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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
But please, leave Simon off the debate panel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Imagine, if you would, a Giuliani-Nunn ’08 presidential ticket. Or a pairing of Michael Bloomberg, the Republican New York mayor, with Kathleen Sibelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas. Or Bill Bradley, the former senator and basketball player, on a ticket with Carly Fiorini, the former Hewlett-Packard boss.
Those are among the intriguing possibilities floated by Gerald Rafshoon and Doug Bailey, the odd couple of ’08 presidential politics, when they make their pitch for Unity ’08.
In 1976, Rafshoon and Bailey were the opposing ad men for that year’s Democratic and Republican presidential opponents.
“As Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter became good friends, we have become good friends, independently of our bosses,” Rafshoon told a group which gathered in the offices of the architectural firm Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates Tuesday night to see their presentation.
Although they welcome checks in support of their cause, the Rafshoon-Bailey roadshow appears chiefly designed to win influential citizens like those who came to see them here that this isn’t just a wild idea concocted by the Democratic ad exec who went on to become a movie producer and the Republican strategist who went on to found The Hotline.
Unity ’08 is a brash yet centrist scheme to upset the political applecart next year by choosing a bipartisan ticket next summer through a nationwide online convention that would last several weeks as the contenders are winnowed down. The group’s founders, who also include Carter strategist Ham Jordan, don’t particular care what combination of Democrat, Republican or independent their process produces, so long as it gives voters an alternative to what they view as the deepest partisan rut the nation as ever been in.
We got the impression they don’t exactly welcome the inevitable comparison of their proposal for an internet selection process with “American Idol,” but the resemblance is precisely why you can’t discount Unity ’08 as a fanciful notion.
The rush of states to the earliest possible primary date is likely to mean both parties will have selected their presidential candidates by next February, Bailey pointed out, leaving plenty of time for buyer’s remorse to set in.
Bailey believes Unity ’08 can recruit 10 million Americans to participate in their convention, which will be open to any registered voters, whether they’ve already voted in one of the party primaries or not. If they could come anywhere close to that in the dead spot before the Democrats and Republican hold their conventions, they’d get a ton of media attention as the competition comes down to the finalists.
And the more unlikely the combination, probably, the better for capturing the nation’s fancy. Let’s see… Stabler-Perdue?
The Sunday sales issue and the Republican conundrum
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After weeks of hemming and hawing, the bill to permit the Sunday sales of beer and wine in grocery stores passed through a Senate committee on Tuesday.
But despite what Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour has said, a floor vote in the chamber isn’t a sure thing yet.
We asked around after the vote. Expect S.B. 137 to be the topic of intense discussion within the Senate Republican Caucus.
From what we hear, many in the Senate want substantial evidence that the House Republican leadership intends to bring the issue to a vote in that chamber before they’re willing hang their rear-ends out the window.
Republicans in the Legislature are trapped between two competing social forces. First, there’s the time pinch that has caught up most of suburban Georgia, that rich but often practical vein of GOP votes.
With both parents usually working, and Saturday devoted to softball, soccer or whatever with the kids, Sunday has become the day to fill the kitchen cupboard for many Georgians.
According to the Georgia Food Industry Association, 25 percent of grocery chain customers shop on Sunday. But more important, one in 10 customers shops only on Sunday. It’s the flip side of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s call for time management when it comes to purchases of alcohol.
The phenomenon is relatively recent, and explains the timing of the discussion. Call it an outgrowth of those loyalty cards some grocery chains use to track buying habits.
On the other hand, some religious conservatives — members of the Republican ideological base — have drawn a line in the sand on this one. They feel it’s a case of creeping secularism, yes. But it’s also a test of their continued clout within the state GOP.
Boiled down, here’s the conundrum that the Sunday sales issue presents to many GOP lawmakers in suburbia: Overall, their districts want the liberty to buy what they want on Sunday.
But anyone who knows anything about this most recent rise of fundamentalism in America — and Christian conservative clout in the Republican party — knows that it isn’t merely a rural phenomenon. It’s largely a suburban thing.
Those same suburban districts that demand Sunday sales are dotted with super-church congregations who march in lockstep to the polls, especially in Republican primaries.
It’s significant that Jim Beck, leader of the newly re-organized Georgia Christian Coalition, has chosen this issue to establish his clout. Beck picked up the pieces of the Coalition when Sadie Fields left last year to form the Georgia Christian Alliance.
Fields is present and accounted for in this fight, but it’s Beck who has repeatedly and publicly pointed out to Republican senators that a vote in favor of this bill would be dangerous to their health.
Beck compares the intense feelings of religious conservatives have on this issue to the fervor that Confederate enthusiasts felt when the ’56 flag was pulled down by Gov. Roy Barnes six years ago.
“You almost have to be a member of the group to understand how important this is to us,” he said.
Hands across the Gnat Line
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vernon Jones, CEO of DeKalb County and potential candiate for the U.S. Senate next year, announced late Tuesday that he and the fair citizens he represents had agreed to send two surplus DeKalb County police vehicles to tornado-ravaged Americus.
The healing has begun.
