I'm not sure who first used that expression with me, but it is one I have used a lot lately, especially when asked about our state bingo fiasco.
Why would anyone care what I think about bingo...because in a strange twist of fate, this Southern Baptist political moderate has been engaged to work with a couple of different bingo owners on some tax issues. I can assure you that when I was in law school dreaming of one day being a big time corporate lawyer, I never imagined it would in any way involve me in the showdown between Milton and Bob.
Nonetheless, taxes are a tool of the state and here I am.
So, you ask, what is the deal down in Montgomery and what does it have to do with swine? (insert a big grin)
The specific reason I use that phrase has to do with the bingo bill currently being proposed by the Sweet Home Alabama group. For some reason, probably having too much to do with hubris and ego, the big bingo players took a lot of public sympathy and support due to job losses, etc. and rather than simply saying "Fine, if the governor thinks the old Constitutional amendments don't cover electronic bingo, let the individual counties vote on new amendments that would be more clear." That would have a lot of sense and probably been hard to oppose. But nooooo, they had to swing for the fences and try to get a state approved monopoly out of the deal instead and in the process they may end up wasting all their public support.
So, there you go, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
