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Thursday, June 14, 2007
Immigration bill is coming back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority and minority leaders, respectively, have agreed that the immigration bill will come back — right after the Senate finishes with the energy bill.
The fun never stops.
Nature, the lieutenant governor and your dog: None of them can stand vacuums
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Savannah — On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle was all about filling the void. Both of them.
First, there was the venue.
Cagle’s audience was the Georgia Press Association at its annual gathering. The organization is dominated by small dailies and weeklies in rural Georgia, and its members have felt cold-shouldered by Gov. Sonny Perdue and House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
The lieutenant governor recognizes that the group is an essential ingredient to opinion-making in areas of the state not dominated by the media machines of metro Atlanta.
Check out the group’s web site. Its home page carries a notice that Cagle will be holding monthly conference calls from reporters for Georgia’s weeklies.
Then there was the topic. Cagle touched on health care, economic development, even Sunday sales of alcohol. But the largest part of Cagle’s comments dwelt on a topic that Georgia’s business community thinks the governor has largely ignored: Transportation.
Cagle spoke of the necessity of giving the problem in metro Atlanta its due. Of the need for innovation, and the moribund thinking at the state Department of Transportation. The lieutenant governor committed a small heresy by mentioning the need to consider rail as well as bus lanes.
He even hinted at — if not corruption, then questionable spending strategies. “There was a bridge that was designed by the [DOT] in Augusta to be built, and unfortunately they designed it in such a way that it was a one-of-a-kind bridge and only one bidder could bid on the project,” Cagle said.
Details? Cagle offered none. This was a tease for a pitch that’s still a few months away. We caught him afterwards, but he wouldn’t say much more.
“There will have to be reorganization of the Department of Transportation. That doesn’t necessarily mean the board or the commissioner. But it does mean there’s got to be a change in philosophy in the way that business is being conducted,” he said.
On the topic of a special session, Cagle has clearly put the brakes on the topic — with a caveat that we’ll get to in a bit.
Yes, the lieutenant governor said, the Legislature can call itself into session — but only in an emergency.
“What I’m saying is, I haven’t seen the emergency that has occurred. Now, we’re still trying to go through everything — but that emergency has not been defined.
“The state’s doing fine,” he said. “Are there bruised egos? Sure? But bruised egos don’t justify wasting taxpayers money.”
But notice Cagle’s language. “We’re still trying to go through everything,” he said. A day before, he said, the case for a special session had not been made “yet.”
Possibly it’s just us, or a trick of the ear. But those qualifiers sound like the lieutenant governor might be putting Sonny Perdue on a kind of probation.
Isakson on immigration: Bill is just ‘hopping’ along
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s a pretty good exchange that occurred this afternoon on WGAU (1350) in Athens, between U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson and talk host Tim Bryant.
The topic, of course, is the immigration reform bill and the meeting that Isakson and other Republican senators had with President Bush this week.
Said Isakson:
“I told the president what I said in the letter and what I say about the Congress. There is a low confidence level in the Congress and the president in terms of this issue because of what happened in 1986.
“And until that confidence level is restored to a level it needs to be, we’re going to continue to have trouble on anything dealing with this bill.
“And what does restore the confidence is not a promise to secure the border, but the funding being delivered and that work actually taking place — which is why we recommended they send an emergency supplemental [bill] appropriating the money, get the work done, and decouple the issue of reform with security.”
Said Bryant:
“Which makes it something other than comprehensive reform, which is what the White House has said they’ve wanted all along.”
Replied Isakson:
“You can’t walk with putting both feet forward at the same time. You fall over. That’s called hopping.”
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