Barbour, a former chair of the Republican National Committee and a longtime uber-lobbyist, has a record rife with corruption and cronyism that includes exploiting the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to profit his allies. Here are some lowlights:

Family members and lobbyists profited from Katrina tragedy: Among the beneficiaries are Barbour’s own family and friends, who have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from hurricane-related business. A nephew, one of two who are lobbyists, saw his fees more than double in the year after his uncle appointed him to a special reconstruction panel.

Owned controlling interest in 2002 New Hampshire phone jamming company: For nearly two hours on election day 2002, subcontractors for the telemarketing firm GOP Marketplace tied-up Democratic and union phone banks with repeated hang up calls. Multiple GOP officials eventually either pled guilty to or were convicted of criminally violating federal communications law. Barbour’s investment group, Helm Partners, was not only a major investor in GOP Marketplace, but it also held a controlling interest in the firm.

As a lobbyist, he represented firm indicted in Tom DeLay’s money laundering scandal: As a lobbyist for Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Barbour represented The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care Inc., a corporate coalition of 14 of the country’s largest for-profit nursing home companies. The Alliance wrote a check for $100,000 that ended up illegally funding Republican candidates for the Texas statehouse in 2002. The check was eventually used as evidence in the case that led to indictments for money laundering against former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX).

A former tobacco lobbyist, he killed Mississippi’s successful anti-smoking program: From 1998 to 2002, Barbour’s lobbying firm was paid a total of $3.8 million by the tobacco companies. As governor of Mississippi, he led an effort to defund and ultimately kill the state’s anti-smoking program, considered to be the nation’s most successful anti-smoking programs.

Directed large amounts of reconstruction funds to wealthy homeowners: Barbour and Mississippi’s two Republican Senators steered an unprecedented $23.5 billion in federal reconstruction aid, but by waiving a HUD requirement that 70 percent of the funds are supposed to be allocated to low- and moderate-income people. Barbour badly skewed the funds towards wealthy homeowners, with only 25 percent reaching the poorer segments of the population.
thanks Kscott? I was just cutting and pasting. Do you actually have a comment?
On July 7, 2009, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will conduct a hearing to review proposals to build a clean energy economy and reduce global warming pollution. Perhaps the most prominent of all the witnesses will be Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS).

Barbour has long been at the intersection of special interest lobbying, elections, and campaign cash. He represents cash and carry politics at its worst.
• The oil & gas and utility industries were major contributor to his Mississippi gubernatorial campaigns, providing over $1.8 million in campaign cash. [National Institute on Money in State Politics, Accessed 7/2/09]

• According to the Center for Responsive Politics, coal companies and electric utilities lavished over half a million dollars on Barbour’s firm during his last two years as CEO and chairman, in 1998 and 1999. After taking time off to work on advisory committees for the presidential campaign of George B. Bush, Barbour returned to the firm in 2001. With the addition of new clients, including from the oil & gas industry, the firm made over a million dollars a year in dirty energy profits by the time he left again for his 2003 gubernatorial run, with $2.24 million in total for 2001-2002. [Center for Responsive Politics, accessed 7/2/09]

Republicans just don’t care who the step on or use. While I was checking his background I found some info that makes him even lower in my opinion:

In 1982, Barbour was the Republican candidate for United States Senate but lost to incumbent Democrat John C. Stennis.[3] During this failed bid for Senator a controversy arose at a campaigning stump. According to The New York Times, in the presence of the press an aide was complaining to Barbour that "coons" were going to be at a campaign stop at the state fair. Barbour warned the aide, in front of reporters, that if the aide persisted in racist remarks, he would be "reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks."[4]

Barbour has been accused of personally profiting from Hurricane Katrina recovery.[45] Barbour is an owner of the parent company of lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers Inc., and he receives a pension and profit-sharing plan benefits from it.[45] The lobbying firm has lobbied the state to give recovery contracts to its clients.[45] Some of the proceeds of the firm’s lobbying activities are deposited into Barbour’s investment account.[45] According to Barbour’s attorney, a blind trust executed in 2004 prevents Barbour knowing the composition of his investments in order to eliminate any conflicts of interest.[45]

Barbour has also received criticism for his refusal to approve a bill to increase the cigarette tax and decrease the grocery tax passed the state House of Representatives. Mississippi currently has the third-lowest cigarette tax and the highest grocery tax—while being the poorest state in the country. Barbour stated that the lack of revenue generated after the tax swap would quite possibly result in bankrupting the state government which was already fragile due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The House of Representatives could produce no figures to dispute this assertion. Also, in his successful 2004 campaign, Barbour ran on the platform that he would veto any tax increase.[46] The criticism was compounded by the fact that he broke his anti-tax pledge by advocating higher hospital bed taxes.[47]

Fred Thompson’s campaign finance investigation found that Barbour, as RNC chair, was involved in illegally raising money from overseas sources.[48]

In September 2008, Democrats accused Barbour of trying to influence the outcome of the 2008 Senate race by placing the candidates at the bottom of the ballot. Since Mississippi electoral law mandates the placing of federal elections at the top of the ballot, Barbour was ordered by a circuit court to comply with the ballot laws.[49]

In 1991, Barbour helped found Barbour & Rogers, LLC[5], a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, with Ed Rogers, a lawyer who formerly worked in the George H. W. Bush administration. In 1994, Lanny Griffith (also a former Bush Administration appointee) joined the firm to form Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, LLC. In 1998, Fortune magazine named Barbour Griffith & Rogers the second-most-powerful lobbying firm in America.[6] In 2001, after the inauguration of George W. Bush, Fortune named it the most powerful.[7] The firm has made millions of dollars lobbying on behalf of the tobacco industry.[8]

2003 campaign
Main article: Mississippi gubernatorial election, 2003
After two decades in Washington, D.C., Barbour announced in 2003 his intention to run for governor of Mississippi. On August 5, 2003, he won the Republican gubernatorial primary over Canton trial attorney Mitch Tyner. Barbour’s campaign manager was his nephew Henry Barbour.

During the campaign a controversy arose when Barbour chose to speak at the Blackhawk Rally, a fundraiser for the Blackhawk "council school" in Blackhawk, Mississippi. Such "council schools", also referred to in Mississippi lexicon as "academies", were established by the White Citizens’ Council movement in reaction to the demands for racial integration by the American Civil Rights movement. The Blackhawk rally was hosted by the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC or CofCC). The key element of Citizens’ Councils has traditionally been opposition to racial integration in public schools.