Congressman Travis Childers on Joey Langston: “This is not a man who has lost his way.”

Jerry Mitchell shares excerpts of a letter from Congressman Travis Childers on behalf of Joey Langston. It is below, with my notes in brackets.

I suppose many will say that Joey somehow lost his way. I disagree. [He has always been like this.]

No one in my forty nine years in Prentiss County has had greater impact on so many people that I personally know than Joey Langston. He has been a friend to all [hey, with friends like this] and an enemy to none. His heart is bigger than our entire county. His generosity to the people of Prentiss County will probably never be exceeded in my lifetime [unless other trial lawyers strike it rich]; not only his generosity of his resources, but by his generous gift of love and kindness to all who were willing to accept it [especially if it were a judge who was willing to accept his love and kindness]. He has been a friend [and a lawyer who would take a huge cut of a lawsuit] to the poor just as the wealthy. He has treated everyone with the greatest respect [except judges, the Bar, and the American system of justice]. I can hardly believe this tragedy [that he admitted attempting to bribe a judge] is happening to him and his family.

I recall so many times that I (as chancery clerk) have called on him to help pay hospital bills, buy medicine, pay school expenses, furnish Christmas gifts to needy children, even to assist in burial expenses for people in our county [and he didn’t even ask for a receipt]. Most of the times he never knew the people he helped [nor did I]. Several years ago there was a certain death of a young child, which as you know is devastating enough to a family in itself. Joey, knowing the family was not prepared to bury this child, much less prepared to pay six thousand dollars for a funeral. He discreetly stepped in to the office of the local funeral home and left a personal check to cover the expense for the family. He asked the owner to please not tell the family he paid the bill. There was no lawsuit to follow or any other personal potential gain to Joey. He just knew that he couldn’t bring that child back, but he could help in that way. When I approached him and suspected that he had done this kind act, he asked me to not tell the family that he had taken care of this.

This is not a man who has lost his way. He may have gotten sidetracked, [he may have even tried to bribe a judge, he may have committed a felony, he may have injured confidence in our justice system] but he hasn’t lost his way. I only wish that every town and county in America had someone like Joey Langston [and so do corrupt judges].

Will defendants argue for illegal elections?

The Mississippi Republican Party has sued the Leflore County Election Commission and their Southeast Greenwood Precinct poll manager. It turns out during the November election, there were people at this precinct walking voters to the machines and telling them who to vote for. That isn’t assistance, that is coercion and intimidation. If you aren’t outraged, consider that vote may have canceled your vote out.

The best part of this lawsuit is that the Republicans are not seeking penalties, they are not seeking a re-vote. All they want is the Court to order that these illegal activities not be done in the future. So if they happen again in Leflore County, anyone interested in fair elections can take the order to local law enforcement and have it enforced. Who can defend against that?

Will the defendants say, “If it pleases the Court, we object and wish to continue our illegal elections”? If the defendants are smart (I’ll withhold judgement), they will try to just agree to the suit without admitting their misdeeds.  After all, who doesn’t want fair elections? That question will be answered by how the Leflore County Election Commission and the precinct manager’s lawyers respond. If they fight against this, they are fighting against fair and legal elections. They will be fighting for illegal activities at the polling place.

Y’all Politics has the Republican press release and supporting documents.