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Thursday, January 10, 2008
Let national park visitors keep closer to their guns, Isakson and Chambliss say
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss are two of 47 U.S. senators who have put their names to a letter calling for the Bush administration to let gun owners carry handguns and other firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges, the Associated Press is reporting.
An Isakson spokeswoman said the pair signed the letter, sent to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, well before hiker Meredith Emerson was killed in the North Georgia mountains last week.
Even so, the issue is likely to resonate. “This is not only about protection of gun rights, but also about individual saftey. Even though this letter went out before the hiker in north Georgia was killed, it is more relevant now than ever because of that tragedy,” Isakson said.
The current, Reagan-era regulations “infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms on or across these lands,” the senators wrote.
According to the AP, the current rules, adopted in 1983 under then-Interior Secretary James Watt, demand that national park visitors render their weapons inaccessible. Guns don’t have to be taken apart, but they must be put somewhere — like a car trunk — that is not easily reached.
Nothing like a kind word to kick off the ‘09 race for mayor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, Mayor Shirley Franklin gave her state-of-the-city spiel to Atlanta business leaders.
It was an important crowd. These were the people who are most likely to bankroll the ’09 mayoral race. Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders was there, as were council members Mary Norwood and Ceasar Mitchell.
All three are interested in succeeding Franklin.
But Franklin mentioned none of them a specific mention. Instead, according to our colleague Eric Stirgus, the mayor bandied the name of yet another highly likely candidate for mayor — state Sen. Kasim Reed.
It was as she recalled her first address to the group:
“Kasim Reed — who was very nervous about that first presentation — was my campaign manager in 2001. I wasn’t known to be too much of a speaker.
“I was the behind-the-scenes person. I’m trying much harder to get this right. I only have two years and about 700 days, so I’m really on an accelerated course here.
“But the fact of the matter is Kasim was very nervous and he reminds me from time to time that that was his favorite speech,” Franklin said.
It could be called a casual, meaningless aside. Or perhaps not.
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Ralph Reed and John McCain: Together again, from a distance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Washington Post blog today ponders CNN’s decision to bring Republican strategist Ralph Reed on as an analyst for the GOP presidential race.
The newspaper dwells on the history between Reed and John McCain, winner of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
As chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, McCain uncovered much of the Jack Abramoff scandal, and detailed Reed’s association with now-imprisoned Washington lobbyist. The revelations cost Reed his shot at lieutenant governor in 2006.
McCain also won New Hampshire in 2000, trouncing George W. Bush. The GOP race then moved to South Carolina, where a hard-hitting rumor campaign sank McCain’s boat. Reed was in charge of direct mail for the Bush campaign in the state.
Reed was one of several analysts used by CNN as the votes rolled in from New Hampshire on Tuesday. CNN says the former state GOP chairman and ex-leader of the Christian Coalition was not paid for his appearance.
The writer of the Post item, incidentally, is Susan Schmidt, who picked up a Pulitzer for her coverage of the Abramoff scandal.
Isakson to Iraqi leaders: All bets are off once Bush leaves office
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fresh from a three-day trip to Iraq, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson on Thursday repeatedly spoke of the brief “window of opportunity” that exists for Iraqi leaders to get their act together, as a result of the yearlong surge of American troops into Baghdad.
How long will that window stay open?
Only as long as President Bush is in office. “There’s some parallel in those time lines,” he said in a conference call.
“The president has made a major commitment to that part of the world,” he said. “If the Iraqi government can’t respond within that time period, and [with] that kind of support, then I think that’s when that window begins to close — unfortunately, very quickly, for them.”
Isakson also said this:
“When that window closes, if they haven’t moved forward, then everything they’ve got could dissipate very quickly. And obviously there would be a huge loss of confidence on my part.”
Otherwise, Isakson said he was buoyed by what he saw on his third trip to the country. The senator said that Iraqi leaders he spoke to — Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurds — understood the urgency and expected some “substantial” progress on power- and oil-sharing agreements by the end of March.
Compared with his previous trips, Isakson said he saw “a remarkable difference. The road to the airport to the Green Zone was safe enough to travel. It hadn’t been before.
On previous trips, he hadn’t been allowed out of his armored personnel carrier. This time, he made the now obligatory walk through a market — this one in a western suburb of Baghdad.
Hop on a bus. See the wonders of Greenville, Spartanburg, and Walhalla
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Blog for Democracy reports that the Democratic presidential campaign of John Edwards will have South Carolina-bound buses at the state Capitol at 8 a.m. Saturday, and is looking for volunteers to fill them for a day of canvassing.
Pass the news around. Given the fact that Edwards enjoys strong support in Georgia’s legal community, this could be a rare opportunity to export a few lawyers.
Huckabee shows the grease under his fingernails
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michigan may show us what makes Mike Huckabee a sudden, formidable force in the Republican presidential primary.
In Iowa, he was buoyed by his appeal to Christian conservatives, the mainstay of the GOP there — and in Georgia.
Now, Huckabee has put up his first TV ad in rusting, job-challenged Michigan — and is showing off his blue collar background with what may be the best line of his campaign:
“Most Americans want their next president to remind them of the guy they work with — not the guy who laid them off.”
Not a bad message for a country on the edge of a recession — or already there. And it’s a less-than-sly dig at businessman Mitt Romney, for whom Michigan has become a must-win state.
The first signs of the Georgia primary season: Billboards and a nasty e-mail
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A flying billboard attempting to sell commuters on Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has suddenly appeared on I-75 southbound, near the North 120 Loop in Marietta. This isn’t the first Paul billboard in metro Atlanta, but it may be the most prominent.
With all that money Paul’s raised via the Internet, you think he’d at least be emphasizing cable TV.
Another sign of the coming Georgia presidential primary: A mass, inflammatory e-mail that one reader passed to us, railing against Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate.
The reader said the message was received Monday by every employee in a Valdosta bank.
We won’t pass on the entire contents. That would mean the terrorists win. But it is important to recognize that the debate in Georgia over the next few weeks will be intense — and that much of the conversation will be taking place out of sight, via the Internet.
Just so you recognize it, the e-mail declares Obama to be a secret Muslim, and accuses him of slouching during the Pledge of Allegiance. Of course, “allegiance” is misspelled. We never said the author was overly bright.
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