Note to waiters and waitresses: Smile when you hand out the menus, and no arguing over 5 percent tips. Gays were addressed in the Legislature last year. God will be taken up this winter, with a bill to permit the public display of the Ten Commandments on every spare section of Sheetrock in Georgia.

This leaves guns as the most neglected member of the Republican trinity of sacred issues. But not for long.

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Lobbyists for the National Rifle Association are quietly buttonholing the state's GOP leaders, pinning down support for legislation that would allow concealed weapons to be carried into many Georgia restaurants and food-serving bars — though not nightclubs.

It's been tried in other states, with varying degrees of success. Law enforcement officials and restaurant associations generally provide much of the opposition. But it also looks to be one of those quintessential issues that break along rural and suburban lines — a test of the state's new political climate.

Gun advocates refer to it as "Luby's Law," named after the 1991 incident in which an unemployed merchant seaman drove his pickup truck into a Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, leaped out and opened fire. He killed 23 people and wounded more than 20 before killing himself.

At least one restaurant customer had a handgun in a car, and a carrying permit. But Texas law barred concealed weapons in restaurants and other places that serve alcohol.

As contemplated in Georgia, the law would allow concealed weapons to be carried — by those with the proper permit — in restaurants and bars that derive 51 percent of their income from food service. One could pack heat in Applebee's, say, but not a disco.

Bans on weaponry at other public gatherings — athletic events, church functions and political rallies — would remain in place.

The legislation would also include an "opt-out" clause. In that sense, the legislation would be more of a cultural statement than anything else — rather like the city of Kennesaw's ordinance that requires citizens to own a gun. Unless they don't want to.

Not that the state Capitol was ever hostile territory to gunowners

This raises an opportunity to mention that Katie Grove, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Stephens, left her job last week. She's been hired as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. She'll handle gun issues in Georgia and several other states.

A quiet opportunity to learn the secret handshake and figure out the decoder ring

At the Governor's Mansion this week, Sonny Perdue will host a rally for the 130 Republican senators and House members who now control the Legislature. But don't tell anyone. It's a covert operation that doesn't show up on Perdue's schedule. A spokesman for Georgia's transparent governor refused to confirm the session and declared such meetings — if they exist — to be private matters of no concern to the public.

The party starts at 9 a.m. Wednesday. We'll be the ones behind the Groucho Marx glasses.

Cutting out the middle-men: Perdue will have no floor leaders in the Senate

Last Friday, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced that state Rep. Jay Roberts of Ocilla would be one of his three floor leaders in the House. Expect no such announcements regarding the Senate, where the floor-leader system — long-time symbol of clout in the Capitol — has been trashed.

Traditionally, a floor leader serves as a governor's point man in a legislative chamber, introducing the governor's annual package of bills and negotiating their passage. It's a position that advertises a lawmaker's strong relationship with the chief executive.

The decision to banish the system in the Senate was partly a matter of logistics. More than a third of the 56-member chamber will be rookies, and this year there are more leadership positions than their are experienced Republican senators.

President pro tem Eric Johnson, ruler of the chamber, also maintained that the elimination of the floor leader system reflects a high comfort level between Perdue the 34 Republicans in the Senate. "He just felt that he didn't one," Johnson said.

Instead, the governor will choose legislators to carry individual bills a la carte.

Consider Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Bill Stephens the winners in this move. No longer will any upstart senator regularly confront the chamber's two leaders and declare, "But the governor wants......"