Drivers at the intersection of U.S. 61 and U.S. 84 in Natchez have three main ways to get to Jackson.

Take 84 to 55, take 61 to the Natchez Trace to 55 or take 61 to 28 to 55. Take your pick; it’ll still take you just under two hours to get there.

But Natchez is often far more than two hours away from the movers and shakers in Jackson.

We are in the corner of the state. We aren’t the coast, we aren’t the Memphis suburbs and we aren’t Tupelo or Oxford.

We’re Southwest Mississippi, and to some folks, we don’t matter.

Attorney General Jim Hood does many important things every day. A man in his position has to operate according to priorities. If he didn’t, he’d simply never get things done.

And now, the residents of Natchez and Adams County know their place on Hood’s priority list — the cellar.

Hood has been busy lately. Last week he joined AGs from seven other states in a high-profile demand that MySpace.com turn over data on the registered sex offenders on its site.

A teenage-filled MySpace site seeping with sex offenders is a scary thing. The cause is worthy. Hood is noble.

Last Wednesday Hood shut down illegal gaming operations in the Delta. That’s good.

During the first week of April Hood reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit aimed and improving foster care. Our foster children do need attention. Thanks Hood.

It’s great to know that our elected state prosecutor is so involved in worthy causes.

But for nearly three weeks now Hood hasn’t been able to carve out 20 minutes in his schedule to speak with the voters of Adams County about what, to us, is one of the biggest criminal affairs of the year.

Our circuit clerk, a self-admitted embezzler, Binkey Vines walked free on May 4. Phone calls to Hood from this newspaper weren’t returned that day, or later. On May 8, Hood sent us this via e-mail: “The plea was an ‘open plea’ before the judge. In an open plea, the state makes no recommendation for the sentence.”

Clear as mud, right?

We asked to speak to Hood directly on the phone, so he could explain some of the finer points of law that I, and I’d guess you, don’t understand.

We got nothing for three days. On May 11, he called. But Katie, the reporter on the beat, was out reporting another story. An employee not connected to the story gave Hood Katie’s cell phone number and said she was expecting his call. Katie never received a call from Hood.

More time passed and we finally received word that Hood would respond to questions via e-mail. E-mail still doesn’t allow for follow-up questions or in-depth explanations, but we decided to take what we could get. The fruits of the e-mail were published in a Sunday story stating something to effect of “Hood wanted jail time, but Binkey didn’t.”

Katie finally managed to schedule a phone call with Hood for this Tuesday at 3. It was after 4 before she talked with Hood, but regardless, things aren’t as muddy anymore.

Turns out the attorney general didn’t flippantly drop 10 charges against Vines. The judge said he’d accept a plea on three counts; Hood couldn’t stop Binkey from pleading guilty.

It was the judge, not Hood, who allowed the “open plea,” that in turn gave the judge the chance to sentence the way he did.

Hood says he was expecting a sentence of one year in jail for each of the three remaining counts.

Hood did a pretty good job of explaining things on the phone.

But why did it take so long? Why did he ignore Adams County for 12 working days?

Maybe there’s a lesson for Hood in this — taking 10 minutes to make a phone call can help your good name among voters and newspaper editorialists.

Maybe Hood has something to hide and he thought silence was the best way.

Or maybe the national media attention of a MySpace case is more important to a campaigning Hood than Adams County voters are.

It’s a long drive to Jackson, but it’s a short trip to your voting precinct. Maybe Adams County will have more time for Hood this November than he’s had for us.

Julie Finley is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at Julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com.