The most noteworthy item from Monday’s special session of the Mississippi Legislature had nothing to do with why lawmakers were called back to Jackson two months after adjourning.
The final pieces to next year’s budget, and some tweaks to the budgeting process in general sought by Gov. Phil Bryant, were overshadowed by the 1½-hour reprimand state Rep. Karl Oliver received from 11 of his African-American colleagues.
They called out the Republican from Winona for his ill-considered and racially insensitive Facebook rant a couple of weeks ago over the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans.
Oliver, after taking considerable heat from leaders in his own party, apologized two days later for using the word “lynched” to describe what he thinks should happen to those who led the push to take down the monuments. He also tried to meet privately Monday with several black lawmakers to express his regret.
The public humiliation Oliver received at the end of the special session might have been piling on. It will hopefully drive home, though, the message to the first-term lawmaker to be more thoughtful in his choice of words and more careful with any future use of social media.
As for the budgetary business of the special session, at least lawmakers avoided running up more than the minimum cost for not taking care of matters when they should have.
