If it hasn’t happened already, some savvy producers at the television networks are already working on this story to take it national. This whole mess has been a real headline factory for Mr. Hood – sadly for him a negative headline factory.

Mr. Hood recently admitted under oath that he had met with Balducci and Patterson. But he’s denied he was influenced and last week insisted that “The decision on whether to indict State Farm Insurance Company was based solely on the advice of senior prosecutors in our office . . . I am too hardheaded to be influenced by outside forces — I do what I think is right for the working people of Mississippi.” Mr. Scruggs’s attorney did not return our phone call.

Mr. Hood’s close ties to these characters nonetheless raise questions about his prosecutorial judgment on issues that go well beyond State Farm. The AG was asked recently why his office wasn’t prosecuting the alleged bribers (including lawyer Joey Langston, who has pleaded guilty in a separate bribery case). He admitted that his connections to the accused meant that going after them would be “like prosecuting a relative.” Those ties include lucrative contracts that he’s awarded to those lawyers, who in turn have lavished him with campaign donations.

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