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Thursday, March 8, 2007
Another Cracker Crumble. No fistfights or duels reported.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Press Association held its annual “Cracker Crumble” tonight at the Cobb Galleria. Several hundred attended.
It is a strange event. Ostensibly, it’s a means of funding a journalism scholarship program. In truth, it is a hostage situation, without the option of bringing in the SWAT team.
Politicians, who pay good money, are forced to endure 90 minutes of insult comedy and song, from both journalists and professional actors. Usually, the prime targets are smart enough not to show up.
Estrangement is a signature of the dinner. It is, in fact, a throw-back to the days of separate-but-equal Georgia. In a hall full of tables, journalists and politicians end up eating with their own kind.
One of the few tables with a mixture of scriveners and elected officials appeared to be the one occupied by House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin, his wife, their three sons and dates.
Porter is also a newspaper publisher. The family seemed conflicted.
Matt Towery, publisher-proprietor of InsiderAdvantage, again acted as master of ceremony. Perhaps in error, he assumed the crowd had not imbibed enough, and sought to encourage more applause with a drinking game called “Sonny Did.”
“Who skipped the Cracker Crumble again?” Towery asked.
“Sonny did,” the crowd responded. A drink was required.
“Who employed more twenty-somethings as top experts in policy than anyone in America?”
“Sonny did.” Another drink.
“Who, according to Bill Shipp, fired the fatal shot at the grassy knoll?”
And so on.
Your next news story: A Rome woman says she was denied emergency contraception.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, Kroger endured hottie bank thieves.
Now, an abortion rights group has scheduled a press conference for 1 p.m. Friday at the state Capitol to protest the refusal of “a local Kroger pharmacy” to dispense Plan B emergency contraception to a woman.
The group is NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia. We’ve no details about the location of the Kroger in question, except that the woman allegedly denied the drug is identified as a resident of Rome, Ga.
Gingrich, the non-candidate, focuses on the GOP’s church-based family
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First it was twice-married John McCain.
Now it’s thrice-hitched Newt Gingrich baring his soul the Republican party’s conservative Christian base — which is still up for grabs in the ’08 race for the White House.
Gingrich will give the May 19 commencement address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
McCain addressed the student body last year. Gingrich, the former speaker and Georgia congressman, last spoke at the school’s commencement in 1991.
Also this week, Gingrich is cozying up to James Dobson of Focus on the Family, currently the most influential religious conservative in the nation, in a two-part radio interview being broadcast this week.
Dobson has turned up his nose at the GOP’s two current front-runners, McCain and Rudy Giuliani.
Gingrich tells Dobson that he’s “gotten on my knees and sought God’s forgiveness” for his moral failings.
At least that’s what Dobson’s web site says. We listened to the first installment here.
In that first 28-minute segment, Gingrich reviews his pro-God credentials, endorses the abolition of Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and hawks his new book, “Rediscovering God in America.”
Confessions are always best held until the end. It keeps the audience listening.
Even Mr. Smith could stand Washington only so long
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Rome News-Tribune quotes Preston Smith, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as saying his time in the Legislature is capped.
“I just don’t see myself here in the long term,” the three-term Republican said. Smith would commit to running only one more term.
(Later in the day, The News-Tribune slightly changed the the wording on that above thought, to make it a little more open-ended. The newspaper said Smith would only commit to running one more term, saying he had no idea what he would do beyond that point.}
Said the News-Tribune:
Despite only four years in office and his lofty position, Smith said he has grown tired of the politics and the lack of meaningful debate between legislators.
“There is a certain frustration factor that goes with the kind of things that go on down here,” he said. “Sometimes you wonder if you could go do more good somewhere else.”
He elaborated, saying legislators are too often motivated by special interests rather than their constituents.
You’ll recall that, two years ago, the Rome lawyer approached Gov. Sonny Perdue about an appointment to a non-partisan judgeship.
Just Brilliant: Cox’s ex-manager to run S.C. Dems, making inter-state talks wonderfully awkward
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The first manager of Cathy Cox’s campaign for governor, fired last year for dabbling in Wikipedia, has landed a temp job running the South Carolina Democratic party.
Morton Brilliant will serve through April. He was hired to replace Lachlan McIntosh, who took a position with the ’08 presidential campaign of Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico.
Brilliant was canned by Cox for tinkering with the entry for Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor on the on-line encyclopedia.
Joe Erwin, the chairman of the S.C. Democratic party, noted that Brilliant “has a lot of experience managing high-pressure, demanding situations.” This according to The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.
Morton is also a former aide to former Gov. Jim Hodges of that state.
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