Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2007 > August > 31
Friday, August 31, 2007
Some Republican thoughts on men’s room etiquette
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This comes from Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson of Savannah, the No. 2 ranking Republican in that chamber, on the topic of you-know-who from Idaho:
“Let me see if I get this right.
“A U. S. Senator admits he was in a public bathroom and bent over to pick up a piece of toilet paper that wasn’t his. Who does that? In a PUBLIC restroom? Nobody!
“He admits that his foot touched the man’s foot in the next stall. What guy does that?
“He admits that he reached his hand under the edge of the stall while a man was in the next one. That’s real strange.
“And he pleads guilty to disorderly conduct. I’d say we can skip the whole ‘innocent until proven guilty’ thing. He has admitted his guilt and should resign immediately! I don’t want him in the stall next to me and I certainly don’t want him in the U.S. Senate.
“Until Republicans are willing to get rid of our own when they fail to conduct themselves properly, we deserve the disdain of the American people.”
Obama wants another ‘boom’ event in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ll have presidential candidates of both stripes popping in and out of metro Atlanta over the next two weeks.
The largest event looks to belong to Barack Obama. The Democratic presidential candidate is out to hold another huge rally in downtown Atlanta — this one indoors, with a relatively small cover charge.
The event is Sept. 20, the locale is the Georgia World Congress Center, and the cost of admission — in the form of a campaign contribution — is $25.
Sharing the stage will be Usher Raymond IV, the actor/singer who usually goes by a shorter handle, and former Atlanta Hawks great Dominique Wilkins. Wilkins’ presence is interesting.
The last politician we saw him with was Newt Gingrich — the two are partnered in an anti-diabetes, anti-obesity campaign.
In April, on the Georgia Tech campus, Obama drew 20,000. This September event is less about show and more about serious network-building. Among real people, $25 is a significant — though affordable — commitment. And most of those donations will be accompanied by an e-mail address and phone number.
A standard, $1,000-a-head event follows. Invitations for both can be found here and here.
On the Republican side, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is here Saturday, Sept. 8. Cobb County Republicans will be shifting their monthly breakfast meeting to McCollum Airport in order to give him a listen.
Huckabee’s appearance — his first in Georgia that comes to mind — is significant, since it will come only two days after Fred Thompson’s formal entry in to the presidential race.
In Thompson’s absence, Huckabee has been building as an alternative candidate for social conservatives dissatisfied with Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.
Speaking of Giuliani, he’ll be in Georgia on Sept. 12 and 13, with fund-raisers in Gwinnett County, Atlanta and Savannah. We’ve no details on the metro Atlanta events — but will pass them along as soon as we get them.
A rational explanation for Fred Thompson’s dithering
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And so we wake up this morning to a Fred Thompson campaign for president, effective Sept. 6. It’ll be on the web.
Good. His candidacy, or non-candidacy, had been taking on the feeling of a bad anxiety dream — the one where you’re trying to punch out an emergency phone number, but you keep hitting the wrong buttons.
But the delay may have been more Machiavelli than Hamlet. We’ll explain below.
First, here is Thompson’s immediate itinerary:
— Thursday, Sept. 6: Des Moines, Iowa; Council Bluffs, Iowa;
— Friday, Sept. 7: Sioux City, Iowa; Mason City, Iowa;
— Saturday, Sept. 8: Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa; Portsmouth, N.H.;
— Sunday, Sept. 9: Manchester and Nashua, N.H.;
— Monday, Sept. 10: Charleston and Columbia, S.C.
No Georgia stops in sight. That’ll be something for state Sens. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) and Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) — the top-ranking Fred-heads in Georgia — to address.
The press release with much of the above information also includes this sentence: “The [Thompson] committee will file our formal paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission within 15 days, the time allowed by law after Fred decided to run.”
Here’s an explanation on why that’s significant, posted on the Daily Kos.
From the date of the formal announcement, Thompson has 15 days to declare his candidacy officially with the Federal Election Commision. Takes us to September 21, 2007.
From that date, Thompson has 10 more days for his official campaign committee to register with the FEC. Takes us to October 1, 2007.
And what’s so special about October 1? It’s the start of a new FEC reporting quarter.
By delaying the filing of his organizational papers until books have closed on the third quarter of 2007, Thompson arguably will not have to file any disclosure reports with the FEC until January 31, 2008, after the Republican primaries/caucuses in WY, IA, NH, NV, FL …..
That poor financial showing that Thompson made this summer — the one where his goal was $5 million and he showed $3 million? Doesn’t look like it’ll happen again.
Services »
