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Friday, December 7, 2007
The video you have to see: Andy Young on why Barack Obama isn’t ready to be president
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re not exactly sure when this was taped, but here’s a clip of former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, with local journalist Maynard Eaton, talking about why Young is for Hillary Clinton rather than Barack Obama for president.
“I want Barack Obama to be president,” says Young. “In 2016.”
The volatile line: “Bill is every bit as black as Barack. He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack.” Young quickly added that he was “clowning.”
Here’s the link. . Language warning: Young uses a four-letter word that begins with ‘s.’
Chaos in the GOP presidential ranks: Maybe it’s religion, but maybe it’s region
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s something to kick around.
This week, the Republican presidential race officially devolved into chaos. The well-funded Mitt Romney of Massachusetts found himself sinking in Iowa. Rudy Giuliani of New York has hit a wall in national polls — or at minimum, he’s struck a hefty speed-bump.
Mike Huckabee of Arkansas is surging. This prompted Romney to give his Thursday speech that addressed his Mormon faith.
Many have cited the episode as a proper comeuppance to a Republican party that for nearly 30 years has catered to Christian conservatives.
Perhaps the U.S. Constitution forbids a religious test, they say, but the GOP platform has come to require it. Not all critics are Democrats. Charles Krauthammer is particularly rough on Huckabee today for subtly driving the issue.
But maybe this isn’t just about religion. Suppose that this week fits into the larger theme of the 2008 Republican race — a fight over regional control of the national GOP. Suppose that this has become a tug-of-war between Republicans in the South, plus their like-minded allies, and Republicans everywhere else.
Consider first the geographic bases of the two spoilers in this race — Huckabee, a seminary graduate whose name is always followed somewhere by the phrase “Southern Baptist,” and Fred Thompson, the drawling former senator from Tennessee.
No, Thompson hasn’t done much. But for six months this year, he served as the symbol of restiveness in the GOP base. Huckabee has now usurped him in that role. We’ll see how long he’ll last.
Romney and Giuliani, who could be said to represent the party’s establishment, are both from the Northeast, a place where Republican influence has declined, even while GOP clout in the South has grown. Giuliani supporters in particular cite the structure of the primary calendar next year as a unique situation that allows their candidate to leap-frog past the barrier posed by Southern Republicans.
A candidate who makes Republicans in the South too comfortable, the theory goes, won’t appeal to a national electorate tired of the Southerner now occupying the White House.
So Iowa becomes the place where the base pushes back on that kind of thinking.
No, Iowa is not Southern. But racially, the Republican electorate in Iowa isn’t much different from that in a Georgia primary. And some 40 percent of Iowa Republicans identify themselves as evangelical conservatives.
Until the race gets to South Carolina, Iowa is the most Southern-like ground available for the confrontation.
Don’t call it a threat. Just an offer that requires a thorough examination
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Six state lawmakers, three Republicans and three Democrats, were up on a stage in the Cobb Galleria center on Friday, discussing what could be expected next year when the Legislature convenes.
This was an Atlanta Regional Commission event, so the audience consisted primarily of local city and county officials.
Among the lawmakers, state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, a Republican from Powder Springs and chairman of the House rules committee, packed the most clout.
As a close associate of Speaker Glenn Richardson, Ehrhart was peppered with questions about the House Republican effort to eliminate property taxes in favor of a shift to a broader sales tax.
One critic asked Ehrhart to explain why it was better for tax revenue to flow to Atlanta, there to be parsed out to cities and counties and school systems throughout the state.
Ehrhart didn’t exactly comply.
Instead, the House rules chairman pointed out that the state levies a tax on all insurance premiums paid in Georgia — whether the policies cover life, health, or property. Some $480 million is raised each year. The cash is then divided among local governments, four times a year.
Never have lawmakers attached strings to the money, Ehrhart said. But if mayors and county commissioners fear centralized government, perhaps that tax should be repealed for consistency’s sake, the rules chairman suggested.
Afterwards, Ehrhart says he’s been combing the state code for other “hidden taxes” that benefit counties and cities. Like franchise fees that local governments charge cable TV companies and other monopolies for operating in their territory. The Legislature could determine those worth ditching, too, he said.
It sounded, we noted, like he was describing two screws that House Republicans were willing to put to the thumbs of county and city officials if they bucked the speaker’s tax plan.
A threat? Oh, gracious, no, Ehrhart said. “Let’s call it a second front.”
Culled from the tax fight, then brought right back into it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When House Speaker Glenn Richardson sat down with reporters on Thursday, he wanted to talk about something — anything — other than property taxes.
So he dwelled on financing for a statewide trauma network (and Grady) with $10 car fees. Then he raised the topic of water and reservoirs. He thinks its possible to bring back Tom Murphy Lake in west Georgia, which other lawmakers — not him — deep-sixed in 2004. But it was unclear whether it would still be named for Murphy, the former House speaker.
Only then did Richardson talk about his decision, announced last week, to slim down his effort to eliminate all property taxes in Georgia.
He would ease into his revolution instead, by only targeting school property taxes — those funds would be replaced by an expanded sales tax on groceries, lottery tickets and the fees charged by people like plumbers and attorneys.
Politically, it makes sense. By leaving alone the property taxes that fuel county and city governments, Richardson could reduce the opposition that his plan had been generating from hundreds of locally elected officials.
But two new facets emerged from Richardson’s sit-down with reporters.
First, the speaker said that if cities and counties don’t want to give up their property taxes, they won’t be allowed to benefit from his revised plan.
Richardson said that the state would charge its 4 percent sales tax on lottery tickets and services. But he wouldn’t allow cities and counties to piggyback with the 3 percent or more that they normally assess —meaning local cities and counties wouldn’t get any extra revenue.
(Local governments already charge that 3 percent or more on groceries.)
In addition, the speaker emphasized that his revised tax package would include a cap on what local governments could raise from property taxes, via a formula that combined population growth and inflation.
It sounded much like the Tabor plan that the Senate has attempted to impose on state spending, and which Richardson and other House Republicans have resisted.
The key is that this cap that Richardson has proposed ensures that, rather than being pushed to the sidelines, the state’s city and county officials will remain a major part of the fight.
The Association County Commissioners of Georgia has picked up on this. Here’s the group’s analysis of the changes in the speaker’s plan, just posted on the its web site.
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