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Thursday, January 17, 2008
Hillary Clinton commits to a Jan. 30 appearance in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, there now.
Hillary Clinton has committed to come to Atlanta for the Jan. 30 state Democratic fund-raiser. The question now is whether Barack Obama and John Edwards will make a joint appearance of it at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Also on the stage? Former U.S. senator Max Cleland, who so far as we know hasn’t made an endorsement in the Democratic presidential campaign, and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who has — to some criticism.
Perdue to make his case on vetoes to the Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue will make a private visit to address the Senate Republican caucus on Friday to persuade senators not to join the House in overriding 12 of his vetoes from last year.
President pro tem Eric Johnson of Savannah said Senate Republican caucuses will chart a course of action afterwards.
Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour (R-Snellville) told reporters that his committee could take up the one or two of the vetoes next week, with a possible vote by the full chamber the final week of January.
A bill to give the Senate Budget Office legal recognition in the Georgia Code is likely to be one of them, he said.
This would be an interesting schedule, if it happens. For it would come after House and Senate members conduct elections for the state Board of Transportation. Speaker Glenn Richardson’s troops are hot to oust board member Mike Evans, who term is up for renewal.
Last fall, Evans voted in favor of installing Gena Abraham as the new DOT commissioner over a current House member. Abraham was the choice of the governor and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Cagle: Legislature ‘probably’ will address transportation funding this year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle this morning gave the first word that the Legislature “probably” will address a sales tax for transportation before it adjourns.
“There’s a lot of communication right now,” Cagle said, centered on a special local option sales tax that could be levied by one county or groups of counties.
Speaking before members of the Georgia Press Association, Cagle pointed to the acceptance by Georgians of the E-SPLOST for education.
“It is a model that can be duplicated in other areas. We could have a T-SPLOST, a transportation SPLOST that would have checks and balances. And citizens would be able to express what it’s used for.”
Much to the frustration of the Georgia business community, state lawmakers and others had discouraged talk of addressing the funding issue this year while House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to eliminate property taxes was on the table.
Support for transportation funding had been divided between those who wanted a statewide sales tax levy for transportation, and one that applied to metro Atlanta only.
The version briefly outlined by Cagle seems to endorse the regional approach. Counties could approach their problems solo, or band together in groups of their own choosing, the lieutenant governor said.
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Washington group wants Ralph Reed dumped as CNN election-night analyst
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is calling on CNN to remove Republican strategist Ralph Reed from its team of election-night analysts, calling Reed “a proven liar” who carries a grudge against GOP presidential candidate John McCain.
Reed, former chairman of the state GOP and ex-head of the Christian Coalition, was one of CNN’s unpaid commentators last week, as votes from the New Hampshire primary rolled in. His presence was later noted in a Washington Post blog.
Saturday’s Republican primary vote in South Carolina also provides some context for this development. Here’s a related piece in today’s Post.
Says CREW:
“Reed’s disdain for Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, stems from Indian Affairs Committee hearings the senator spearheaded, exposing Reed’s work on behalf of [Washington lobbyist Jack] Abramoff’s tribal clients.
“Reed’s primary opponent in the lieutenant governor race publicized the information that came out during the hearings, contributing to Reed’s defeat at the polls.
“It has been reported that Reed’s defenders allege that Sen. McCain released the email exchanges between Reed and Abramoff in revenge for Reed’s support of President Bush in the 2000 campaign. Given Reed’s hostility to Sen. McCain, Reed is hardly an unbiased voice commenting on the Republican candidates’ race for their party’s nomination.”
We’re putting calls into CNN and Reed now.
The Senate bids a not-so-fond farewell to the guns-in-parking-lots bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Senate takes up the drastically narrowed guns-in-parking lot bill today — which might, or might not, apply only to those Georgians who carry concealed weapons permits.
After the Senate Rules Committee delivered the gutting on Tuesday, Joe Fleming, the top lobbyist for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, declared it a “stunning rebuke of the NRA,” which had pressed for the measure hard for two years.
But he also said this: “The Georgia Chamber of Commerce still has concerns with the legislation, including the vague, contradictory and ambiguous language in the bill.”
Translation? The organization still formally opposes the measure, but won’t mount any kind of organized opposition today.
“We won’t be working the ropes,” Fleming said.
