Despite the dogged efforts of their most devoted disciples, the scourges of Colonel Reb, "Dixie," the Stars-n-Bars and other vestiges of Ole Miss' longstanding Confederate fetish are dead and buried. The Rebels have a new mascot, and even if it's not the most perfect mascot ever conceived, it is a clear enough sign that the university is past fully all that 19th Century nonsense.
It's a slightly different story, however, in the state legislature, where Democratic Rep. Mark DuVall is clinging to the forsaken symbols of the past via a doomed bill that would force Colonel Reb out of retirement as a matter of state law:
House Bill 1106, authored by Duvall, would amend the state code, adding a provision that the University of Mississippi "shall bear the nickname 'Ole Miss Rebels' and its mascot shall be 'Colonel Rebel.' "
Additionally, the bill states that the Ole Miss marching band must play Dixie and From Dixie With Love at home and away games.
Here's the full text of the bill.The catch: DuVall is a Mississippi State grad apparently attempting to revive the reviled Colonel in an effort to keep the negative headlines coming at his alma mater's hated rival. (He's also single, for all you ladies looking for a former "farmer/laborer" turned pol with a mischievous streak.) Which makes him basically a legislative troll par excellence.
There's no pretense in any circles that DuVall's effort might succeed, but if he picks up a few stray votes from the "anti-PC" crowd in Itawamba, Lee and Tishomingo counties while subversively scattering a little dirt on the Rebels, well, who can really begrudge him the effort? Just be sure you can point to the section of the state code that authorizes the government to regulate mascot affairs when they ask, because you know they're going to ask.
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Cartoon via the Jackson Clarion-Ledger's excellent Marshall Ramsey.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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