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Monday, March 19, 2007
The black Democrat who defended the sponsor of the Confederate bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle wasn’t the only one who reached across racial and party lines on Monday.
Hours before Cagle announced that he would back a statement of regret for Georgia’s role in slavery, Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown of Macon took the well to defend the author of S.B. 283, the bill to have April declared Confederate history month.
Brown, who is African-American, gave an eight-minute defense of state Sen. Jeff Mullis, a Republican who hails from Chickamauga — the site of the battlefield.
Mullis’ bill had become the subject of strong comments, essentially for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Republican leaders had rejected calls for an apology for slavery, saying they were too focused on the future.
Then came Mullis’ bill. A version of it has been an annual ritual in the Legislature for years. This time, it didn’t look so harmless.
“I don’t want to get into the content of the bill, talking about the issue itself. The thing that I’m concerned about is the tenor and the tone of the debate that seems to be evolving,” Brown said.
Brown spoke up for Mullis’ character and detailed his involvement in finding state money to fund a museum in Macon dedicated to Harriet Tubman of Underground Railroad fame.
“I think we have an obligation to be candid in our debate. I think we have to be above-board,” Brown said. “But I think we do ourselves, both individually and collectively, a disservice when we unnecessarily impugn the character of an individual because we disagree with what they may be proposing.”
Mullis, close to tears, responded by wrapping Brown up in a bearhug on the Senate floor.
We caught up with Brown later Monday. And asked if he was trying to tamp down the hot talk so that the statement of regret could be worked out. He scoffed.
Brown said he didn’t want anything to do with a statement of apology for slavery. It wasn’t worth a moment of his time. But he said he’d heard Mullis called a racist. That was wrong, he said.
Senate schedules a debate on guns-in-parking-lots bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rack up a victory for the National Rifle Association. We’re told that S.B. 43, which would permit employees to keep guns in their cars parked on company lots, will be allowed to come to the floor for a vote by the full Senate.
We’re told the NRA cut loose with a heavy round of robo calls over the weekend, plugging this and other legislation.
This destroys our pet, but completely unverified theory that Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle had made a tacit agreement with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce — that he would slap a hold on the gun bill, which the business group opposes. And the price would be a similar hold on the bill permitting Sunday sales of beer and wine, which the Chamber supports.
And for dessert, we’ll all dig into some yellow cake
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The local ACLU has virtually guaranteed itself a sell-out at its annual Bill of Rights dinner on May 12.
The civil liberties group has landed Joseph Wilson as a keynote speaker. You know — the ambassador who was sent to Niger to check out a claim that Iraq was in the hunt for uranium. The guy married to that CIA spy. Valerie Flame. Plame. That one.
We’ve no word on whether his spouse will be with him in Atlanta. Tickets are $150. The Saturday gig is at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. Men are required to wear white starched shirts, narrow black ties, and black suits. And dark glasses.
Women are expected to don their femme fatale best.
Cagle: Time is right for statement of regret on slavery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a quick sit-down interview just a few minutes ago, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said he was on board with the bipartisan, biracial movement to issue a statement of regret for the government of Georgia’s role in slavery and segregation.
“We sat down and talked last week about a strategy,” Cagle said. “The NAACP is very adamant about a resolution regarding slavery. The reality is we pass a lot of resolutions that pass on sympathy and regret, and I think it makes sense. If this is something that’s important to them and their constituency group, then I think it’s the right thing for us to do.”
Said the lieutenant governor: “It’s one of those issues there’s very strong emotions for. They’ve made their case that we’ve never done that in Georgia, and I think the timing is probably right that we express our regret for something that happened over 100 years ago.”
Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson announced his involvement last week. We caught up with state Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway) at a noon luncheon. Like Cagle, he said the wording of the resolution was the key issue.
Obviously, there’s more to come, here and elsewhere on ajc.com.
Chasing the base: Gilmore comes to woo disenchanted lawmakers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Only days after a meeting of Republican state lawmakers bemoaning the lack of true conservatives in the ‘08 race for the White House, former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore will come to Atlanta on Tuesday to make the case for his long-shot candidacy.
He’ll be squired around the Capitol by state Sen. Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville).
Gilmore was elected governor in 1997 with promises to cut the property tax that local governments in Virginia levied on personal cars and pickup trucks.
The ‘Hillary 1984’ ad everyone’s talking about today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 74-second Internet spot, entitled “1984” is posted here on youtube.com. It deftly mixes an old Apple computer ad with Hillary Clinton’s “let’s have a conversation” statement that opened her campaign.
The beneficiary of the pitch is Barack Obama. His campaign is denying any culpability.
“It’s about the end of the broadcast era,” said Peter Leyden, director of the New Politics Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank on politics and new media. The background is in this piece by the San Francisco Chronicle.
