INSTITUTE INDEX: President Haley Barbour, brought to you by Big Oil?

Year in which Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) must leave office due to term limits: 2011

Year in which Barbour -- who's been mentioned as a possible 2012 presidential candidate -- set up a political action committee in Georgia because of its lenient rules regarding corporate contributions: 2009

Amount the PAC raised in the past six months: $425,000

Amount it raised from corporations and their PACs in that time: $78,500

Date on which Barbour held a high-profile Washington fundraiser for the PAC: 6/24/2010

Minimum contribution to be listed as part of the fundraiser's host committee: $500

Number of people who paid that amount: more than 75

Amount the Republican Governors Association, headed by Barbour, raised in just the last quarter alone: $19 million

Amount it raised during that period from oil and gas industry interests: $1.8 million

Amount the oil and gas industry contributed to the Republican National Committee when Barbour chaired it during the 1990s: $30 million

Date on which BP's oil began washing into the Mississippi Sound: 6/24/2010

As of that date, the number of National Guard troops that President Obama authorized for deployment in Mississippi: 6,000

Number of National Guard troops Barbour had activated at that time: 58

Date on which Barbour expressed concern that the $20 billion escrow fund created by BP to compensate victims of its Gulf spill would cut into the company's profits: 6/15/2010

Date on which Barbour said no one has "more to lose" than BP from the oil catastrophe, which killed 11 men: 6/29/2010

Date on which a major Mississippi newspaper called Barbour's fundraising during a time of crisis for his state "troubling": 6/27/2010

Number of times that paper has endorsed Barbour for governor: 2

Percent of Mississippi voters who approve of the job Barbour's doing, according to a recent survey: 70

(Click on figure to go to source. FEMA photo by George Armstrong.)