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Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Can you accept it now?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Still not taking seriously the notion of former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney running for president?
Well, maybe this will convince you.
McKinney, who left the Democratic Party and Georgia after losing her congressional seat for a second time in 2006,has officially announced her quest for the Green Party’s presidential nomination on YouTube, dishing broadsides to both Republicans and her former party mates.
Declaring “I am a Green,” McKinney lashed out at the government’s handling of the Iraq war, its response to Hurricane Katrina and its support for the oil industry.
“The Republicans have deceived us. The Democrats have failed us,” she said in the seven-minute video.
See. Believe. And, for goodness sake, don’t let yourself be distracted by the whacky TV-flag-thing gyrating behind her.
PeachCare wins temporary reprieve
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congress on Wednesday formally approved funding for a program that provides health insurance to poor children, known nationally as SCHIP and in Georgia as PeachCare.
After a year of political wrangling over the future of the States Children’s Health Insurance Program, Congress was forced in its final days to extend SCHIP funding through March 2009, leaving it to a new Congress to determine whether the program should be expanded.
The measure would keep PeachCare running at its current level, though $1.6 billion was added to SCHIP to protect Georgia and 20 other states from another financial shortfall after a cash shortage this year forced Georgia to freeze PeachCare enrollment. The total allotment is $6.6 billion for programs around the country.
Georgia’s entire congressional delegation voted to extend the funding, including Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, the only Democrat to oppose his party’s original proposal to expand SCHIP by $35 billion through 2012.
Marshall and congressional Republicans backed the bill because it was only an extension - not an expansion - and didn’t require increased tobacco taxes to fund that expansion.
PeachCare officials said the extension was the second-best choice Congress could have made because it at least provides some budget certainty. Their first choice was the Democratic plan to dramatically expended the program to enroll 4 million more uninsured children nationally - for a total of 10 million.
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Huckabee in Atlanta on Jan. 22 for Right to Life rally
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Right to Life is putting out the word that Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will be part of a Jan. 22 anti-abortion rally on the steps of the Capitol.
Gary Bauer, the former GOP presidential candidate, will also speak. Georgia Right to Life has endorsed Huckabee — while the National Right to Life organization is backing Fred Thompson.
See this previous post for the background.
We’re No. 2! We’re No.2! We’re No. 2?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now here’s something you don’t see every election cycle.
A University of Georgia student is opening a draft committee promoting Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour for the 2008 Republican presidential ticket - as vice president.
Josuah Jones, a senior, said he’s filed papers with federal election officials to create the Atlanta-based Draft Haley for Vice President committee to convince the eventual Republican presidential nominee to choose Barbour as a running mate. (Fred Heads take note of Plan B.)
Presidential candidates normally make strategic decisions about the No. 2 pick - Will he boost us in the South? Will he complement or over-shadow the president? Has he ever shot a friend in the face while hunting? - based solely on the needs of No. 1.
But Jones is convinced that Barbour, former head of the Republican National Committee, former lobbyist and a top GOP fundraiser, would provide a bounce for any GOP contender. He’s the man for The Man no matter who The Man is, it appears.
Barbour’s post-Katrina leadership and his ability to handle Mississippi’s financial woes make him “the man who can help the GOP win the White House in 2008,” Jones said.
“The people of Mississippi made their voices heard at the ballot box, and now we want to make our voices heard by drafting Haley Barbour as America’s next vice president,” said Jones.
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