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Monday, September 17, 2007
Ralph Reed stands in the background of the Giuliani-MoveOn.org throw-down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed has become part of the silent subtext in the latest round of blows exchanged between MoveOn.org and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
Five days after Giuliani bludgeoned the liberal activist organization — and in a bank shot, Democratic Hillary Clinton, too — for its “General Betray Us?” ad in the New York Times, MoveOn.org announced it has a new anti-Rudy TV spot it will launch in Iowa.
The ad accuses Giuliani of being tossed off the the Iraq Study Group, a 10-member bipartisan effort to assess conditions in that country, for missing too many meetings.
Though it’s not mentioned in the ad, MoveOn.org included one local example in some back-up material:
On May 18, 2006, one of four days the Iraq panel gathered that spring, Giuliani instead delivered a $100,000 speech on leadership in Atlanta. Then he attended a Buckhead fund-raiser for Ralph Reed, who was making a run for lieutenant governor in Georgia.
Now, possibly, MoveOn.org didn’t want to complicate its TV spot unnecessarily. But you also have to wonder whether the group feared that, as conservative as Iowa Republicans are, bringing Reed into the picture would have helped Giuliani more than hurt him.
Rand Knight on YouTube, and a Libertarian swing at the U.S. Senate race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rand Knight, one of three Democrats in the 2008 race for U.S. Senate, has put up an introductory spot on YouTube.com.
The ecologist cites Sam Nunn as his inspiration.
Also, we’re picking up that Libertarian Allen Buckley, a Smyrna tax attorney who ran for lieutenant governor in 2006, intends to inject some third-party excitement into the Senate race. He’s to announce next month.
All those against poor kids, vote ‘nay’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House and Senate negotiators are working on a compromise over how much the government should spend on programs that, like Georgia’s PeachCare, provide health insurance to poor children. And Sen. Saxby Chambliss has some election-year figurin’ to do.
House and Senate negotiators worked through the weekend on a compromise funding bill for SCHIP, the States Children’s Health Insurance Program. But reports on their efforts indicate the measure still contains some of the poison pills that led Chambliss - and fellow Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson - to vote against it and then come home to explain how they really don’t dislike poor kids.
The compromise, still a work in progress, would expand SCHIP by about $35 billion over five years, raise tobacco taxes to pay for it and provide insurance for another 4 million kids. It would not tinker with Medicare to fund it, as the House proposed.
President Bush repeated his threat to veto the measure.
Chambliss, up for re-election next year, now has to figure out how to fit “I voted against a tax increase, wild expansion of government-run health care and a subsidized insurance for the middle class, not against kids” on a bumper sticker.
As Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) of Illinois, leader of House Democrats, told the New York Times, Republicans need to back the bill. If they don’t, or Bush vetoes it, he said, “It’s a political victory for us.”
Certain sectors are asking all involved to keep a lid on the politics. “For health and moral reasons, Congress must pass and the President must sign a reauthorization of SCHIP by Sept. 30, 2007,” wrote Govs. Sonny Perdue of Georgia and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas to House and Senate leaders of both parties, in letter last week.
Perdue is chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Sebelius is his equivalent on the Democratic side. The pair demanded that all involved “not allow partisan politics to thwart continuation of this vital program.”
Documents on the Grady-Emory-Morehouse issue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s a look at two documents relative to the brouhaha over Grady Memorial Hospital and its relationship with Emory University School of Medicine — both wrapped up by this weekend piece on ajc.com.
The issue could heat up on Wednesday, when a special House committee on Grady meets. On Friday, state Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Cobb County) requested an audit of state funds flowing to Grady, Emory and Morehouse — the other medical school that uses Grady to train its physicians.
First, we offer the press release issued by Emory on Saturday, which quotes Dr. Michael M.E. Johns, executive vice president for health affairs: “Any claim that the Emory-Grady contract is written to the advantage of Emory and the disadvantage of Grady ignores a great deal of available evidence and does not even pass the test of common sense.”
The university also said it welcomes the audit requested by Cooper.
Perhaps more politically significant is this resolution now under consideration by the DeKalb County Commission. Republicans in the state Capitol, chiefly but not solely state Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), have raised questions about the 30-year contract that binds the two institutions, describing it as one-sided in Emory’s favor.
But the GOP concerns had gained little resonance among black Democrats. The DeKalb resolution indicates this might be changing. The sponsors of the resolution are Commissioners Connie Stokes, a former state senator, and Larry Johnson, both African-American. Stokes was a floor leader for Gov. Roy Barnes.
The resolution advocates that:
“The agreements between the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, Emory University and Morehouse College be amended to reduce the payments made by the Fulton DeKalb Hospital Authority to those institutions to reflect the in-kind benefits those institutions receive by using Grady Hospital as a training ground for their students.”
Blogwatch on Jimmy Carter: ‘Does he recruit nuns?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many bloggers this morning are citing a six-minute Youtube clip of a 1974 broadcast of “What’s My Line?”, in which the mystery contestant was then-Gov. Jimmy Carter of Georgia.
He gets a chance to brag about his state. It’s not mentioned, but he’s already thinking of his presidential run.
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