MISSISSIPPI STATE SENATOR WAS 'SURPRISE' SPEAKER AT COUNCIL OF CONSERVATIVE CITIZENS CONFERENCE

Yesterday on his television show and today on his radio program, Sean Hannity tried to make Jamie Foxx out as a racist because at the BET Awards show on Sunday, Foxx said he was a black man who “belongs to us and we shared him with everyone else”. Hannity is good for a hypocritical race-baiting routine and his usual stunt is to ask what would happen if a white person said something similar. Well, Sean actually provides the answer to that question, because white people have said or done even worse things and Hannity either defends them or says nothing. For example, it has been learned that a Mississippi State Senator named Lydia Chassaniol spoke at the Council of Conservative Citizens Conference in Jackson, MS this weekend. Sen. Chassaniol, who is a member of the organization was introduced to the crowd as “the right hand” to Gov. Haley Barbour, who also had associations with the C of CC. Hannity, as expected says nothing about Sen. Chassaniol, just like he hasn’t about Barbour’s connections to the group, just like he doesn’t call Ann Coulter to task for defending the group in her new book that he promotes on his programs. But that’s okay. We will do it for him. We know he must be busy trying to figure out how to discuss the DC Holocaust Museum shooting since he hasn’t done that either on his shows, but we just can’t wait for him. So here’s the story about the latest right-wing embarassment.

Jackson Free Space

While most astute politicians—in Mississippi and elsewhere—refute membership or public support for the Council of Conservative Citizens, a few diehards don’t seem to have issues doing just that. Among its membership, the CofCC (dubbed a racist, white-supremacist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) counts state Sen. Lydia Chassaniol, R-Winona. She was the ‘surprise guest’ at the CofCC’s annual conference held in Jackson this past weekend.

Introduced as “the right hand to the governor,” by CofCC field director Bill Lord, known for racist pronouncements, Chassaniol confirmed via e-mail to the SPLC publication Hatewatch that she is a member of the CofCC, which, not surprisingly, is not a part of her “official” bio posted on the Legislative Web site.

In the state Senate, Chassaniol, elected in 2007, is the current chairwoman of the Tourism committee. Gov. Haley Barbour praised her in a May 12 news release for her contributions to the new slogan destined for the state’s highway signs: “Birthplace of America’s Music”

Ironically, states the Hatewatch story, the music the signs refer to – from the blues, to country, to rock and roll, to gospel – was largely produced by African Americans, who the CofCC has described on its website as a “retrograde species of humanity.”
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For her part, Chassaniol gave a rabble-rousing speech on “Cultural Heritage in Mississippi.” In a brief history of the state since 1540, Chassaniol complained that the U.S. was in decline, as evidenced by tributes to Michael Jackson, a “pedophile who’s being celebrated.” She indicated that the government wants to “take from those who have and give to those who don’t want to work for it.” And she worried that the 2010 national census might hand over government “to the radical left.”

A sponsor of two harsh anti-immigrant bills, Chassaniol encouraged CofCC members to take part in upcoming anti-tax “Tea Parties.”

“I do not consider myself racist,” Chassaniol wrote in the e-mail to Hatewatch.