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DEL.ICIO.USThe guv is against harassment of elite young men. Five years ago.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boys and girls, it’s time to slip on those Freudian thinking caps we passed out last week.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has put out a hard-hitting mailer that accuses his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, of shutting down a bill to prohibit Boy Scouts from being ousted from meeting in government buildings because the organization won’t permit gay troop leaders.
“When the Boy Scouts were being harassed by the radical homosexual lobby” is how this howl from the Republican incumbent begins.
Let us posit some points:
A) Perdue has campaign money coming out of his ears. He can attack when he wants, where he wants, how he wants, and as quickly as he wants. In Navy parlance, he has the weather gauge. The terms of battle are his choice, and his alone.
B) Of all Taylor’s alleged short-comings, Perdue selected for his first blow a 5-year-old bill that the governor says would have protected an elite group of young, male adolescents — who are doing nothing but the nation’s work — from predatory homosexuals.
So here’s the question: Is Perdue really attacking Taylor? Or is he putting air between himself and that crew up in Washington — we can’t immediately recall their names or their party affiliation — who are now being criticized for their lax attitude toward a predatory homosexual and an elite group of young, male adolescents?
Comments
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By Melissa
October 6, 2006 9:06 AM | Link to this
Sonny Perdue is full of chicken fertilizer.
He had NOTHING to do with the Boy Scout bill. I was working the floor for that bill, and I know.
The bill LEGALIZED discrimination against gay Georgians JUST because of their sexual orientation. What kind of hate-mongering political opportunist votes for that kind of bill?
SONNY DID.
By Jennifer
October 6, 2006 9:09 AM | Link to this
I honestly thought Sonny couldn’t sink any lower.
I was shocked to see him resort to gay-bashing this early in the negative campaign cycle.
He should genuinely be ashamed. I hope to God the mail piece is something some sleazy political consultant talked him into, and not something he thought up in that round little peanut head of his.
By Joe
October 6, 2006 9:20 AM | Link to this
Vote Libertarian, plain and simple. Sonny hasn’t done diddly squat for Georgia in his four years. For the Republicans to cry foul on the Foley issue and say it’s being used for political gain is funny to the point being of absurd. They’d give their eye teeth to have discovered such a scandal to use against the Democrats. Sonny will sink to however low he needs to go, even if he is walking in whale poop…he’ll go that low.
By Rawena
October 6, 2006 9:35 AM | Link to this
I agree with Joe. Don’t vote for either Mark or Sonny. There are alternatives and if enough of us write in a qualified candidate or vote for the Libertarian maybe a message will be received. [http://www.politics1.com/ga] will give you a list of candidates in Georgia.
By Rick
October 6, 2006 9:40 AM | Link to this
Cathy Cox was our only hope for a decent governor. The two pumpkin-heads are an embarrassment to Georgia.
By David Franklin
October 6, 2006 10:26 AM | Link to this
No wonder the Republicans are all over this Foley coverup—the unitmate cover-up of all time,lest we forget,is Republican Nixon’s Watergate!
By observer
October 6, 2006 10:46 AM | Link to this
Looks like what Sonny did, with that mailer, is what Big Boy Mark did to Cathy Cox. What comes around, goes around!
By Brent Scott
October 6, 2006 10:55 AM | Link to this
Thank god that I don’t live in a state where the governor has nothing better to do than attack gays and lesbians! As a former Georgian, the only thing that I tip my hat off to Governor Arnold Schwarznegger is that he has the balls to stand up to his conservative base and say, “Everyone has a right to exist peacefully.” The Governator has signed more GLBT rights for the state of California than any other governor in the country.
As a Democrat, I thank him for that but I still want change in Sacramento. I hope that my family way down in Lumber City, GA and the surrounding rural counties will take my advice and vote for change in Georgia. I don’t even live there anymore and anyone that can stand beside George W. Bush and his messed up administration and support the “traditional values” of the republican party; well I only have to look as far as Delay and Foley’s values to know that Sonny Perdue is in it only for himself.
This is what the Republicans stand for so i ask the state of Georgia, my birthplace, please send this gay bashing, abortion hating, anti education, pro war, hillbilly back to the boon docks of Byron wher ehe belongs and elect soemone that is for change.
Go Taylor!
By Rawena
October 6, 2006 12:02 PM | Link to this
And Mark the Hutt is going to bring change? PUHLEEZE
Both are conservative, redneck, good ole boy hillbillies. Think 3rd party!
By Sarah
October 6, 2006 12:31 PM | Link to this
Face it, the Republican Party is falling apart at the seams just like the Catholic Church did a couple of years ago. If you go any lower in public opinion polls than both Rumsfeld and Cheney you’ll be in the dirt. Only some whacko nut case like Ann Coulter publicly defends Dumb and Dumber and she carries about much real polictical clout these days as….hmm, no one. Actually, you can’t find anyone who has less credibility than Coulter. She is such a media slut, the Paris Hilton of politics (sans the good looks and money) she can taken about as serious as Michael Moore, both of these extremes generally get dismissed as most people find themselves being politically comfortable somewhere in the middle. I think Bush is a decent man, dumb as a rock true….but decent. This does not explain why he has latched on to these two idiots and won’t let go. I think opinions of Bush would go up dramatically if he would toss both Dick and Donald, but he’ll never do it, he will go down with the ship. Sadly, Sonny will be elected for one more turn and for four more years Georgia will be a stalled car on the road, waiting for a HERO to come along to jump start it again.
By GaLiberal
October 6, 2006 12:49 PM | Link to this
What hyprocracy by Chicken Man. He runs a tv ad saying he hopes there aren’t any negative ads ‘like during the Democratic election’ and then has the balls to go negative on Fat Guy. Of course, everyone knows that homos are just pedophiles cruiseing the internet for young boys. He won’t be getting my vote with this one.
As to Fat Guy, he’s just another blowhard Republican who’s running as a Democrat. All his death for this and death for that talk makes me sick. If he’s what’s left of the Democratic party in Georgia, the Republicans will rule for a long time. He won’t be getting my vote either.
Say what you want about ex-Speaker Tom Murphy. At least he held the Democratic party together. Since he left, it’s imploded.
By GEORGE
October 6, 2006 12:50 PM | Link to this
Please don’t Debbie weigh in - she is a blog hog. Give others the opp to state their opinions.
By BE INFORMED
October 6, 2006 1:28 PM | Link to this
At last! I’ve been wondering when Tom Price (R-weasel) would finally break his silence and speak about the current DC scandal. And as usual, he remained consistent to his true colors: PARTY over country, party over constituents, party over right and wrong, all the power, yet responsible or accountable for nothing! Way to go, Doctor!
From 11Alive: “There are leaders in the Democratic party who have tried to use this for remarkable political capital, and in a disgraceful manner. I would suggest, because of the kinds of activity that have occurred in their party in the past,� said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.)
By Wow
October 6, 2006 1:55 PM | Link to this
Thanks, BE. Just like GM with its current Sean Hannity promotion, looks like we found our tool.
Wasn’t Foley one of the Clinton/Lewinsky bashers back in the 1990s? Clinton was no angel, of course, but Lewinsky was an ADULT if I remember correctly…. does Tom not sense the line that was crossed in the Foley case?
By Mark in Atlanta
October 6, 2006 3:42 PM | Link to this
I grew up in California and so I think I have a more relaxed attitude about this than most native-grown sons and daughters. However, I think republican and Democrats alike should be ashamed that one of their fellow legislators pulled this kind of crap. As for what Sonny did, if the shoe had been on the other foot, Mark would have done it, too. Rep or Dem, whomever points the finger, it’s the pot calling the kettle black. I think we ought to find some farmer from the middle of nowhere that doesn’t want the office, make him governer for 4 years, and repeat the process, with the stipulation of once it happens to you, it will never come around again. Career politicians and diapers ARE full of the same thing…..
By GLC
October 6, 2006 3:47 PM | Link to this
Sonny’s, the “Accident Govenor,” decision to go negative first is good news as far as I am concerned. It defies conventional wisdom for a front runner and says he and his campaign operatives are concerned about something. It also says they don’t have confidence in the polls, particularly the Towery Poll, which is Republican based.
“There’s a Sonny day dawning in Georgia. As businesses are unleashed and grow, jobs will return. As Georgia recovers, new employers will flood the state.” The words of Sonny Perdue shortly after his astonishing victory in 2002. He put taxpayer dollars with those words and gave Georgia’s corporate interests over a billion in tax cuts.
An analysis by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a nonaligned research group, reveals that Sonny has not been as generous when it comes to the average Georgian. During his tenure we have seen: (1) Georgia’s unemployment rate in 2005 spiked to its highest level since 1993 and exceed the Southern rate for the first time in 25 years; (2) Georgia’s poverty rate increased to 14.4 percent (or 1.2 million) in 2005, placing us among four other states to experience a significant increase in poverty from 2003-2004 to 2004-2005; (3)The 2004-2005 median household income remain $3,000 below pre-2001 recession levels; (4) Georgia’s uninsured rate increased to 18.1 percent, placing us among one of only eight states to experience a measurable increase in the uninsured population.
Why would we want to go back? Quite frankly, because we now know that what we got in 2002 is not what is needed to grow Georgia!
By Fur Bearing
October 6, 2006 5:09 PM | Link to this
I didn’t know elephants traveled in dens…..cub scout dens that is….last night a page saw an elephant in his pajamas…how Foley got in there he’ll never know.
Michael Jackson should run for a senate seat, being a white pedophile and all.
By Shakespeare
October 6, 2006 6:08 PM | Link to this
As the Bard said “They protest a little too loudly”—the Republicans—closeted that is! So very many of them as in the rest of society. Come on closet-cases get out and enjoy life as long as it is not pedophilia! Ha! What strokes you boat is none of my business nor the Republicans as long as it is not criminal—ie Mark Foley and his cover-up Dennis Hastert!! Did you hear Sonny????
By wild buck
October 6, 2006 7:07 PM | Link to this
Wild Buck Dennis Hastert said “the buck stops here” quoting Harry Trumnan. Now just how does the behemoth Hastert deal with those “young wild bucks”? Oooooh—I don’t think we want to imagine what goes there!
By interesting
October 7, 2006 10:57 PM | Link to this
In a later Political Insider column you emphasize how unusual it is for a WIFE to come out so publicly in defense of her husband a Republican governor in these days of trying to hide an improper land deal. Could more at stake be hiding with a WIFE for protection than a land deal in these days of covering up self-righteous Republican perverts—especially those who have graced Falwell’s pulpit or church in Virginia where Sonny is on Sunday!
By Rawena
October 8, 2006 5:14 AM | Link to this
GLC, What is your job title with the Taylor campaign?
By GLC
October 8, 2006 11:25 AM | Link to this
Rawena…I am not a part of the Taylor Campaign. In terms of political persuasion I would describe myself as an Independent. I must admit having over thirty years of observations as a student of politics, particularly state politics. Cynical election ploys rather than a principled platform troubles me deeply, particularly when it comes from a “family values” candidate, which Perdue claims to be. It is even more troubling when a candidate embraces an election strategy based upon the assumption that we, the voters, are stupid. So, whatever facts and thoughts I can put forward to enlighten understanding I humbly do so.