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Friday, April 7, 2006
Photographs and memories
Next up: Stephens challenges Handel to produce her high school yearbook portrait
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When last we heard from the two Republican pugilists in the race for secretary of state, the mouthpiece for Bill Stephens had heaped scorn on former vice president Dan Quayle’s endorsement of rival Karen Handel.
The best spellers are lining up with Stephens, she said.
In nuclear retaliation, the Handel campaign has reminded the world of Stephens’ Democratic past. They’ve handed out this shot of Stephens at the ‘92 Democratic National Convention in New York, where Gov. Zell Miller, Stephens’ former boss, gave the keynote address.
Stephens, through spokeswoman and champion speller Katie Grove, has confirmed that the fellow on the right is himself. A Democratic source tells us that the guy with the Clinton-Gore sign and fishing hat is Jim Butler, the Columbus attorney and former member of the state natural resources board.
No booze in the hands of either man, and no floozies at their sides.
This is fun. But of limited use in a battle to get on the same ticket with Sonny Perdue, another former Democrat — and Handel’s old boss.
Edwards: Still hope for Dems in the South
But he's not sure that everyone in Washington thinks the same way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards spoke at a $1,000-a-plate Democratic fund-raiser in downtown Atlanta on Friday.
The fact that extra tables had to be brought out was much remarked upon. Organizers said $100,000 was raised, which will be split between state House and Senate campaign efforts.
Edwards gave the Readers Digest version of a speech on poverty that he’d just delivered in Athens a few hours before. Americans need to reach out to the “37 million people who wake up in poverty every day.�
He also demanded that the nation “end a national embarrassment� and raise the minimum wage.
Afterwards, reporters quizzed him about the immigration fight in Washington.
Edwards said he liked the McCain-Kennedy approach — tougher border security “that that needs to be combined with a policy that favors hard work, respects hard work, so those that those who have been living here and working hard can get on a path to citizenship.�
Asked about ’08, the former U.S. senator from North Carolina said: “I’m considering, but I have not made a decision.�
He remains one of those who thinks the national Democratic party can’t walk away from the South. “It’s critical for my party to compete in Georgia and North Carolina,� he said.
Then he was asked whether that thinking has yet penetrated the Beltway. “That’s a good question,� Edwards said. “I think Governor [Howard] Dean believes it. But it’s sometimes hard to get people in Washington to understand what’s happening in the real world.�
