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Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Linder goes with Mitt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Add another Georgia congressman to the Mitt Romney column. Rep. John Linder is on a list of House members who’ll be announcing their support for the former Massachusetts governor at a Washington press conference this afternoon.
With Reps. Phil Gingrey and Tom Price already on board, and Rep. Jack Kingston leaning in his direction, Romney appears on his way to locking up the Georgia delegation.
Obama gets grassroots
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia for Obama, the grassroots organization for the Illinois senator, is up and running. Sen. Barack Obama’s local supporters have a website, www.georgiaforobama.com, and a get-together planned for 6 p.m. Saturday at JCT Kitchen and Bar on Howell Mill Road, timed to coincide with Obama’s announcement that he’s in for real.
Supporters will watch a video of Obama’s announcement and brainstorm ways to build some red-state love for their candidate, according to a release.
Meanwhile, Atlantan Caroline Adelman, a veteran of several Democratic campaign press operations and the wife of Sen. David Adelman, will be handling press for the Iowa leg of Obama’s announcement jaunt, at events in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids Saturday. Brrrr.
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Traffic tunnels: Someone explain this to us
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First, we hear that commuter rail is dead in Georgia. Rail is no good, we’re told, because you can’t move iron tracks with every shift in traffic patterns. Perhaps this is true, perhaps not.
But now we have this idea of moving metro Atlanta traffic via giant, underground tunnels. Much like we do sewage, which is an interesting metaphor.
Lord knows that tunnels are easier to pick up and move when commuter patterns change. If you think about it, a huge tunnel doesn’t weigh much more than a donut hole.
Political Lesson No. 389: No one wins a DOT board race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bill Kinney of the Marietta Daily Journal has this nice tidbit in today’s editions, telling of dissatisfaction fallout within Cobb County Republican ranks over a fight for a transportation board seat:
SOME COBB GOP-ERS are miffed that a few Cobb lawmakers voted against state DOT Board member and former legislator Johnny Gresham of east Cobb in the recent contest against fellow board member Garland Pinholster of Canton.
Congressional redistricting forced the two to run against each other for the district that includes Cherokee and portions of Cobb and Fulton Counties. Gresham has been on the board since 1989 and those same Republicans say he helped direct a lot of the DOT’s $2 billion annual budget to Cobb projects.
Gresham, who lives near Lower Roswell Road, is being encouraged by those GOP-ers to run against state Sen. Judson Hill in east Cobb. They say Hill has rubbed wrong other Cobb elected officials by voting against their cost-of-living increases, which are paid for with budgeted county funds, not state funds.
The glimmer of a kinder, gentler Democratic party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press story making the rounds in Georgia’s newspapers has a telling quote from Jane Kidd, the new chairman of the state Democratic party. The report says Kidd was careful not to criticize her predecessor, Bobby Kahn, who was very much about confronting the GOP at every turn.
“I don’t see that as my mission, to criticize the Republicans,” Kidd said.
Republicans lead in the search for the perfect marriage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Our colleague Scott Shepard up in Washington has taken an exhaustive look at the impact of Rudy Giuliani’s entrance into the ‘08 race for the White House.
The former New York mayor gives the GOP field a clear edge over Democrats in the number of marriages that have hit the rocks. Republican presidential potentials cumulatively post four divorces and an annulment.
Democrats can only boast three divorces. Referees have determined that the Clintons still qualify as a couple.
In addition to Giuliani, who has had one marriage annulled and another end in divorce, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is twice divorced and Sen. John McCain of Arizona has one divorce.
Among the Democrats, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has had two divorces and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut has one.
The longest married 2008 presidential candidate is a Republican, former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who has been married 38 years to the former Anne Davies.
Romney is followed in the Republican field by:
— Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, married 34 years to his wife, Lynn;
— former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, married 33 years to his wife Janet;
— Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, married 30 years to his wife Lynn;
— Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, married 24 years to his wife, Mary;
— and Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, married 22 to his wife Lilibet.
Retired NATO Commander Wes Clark of Arkansas and his wife Gert have been married 36 years, the longest among Democrats.
They are followed closely by:
— Gov Bill Richardson of New Mexico and his wife, Barbara, 33 years;
— former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa and his wife, Christie, also 33 years;
— Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, 31 years;
— former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and his wife, Elizabeth, married 29 years;
— Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and his wife, Jill, also married 29 years;
— and Sen. Barrack Obama of Illinois and his wife, Michelle, married 14 years.
Biden’s first wife, Neillia Hunter, died in an auto accident in 1972, six years after the couple was married.
No text-messaging between students during the lecture, please
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State lawmakers who skipped Biology 101, or worse, flunked it, will have an opportunity to redeem themselves on Thursday. The University of Georgia is bringing in its top stem cell researcher, Steve Stice, to the state Capitol for a lecture at a joint meeting of House and Senate health committees.
This is the guy who’s worked with U.S. Johnny Isakson on his stem cell legislation in Washington, the one who will likely make the UGA Research Foundation a boatload of money. Last month, Stice announced he had developed a process to create billions of stem cells that become brain and nerve tissue.
