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Saturday, May 19, 2007
Straw poll: Fred Thompson is the candidate of their discontent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the state Republican convention de-camped, the sponsors of a presidential straw poll in which 429 delegates participated declared unannounced candidate Fred Thompson by 44 percent.
Consider it yet another sign — like fights over a budget veto and immigration — of restlessness among the base.
Thompson came within three votes of matching all those gathered by Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich put together.
The poll was jointly conducted by the Young Republicans and the Republican Liberty Caucus of Georgia.
The results were as follows:
Fred Thompson — 188 votes, or 44 percent
Newt Gingrich — 77, or 18 percent
Rudy Giuliani — 64, or 15 percent
Mitt Romney — 40, or 9 percent
Mike Huckabee — 18, or 4 percent
Duncan Hunter — 10, or 2.3 percent
John McCain — 10, or 2.3 percent
Ron Paul — 8, or 1.9 percent
Tommy Thompson — 6, or 1.4 percent
Tom Tancredo — 4, or .9 percent
Sam Brownback — 2, or .5 percent
John Cox — 2, or .5 percent
Jim Gilmore — 0, or 0 percent
Thanks for coming, Mr. Bauer. Or whoever you are.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stray stories from the state Republican convention:
— The following comes from author and political commentator Phil Kent:
At the fund-raiser for Mitt Romney at the posh 1818 Club on Friday, the candidate was making the introductions to the room.
Romney gestured to Ralph Reed and said, “Why it’s good to see Gary Bauer here.” (For the detached, Bauer is a former presidential candidate with ties, like Reed, to the Religious Right.)
Romney then caught himself. “Oh, I’m a little mixed up here,” he said. But Romney still couldn’t place Reed’s face — and had to move on.
After the event, Romney approached Reed and apologized for misremembering him.
— A particular person was passing out copies of the 2002 “Declaration of a New Georgia” on Saturday. This was the platform that Republican candidates, including Sonny Perdue, embraced during their campaigns of 2002.
One section of the document was devoted to a condemnation of “billions [spent] on pork barrel programs” included in the mid-year budget “for partisan political purposes.”
Reporters were directed to a particular line item: “$250,000 to construct a fishing area in Burke County.”
Thank goodness we don’t do anything like that anymore.
— We’re told that convention volunteers went into a panic on Friday night when, in the dining hall where Newt Gingrich was to be the keynote speaker, a blue brochure was discovered on every seat.
The title? “Why Newt Gingrich Should Not Be President.”
Aides scurried from seat to seat, scooping up the folded flyers. But ultimately, someone actually opened the literature up.
The inside was blank.
Get it? There’s no reason why Gingrich shouldn’t be president. Oops.
This is what we call too smart by half.
Boos, hisses greet defense of immigration reform bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Delegates to the state Republican convention unleashed a rare chorus of boos and hisses at U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss on Saturday, as he spoke up for a bipartisan immigration reform package unveiled in Washington this week.
Hear it for yourself by clicking here.
Chambliss had just finished emphasizing his devotion to border security provisions contained in the measure, and brought up agriculture’s need for temporary, foreign workers.
“We’ve got to face the fact that we’ve got to create a new, truly temporary worker program” — the boos started here, but Chambliss plowed on — “for that segment of our economy that need temporary workers.
“If we don’t have a meaningful, workable program, we’ll simply be dependent on foreign imports for food products, the way we’re dependent on foreign imports for oil products,” Chambliss said, finishing his thought.
After the speech, Chambliss said he took the crowd’s reaction as a lack of popular understanding of the shape of the current immigration system.
Both Chambliss and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson spoke at a breakfast meeting, then before 1,200 or so delegates who gathered in the Gwinnett County Civic Center.
Isakson was first. He laid out the enforcement and border security aspects of the immigration bill, due to come up before the Senate this week.
His speech was short, and received polite applause. “We have the opportunity and a narrow window to change what has plagued our society for 21 years,” Isakson said.
The current bill does just that, he said, endorsing “citizenship the right way, the naturalized way, the speaking-English way.”
Chambliss, the state’s senior senator who is up for re-election next year, did most of the talking.
He explained that he and Isakson engaged with Democrats — after their attempts to change immigration last year were blocked, in a Republican-controlled Congress.
“Today is a different day in Washington. Republicans are not in control. The Democrats have decided that an immigration bill is coming to the floor.
“We could either sit on the sidelines and we could throw rocks, or we could become engaged and make what we knew was a bad bill, better,” Chambliss said.
But he promised that both he and Isakson were not inalterably committed. “You need to know, you did not elect two potted plants to the Senate,” Chambliss said.
But he also had a word for critics.
“We either come up with a comprehensive immigration package or we have the status quo,” he said.
“Please don’t believe what you hear or see on radio and TV,” Chambliss said. “We’re not asking you to trust us. But give us an opportunity to explain it to you.”
Ritch McCutchen, a delegate from Crisp County, sat in one of the areas that produced the boos for Chambliss, but said he didn’t join in.
McCutchen, who recycles used machinery for a living, said he’s willing to give Isakson and Chambliss the benefit of the doubt, for now. “I have a question about whether it will work,” he said.
The issue of illegal immigration has the potential to create a serious split in the party, on a state and national level.
“If this gets categorized as amnesty, it could cause the party to split next year, particularly if the top of the ticket is viewed as too liberal,” said Mark Rountree, a political strategist who works with Republican candidates.
By liberal, he meant former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Rountree wants former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson in the ’08 presidential race.
Immigration is yet another of those issues that where the fault line separates the business community from the ideological base of the party.
Supporters of the immigration bill backed by Chambliss and Isakson include Gary Black, a former candidate for state agriculture commissioner.
“We just can’t turn our heads anymore. We’ve got to find some resolution,” Black said.
He’s a member of a group formed only in the last few weeks, called Georgia Employers for Immigration Reform.
Chambliss: ‘Let us educate you’ about immigration bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Both Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss spoke at a morning breakfast to start the second day of today’s state Republican convention.
Of the pair of U.S. senators, Chambliss gave the most extensive defense of their involvement in the immigration reform bill, which has become the topic of the convention. Both were involved in the negotiations, and have given it their cautious, and probationary endorsements.
Both senators will address delegates this morning. Later, the convention will vote on a resolution declaring the Republican party against amnesty. It’s based on S.R. 646, which was adopted by the Senate this spring.
At the breakfast, Chambliss gave a short history of his and Isakson’s opposition to immigration legislation last year, and explained why they got involved this year.
We spotted U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta, who has come out against the bill, in the audience.
Said Chambliss, who’s up for re-election next year:
“We felt like it was critically important to our state for any number of reasons, but particularly for this reason. Georgia is the fourth fastest-growing state in the nation today. But we are No. 1 when it comes to being the destination point for those folks who cross the border to the South illegally,” Chambliss said.
“We have a growing problem in this state, and if we don’t solve it now, folks, it’s going to be left to our children and grandchildren. And we all know that every day that goes by, this problem gets worse.
“So we either stand on the sidelines, and we vote against everything, and we throw rocks, or we engage in the process. And we try to make what we think may be a bad bill a better bill. And that’s the route that Johnny and I decided to take,” Chambliss said.
“This is the most sensitive, most politically charged, emotional issue I’ve seen. But it’s probably the most important issue that we’ve dealt with, other than the war on terror,” he said.
“The end result is not something I’m totally happy with. I probably like about 70 to 75 percent of what’s in this bill. The rest of it I don’t like.
“But we have a choice. We have a new majority in Congress. Us not setting the schedule, us not committee chairmen, us not determining what legislation comes to the floor.
“We had the opportunity to stay back and let them write what we knew was going to be a bad bill, or be engaged. And I am very pleased that we were able to get 70 to 75 percent of what we wanted.
“Before we just throw cold water on this bill, give it a chance. Let us educate you about it.
“There’s some folks we’re never going to totally satisfy. There are a lot of people who think we ought to take everybody here illegally today, arrest them, throw them in jail, and send them back to where they came from” Chambliss.
At this point he was interrupted by a loud round of applause.
“If it were possible to do that, if it were practical to do that, I’d say you’re right.
The problem is that we all know that can’t be done. It’s not going to be done. So we have to play the cards we’re dealt. And the cards we were dealt meant we needed to engage,” he said.
