We’re everywhere, even in the corridors of state power:

When the 2009 legislative session begins Tuesday, all eyes will be on first-term Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant. While the lieutenant governor — a powerful post under Mississippi’s Constitution — always attracts a considerable amount of attention, Bryant will get more notice than most.

The Rankin County Republican, who is partial to blue jeans and cowboy boots and often refers to himself as a high-tech redneck, will be in the proverbial political catbird’s seat.

Bryant, 54, has a political future with options: He could run for re-election in 2011 as lieutenant governor and be considered a shoo-in, or he could try to succeed Gov. Haley Barbour, who because of term limits cannot run for a third term.

The problem is that too many rednecks get the wrong kind of enlightenment once in power.

George W. Bush is the prime example. He still talks and walks like a redneck, but he’s been acting like a Washington politician for the better part of four years — especially since the economy went sour and he “abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.”