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Thursday, May 17, 2007
The difference between Democrats and Republicans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John Edwards just finished his speech at the Democratic fund-raiser in Atlanta.
See two other posts below.
You’ll never hear a Republican close his speech by quoting Mahatma Gandhi. “You have to be the change that you believe in,” Edwards said.
Good night, and Godspeed.
Edwards on the ‘bleeding sore of Iraq,’ and health care
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin just gave an unusually effusive introduction to John Edwards at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Not an endorsement, but it was darn close. “It takes guts and courage and vision to be John Edwards,” she said.
Edwards immediately compared himself to two other sons of the South, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He mentioned his wife Elizabeth, whom he said was backstage. “By the way, she’s doing great,” Edwards said.
His first topic was “the bleeding sore that’s Iraq.”
And he repeated his line that Congress should send bill after bill after bill to President Bush, putting a timeline on troop withdrawal with each one.
“The Congress should stand it’s ground,” he said. “This is not about politics.”
U.S. troops, he said, “deserve leadership that stands with them.”
Most of this, we’ve heard before. Ditto his lines about the environment, and his college-for-everyone program.
But the audience’s ears pricked up at something we hadn’t heard him say before, about health insurance.
Edwards called for a national health insurance policy that would “outlaw pre-existing conditions.” That line struck home.
Mental health care would be insured just like physical health care. “Paid for by rolling back George Bush’s tax cuts,” he said.
Live, from the Democratic ballroom, it’s not James Brown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re here in the farthest, farthest reaches — the basement of the basement — of the Georgia World Congress Center, the site of the Democratic fund-raiser, the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.
Cathy Cox and her entourage are sitting around the table next to us. Mark Taylor was more to the center of the room.
Bobby Kahn just walked up. Showed us the bruise on his right arm where he got nailed by a foul ball at a Braves game.
Did he catch the ball? No, he did not.
The room, despite its location, is remarkably full. Lobbyists in plenty of numbers, at $200 a pop. We’re to have a head count by the end of the evening.
As of 7:41 p.m., the highlight has been the sight of state Labor Commissioner gyrating and singing — singing! — “I Feel Good” a la James Brown, backed by a six-piece band.
He was followed to the stage by state Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin, who did not dance or sing. There was a prayer of thanksgiving afterwards.
Isakson on immigration deal: So far, so good.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Update at 10:18 a.m. Friday: We could have a significant split within Georgia GOP ranks developing on this issue. Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss are cautiously on-board this immigration deal. U.S. Reps. Tom Price (R-Roswell) and Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) are not. We’ve tacked on Price and Gingrey comments below.
Over the last few weeks, Georgia’s junior senator had become a key ingredient in the negotiations over immigration, the man who could bring conservative Republicans to the table.
So the e-mail to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office was short and to the point: Was he on board with today’s immigration deal, or not?
Isakson himself picked up the phone and called. His short answer: So far, so good. Listen to a sound clip here.
First, Isakson said he was pleased that his “border security first” provision is what he calls the foundation of the bill.
“No. 2,” he said, “I opposed the bill last year, because it had an expedited pathway to citizenship. That is now out. Anybody that wants a green card or citizenship has to go home — get in the back of the line, behind the people that are doing it right.
“Anybody that’s here illegally goes on probation, first-offender status, pays fines, has to learn English,” Isakson said.
At this point, he called the legislation “a good, sound, strong bill.”
But that provisional endorsement comes with a warning. “If it gets changed, or people start backing away from the deal, they don’t have me in bed with them,” he said.
“Though the border security measures would be potentially helpful, this bill is one step forward and two steps backward,” said Price, who helps draft the Republican message strategy for the House. “All that is compromised with this proposal is America’s rule of law.”
Gingrey said the compromise bill would only encourage more people to cross illegally into the United States, putting further strain on public schools and medical facilities.
“I fear this new compromise may simply be amnesty by another name,” Gingrey said. “We can’t bankrupt our government services by granting the biggest handout of all: amnesty.”
Don’t look for any protests at state convention, says Klein
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t look for any Republican uprising over Gov. Sonny Perdue’s veto of a tax rebate at this weekend’s state party convention — or so says executive director Marty Klein, who’s in charge of the details of the meeting.
“I don’t expect one. Quite to the contrary, I think you’re going to see a sign of unity and a discussion of a common set of principles,” Klein said this morning on WGAU (1340 AM) in Athens.
Here’s a link to the sound that host Tim Bryant just passed us, which includes a fairly extensive defense of the governor’s decision.
Two UGA researchers: Democrats had cause to worry about the voter ID law
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two University of Georgia political scientists say that many of the objections voiced by Democrats in a two-year fight over voter ID are grounded in fact.
“The evidence suggests that it is indeed Democrats who are less likely to be in possession of a valid driver’s license,” write M.V. “Trey” Hood and the oft-quoted Charles Bullock in a paper presented this spring.
In 2005, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a statute requiring voters to present a picture of themselves — most often a driver’s license — when they go to the polls, as an anti-fraud measure.
Democrats, particularly African-Americans, declared the law was intended to dampen turnout. Enforcement of the measure has been blocked.
Hood and Bullock examined the demographics and voting habits of roughly 300,000 voters who were determined by state government to be registered - but were not on its data base of motorists.
While they warned that their findings weren’t conclusive, the two noted that:
Suburban counties, which historically vote Republican, “did see significantly lower rates” of registered voters without ID than rural and urban counties.
Non-white voters were less likely than white voters to possess a driver’s license. For instance, a black voter was nearly twice as likely to lack a license as a white voter. “Women and older Georgians were also significantly more likely to be without a license or identification card,” the paper said.
Voters without driver’s licenses are significantly more likely to vote in Democratic, as opposed to Republican, primaries.
Voters who lack a driver’s license as ID are less likely to vote, particularly in general elections. “Given that registrants without a driver’s license are already less likely to vote, requiring certain forms of photo identification to vote would most likely diminish turnout among this group even further,” Hood and Bullock write.
Their paper, “Worth a Thousand Words?: An Analysis of Georgia’s Voter Identification Statute,” was presented in March at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Political Science Association in New Mexico.
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