And this guy is supposed to be a potential presidential candidate?

I'd be tempted to say that the people of Mississippi deserve Haley Barbour, because enough of them voted for him to elect him. But I'm not sure ANYONE, even the most willfully ignorant Fox News dittohead deserves THIS much of a nitwit scumbag corporatist oil-engorged whore:

"This is the first significant amount of oil residue to hit Mississippi since the Deepwater Horizon explosion six weeks ago," Gov. Haley Barbour said. "While it's the first, it won't be the last."

During a news conference in Jackson on Tuesday, Barbour said this is no reason for "anybody to panic." The state's beaches and ports remain open, and Barbour said, "We're told that it's not toxic."

"But it is a reason for everybody to remember that there is a likelihood that there is going to be more intrusion of some form of depleted oil, tar balls, tar mats, emulsified oil, that's going to reach the barrier islands," Barbour said.

Barbour said it appears the strand broke off Sunday from a patch of emulsified sheen situated some 11 miles off Mississippi's Horn Island.

The strand that came ashore Petit Bois had sunk slightly below sea level, and it went undetected in flyovers on Monday, he said.

Barbour said state officials have asked the Coast Guard to increase the number of vessels testing for oil sheens below the surface.

"I'm not blaming anybody or criticizing anybody," Barbour said of the fact it was not detected before washing onto Petit Bois, the easternmost of Mississippi's barrier islands, located near the Alabama border.

"We all understand that we should have found that this oil had broken off from the rest before this (Tuesday) morning," the governor said.

Yeah, Haley. Just keep adding more cowbell to drown out reality. That'll do it.

(via)