exposing many of the irregularities.
While some Democrats seem to want to let sleeping dogs lie, Cole is having none of it–and directed that message about Cochran and Barbour to his Democrat friends who want to let Cochran walk away with the nomination at this point.
“I know there are some among us for whom the rough and tumble of politics is unseemly,” Cole said in his message. “I have been brought to task by some who expect me to exercise my duties from a lofty plain, and not sully myself or the party by stooping to even comment on the Republican internal fight. Let me be plain, so we will understand who we are facing, who I am and how I operate.”
Barbour did not respond to an email requesting comment late Thursday.
The former Mississippi governor and former Republican National Committee chairman was a key player in helping Cochran through the primary. Barbour, according to a recent report from Fox News, was behind many of the ads that painted the Tea Party as racist to turn Democrat voters out for Cochran.