Haley Barbour

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney is likely to overcome resistance within his party in the next month and rally Republicans to his presidential candidacy, said Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman. Even after a bitter primary contest, Romney will be able to rally conservatives against President Obama in November, Barbour, a former Mississippi governor, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," airing this weekend. Romney is "finally a real front-runner," said Barbour, who said he voted for former US House speaker Newt...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney is likely to overcome resistance within his party in the next month and rally Republicans to his presidential candidacy, said Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman. Even after a bitter primary contest, Romney will be able to rally conservatives against President Obama in November, Barbour, a former Mississippi governor, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," airing this weekend. Romney is "finally a real front-runner," said Barbour, who said he voted for former US House speaker Newt Gingrich...

Former Republican Party chairman Haley Barbour says the fight for the GOP presidential nomination could go all the way to the convention. The ex-governor of Mississippi says he doesn't think that's likely, but he notes in a CBS "This Morning" interview that none of the candidates has taken control of the race. Barbour says, "The fact is, there is an outside possibility" the nomination fight might not be resolved until the party's August convention in Tampa, Fla. He says such a scenario would be "unusual" but that "whoever we nominate, Barack Obama is the great uniter of...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney is likely to overcome resistance within his party in the next month and rally Republicans to his presidential candidacy, said Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman. Even after a bitter primary contest, Romney will be able to rally conservatives against President Obama in November, Barbour, a former Mississippi governor, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," airing this weekend. Romney is "finally a real front-runner," said Barbour, who said he voted for former US House speaker Newt...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Today's referendum votes on union rights and President Obama's health care law could hold hints of the American public's mind-set four years into an economic downturn and one year from the presidential election. The elections also include governors' races in Mississippi and Kentucky that will point to political prospects for 2012, when an additional 10 governorships will be contested. In both states, the governors' offices are expected to stay in the hands of incumbent parties, perhaps indicating that voters aren't ready to abandon their loyalties.

Mississippi Democrats and a victim's relatives are criticizing outgoing Republican Gov. Haley Barbour for pardoning a convicted murderer on Barbour's final weekend in office. WLBT-TV reports (http://bit.ly/At42AO) that Barbour pardoned 40-year-old David Gatlin, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his estranged wife, Tammy Ellis Gatlin, in 1993 and wounding a man. Online state records show Gatlin has been serving as a trustee inmate at the governor's mansion. The victim's sister, Tiffany Ellis Brewer, says Gatlin "spent less time in jail than my...

NEW ORLEANS — The dust-up over Virginia’s proclamation for Confederate History Month seems like a lot of noise over something that “doesn’t amount to diddly,’’ Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s governor, said in an interview aired yesterday. Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s Republican governor, apologized for leaving out of his proclamation any reference to slavery. He added language to the decree calling slavery evil and inhumane after being criticized for reviving what many Virginians believe is an insensitive commemoration.

Kentucky: Governor Steve Beshear was easily reelected despite high unemployment, budget shortfalls, and an onslaught of third-party attack ads. He became the second Democrat to win a governor's race this year, after West Virginia's Early Ray Tomblin. Mississippi: Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant appeared poised to succeed Haley Barbour, a Republican governor who could not run again because of term limits. Bryant faced Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny Dupree, the first black major party nominee for governor in the state.

RIDGELAND, Miss. - Haley Barbour, former governor of Mississippi, said yesterday that he is "very comfortable" with his decision to grant pardons or other clemency to more than 200 people, including convicted murderers, in his last days in office. In his first interview about the pardons, Barbour said that nearly 190 of those who received pardons or other reprieves had already been released from prison. Only 10 have been or will be fully released from prison, he said, adding that it is a tradition in the state for governors to free the trusties who worked at the Governor's Mansion.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Bill Clinton of Arkansas, a Democrat, jumped from the governorship of a poor Southern state to the presidency in 1992. Now, some Republicans seem to be suggesting that Mississippi's governor, Haley Barbour, could follow suit in 2008. Barbour, 57, a Washington lobbyist and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, says he has no plans to run. But he isn't ruling out the possibility. "Well, I could lose 50 pounds. I might even grow four inches.

Former Republican Party chairman Haley Barbour says the fight for the GOP presidential nomination could go all the way to the convention. The ex-governor of Mississippi says he doesn't think that's likely, but he notes in a CBS "This Morning" interview that none of the candidates has taken control of the race. Barbour says, "The fact is, there is an outside possibility" the nomination fight might not be resolved until the party's August convention in Tampa, Fla. He says such a scenario would be "unusual" but that "whoever we nominate, Barack Obama is the great uniter of...

RIDGELAND, Miss. - Haley Barbour, former governor of Mississippi, said yesterday that he is "very comfortable" with his decision to grant pardons or other clemency to more than 200 people, including convicted murderers, in his last days in office. In his first interview about the pardons, Barbour said that nearly 190 of those who received pardons or other reprieves had already been released from prison. Only 10 have been or will be fully released from prison, he said, adding that it is a tradition in the state for governors to free the trusties who worked at the Governor's Mansion.

Mississippi Democrats and a victim's relatives are criticizing outgoing Republican Gov. Haley Barbour for pardoning a convicted murderer on Barbour's final weekend in office. WLBT-TV reports (http://bit.ly/At42AO) that Barbour pardoned 40-year-old David Gatlin, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing his estranged wife, Tammy Ellis Gatlin, in 1993 and wounding a man. Online state records show Gatlin has been serving as a trustee inmate at the governor's mansion. The victim's sister, Tiffany Ellis Brewer, says Gatlin "spent less time in jail than my little sister...

Kentucky: Governor Steve Beshear was easily reelected despite high unemployment, budget shortfalls, and an onslaught of third-party attack ads. He became the second Democrat to win a governor's race this year, after West Virginia's Early Ray Tomblin. Mississippi: Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant appeared poised to succeed Haley Barbour, a Republican governor who could not run again because of term limits. Bryant faced Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny Dupree, the first black major party nominee for governor in the state.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Today's referendum votes on union rights and President Obama's health care law could hold hints of the American public's mind-set four years into an economic downturn and one year from the presidential election. The elections also include governors' races in Mississippi and Kentucky that will point to political prospects for 2012, when an additional 10 governorships will be contested. In both states, the governors' offices are expected to stay in the hands of incumbent parties, perhaps indicating that voters aren't ready to abandon their loyalties.

STRATHAM, N.H. — This is not the way Mitt Romney wanted it all to begin. His own Republican Party is desperately searching for somebody else to run. First it wanted Haley Barbour, a good-old-boy lobbyist turned governor of — drum roll here, please — Mississippi, but he wouldn’t get in. Then it wanted Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana who has the charisma of Corn Flakes, but he wouldn’t get in either. They keep talking about the loudmouth New Jersey governor, despite the fact he’s adamant that he’s not getting in, or another Bush (Jeb)

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney is likely to overcome resistance within his party in the next month and rally Republicans to his presidential candidacy, said Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman. Even after a bitter primary contest, Romney will be able to rally conservatives against President Obama in November, Barbour, a former Mississippi governor, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," airing this weekend. Romney is "finally a real front-runner," said Barbour, who said he voted for former US House speaker Newt Gingrich...

NEW YORK -- Washington lobbyist Haley Barbour unseated Mississippi Democratic Governor Ronnie Musgrove as the GOP swept both governors races at stake yesterday and consolidated party gains in the South. Representative Ernie Fletcher decisively won in Kentucky, ousting Democrats from power after 32 years. With 84 percent of precincts reporting, Barbour got 53 percent, or 404,466 votes, to Musgrove's 45 percent, or 341,966 votes. Fletcher, a three-term congressman, defeated state Attorney General Ben Chandler, polling 55 percent, or 593,508 votes, to the Democrat's 45 percent, or...

NEW ORLEANS — The dust-up over Virginia’s proclamation for Confederate History Month seems like a lot of noise over something that “doesn’t amount to diddly,’’ Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s governor, said in an interview aired yesterday. Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s Republican governor, apologized for leaving out of his proclamation any reference to slavery. He added language to the decree calling slavery evil and inhumane after being criticized for reviving what many Virginians believe is an insensitive commemoration.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Bill Clinton of Arkansas, a Democrat, jumped from the governorship of a poor Southern state to the presidency in 1992. Now, some Republicans seem to be suggesting that Mississippi's governor, Haley Barbour, could follow suit in 2008. Barbour, 57, a Washington lobbyist and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, says he has no plans to run. But he isn't ruling out the possibility. "Well, I could lose 50 pounds. I might even grow four inches.