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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Speaker Richardson: Money for transportation this year, not later
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Wednesday night, about 250 residents of metro Atlanta who might call themselves movers and shakers assembled to discuss how little they actually shook. Or moved.
It was a Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce event, an evening to discuss legislative priorities with Republican leaders of the General Assembly. Transportation was the obvious priority.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle spoke first, we’re told. He stuck to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s talking points. No extra state funds could be ventured on improving the state’s transportation problems until the state Department of Transportation has been reorganized.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson followed. And he did not agree. He promised a House vote this session. Not on the promise of cash — Cagle has said he’s in favor of a November vote on a constitutional amendment for a special local option sales tax.
Richardson said he was ready to talk about the real thing. Money. This session.
The House speaker did mention that, if incompetence and disorganization were a problem at DOT, it might be worth looking at the current make-up of the DOT board.
A vote on that particular topic will be held next week.
But Richardson also spoke of his horrendous daily commute from Paulding County. (Weep only gently for the man. He does have a state-paid driver.) Nonetheless, the current timetable, the speaker said, could delay added funds for transportation for another 18 to 24 months. Completion of projects could extend to 2018 or later.
That, he said, was unacceptable. Richardson is scheduled to address the Atlanta Press Club at noon on Thursday. His address to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce was a dress rehearsal, we’re told.
MLK III to John Edwards: No endorsement, but ‘keep going’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometime during his icy, in-and-out visit to Atlanta on Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards carved out enough time to have a face-to-face with Martin Luther King III.
Edwards didn’t come away with an endorsement, which is perhaps why his campaign hasn’t made a huge deal of it, but a letter from Marty King is now posted on the Edwards national web site.
King credits Edwards with “almost single-handedly” making poverty a campaign issue. The most encouragement King offered, however, was this:
“I urge you: keep going. Ignore the pundits, who think this is a horse race, not a fight for justice. My dad was a fighter. As a friend and a believer in my father’s words that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, I say to you: keep going. Keep fighting. My father would be proud.”
Read the entire letter on the jump.
January 20, 2008
The Honorable John R. Edwards
410 Market Street
Suite 400
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Dear Senator Edwards:
It was good meeting with you yesterday and discussing my father’s legacy. On the day when the nation will honor my father, I wanted to follow up with a personal note.
There has been, and will continue to be, a lot of back and forth in the political arena over my father’s legacy. It is a commentary on the breadth and depth of his impact that so many people want to claim his legacy. I am concerned that we do not blur the lines and obscure the truth about what he stood for: speaking up for justice for those who have no voice.
I appreciate that on the major issues of health care, the environment, and the economy, you have framed the issues for what they are - a struggle for justice. And, you have almost single-handedly made poverty an issue in this election.
You know as well as anyone that the 37 million people living in poverty have no voice in our system. They don’t have lobbyists in Washington and they don’t get to go to lunch with members of Congress. Speaking up for them is not politically convenient. But, it is the right thing to do.
I am disturbed by how little attention the topic of economic justice has received during this campaign. I want to challenge all candidates to follow your lead, and speak up loudly and forcefully on the issue of economic justice in America.
From our conversation yesterday, I know this is personal for you. I know you know what it means to come from nothing. I know you know what it means to get the opportunities you need to build a better life. And, I know you know that injustice is alive and well in America, because millions of people will never get the same opportunities you had.
I believe that now, more than ever, we need a leader who wakes up every morning with the knowledge of that injustice in the forefront of their minds, and who knows that when we commit ourselves to a cause as a nation, we can make major strides in our own lifetimes. My father was not driven by an illusory vision of a perfect society. He was driven by the certain knowledge that when people of good faith and strong principles commit to making things better, we can change hearts, we can change minds, and we can change lives.
So, I urge you: keep going. Ignore the pundits, who think this is a horserace, not a fight for justice. My dad was a fighter. As a friend and a believer in my father’s words that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, I say to you: keep going. Keep fighting. My father would be proud.
Sincerely,
Martin L. King, III
Obama goes up on TV in Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They won’t give us the size of the buy, or say whether it’s broadcast, or simply cable, but Barack Obama’s operation is telling us this ad will go up statewide, beginning Thursday.
Others are telling the Obama campaign is making a modest entry into the state. The buy is $150,000 in Atlanta, $38,000 in Macon, and a smidgen in Columbus. Both the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns have been up in Augusta and Savannah for a couple weeks — because of their shared border with South Carolina.
The 30-second spot has something of an introductory feel, very much pointed at the Democratic center: middle-class tax cuts, troops out of Iraq, bipartisanship on health care, etc.
We’re 13 days from the Feb. 5 presidential primary, which makes this ad a tad early — unless it’s aimed at capturing absentee and early voters. Early voting starts Monday. Absentees are already being cast.
Support for a third party? Not so much
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tom Crawford at Capitol Impact has come across a Gallup poll that throws cold water on the third-party candidacy of Michael Bloomberg — and any former Georgia senator the New York mayor might ask to be his running mate.
Says Crawford:
In a nationwide telephone poll of 2,010 randomly selected adults conducted Jan. 10-13, respondents were asked: “Is there any candidate running this year that you think would make a good president, or not?” An overwhelming 85 percent said “yes,” compared to just 11 percent who answered “no.”
Respondents were also asked, “Are the presidential candidates talking about the issues you really care about, or not?” While 72 percent answered “yes,” only 24 percent answered “no.”
“The data show that Americans are quite positive about the candidates running for president so far, and believe they have suggested good solutions to the nation’s problems, marking a sharp contrast with what these same measures showed in early 1992,” said Frank Newport of Gallup.
“Thus, while dissatisfaction in general is high, the American public does not appear to believe it is important or necessary for an independent candidate outside of the traditional two major parties to step into the race in order to save the nation,” Newport added.
Andy Young on ‘The Colbert Report:’ A video appearance that works
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A very big hat tip on this one to A Typical Joe, a blogger who keeps much later hours than we do:
Last Tuesday night, former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young did a great deal to get himself past the embarrassment of that Bill Clinton-is-blacker-than-Obama video with an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”
Surprisingly, it was more serious than not.
It should be rebroadcast at 8 p.m. tonight. Or you can click here to watch it.
Host Stephen Colbert began with a video account of a 1969 hospital workers strike in Charleston, S.C. Nasty stuff — cops manhandling women workers and such. It turns out that Young and Colbert’s dad, a hospital administrator, were the two lead negotiators — on opposite sides. Good shots of Young with an Afro, and a much more pronounced Southern accent. Geez, he was just a kid.
The video clip was followed by a live appearance by the former Atlanta mayor. “I’m more than your new black friend. I am your destiny,” Young told his host.
Young said he and Colbert should try their hand at settling the writer’s strike, with a caveat that he learned in Charleston.
Young: “The key to settling it was neither of us got credit. And so you have to settle this strike.”
Colbert: “And not get credit?”
Young: “And not get credit.”
Colbert: “I like to take credit for things.”
Young: “Being humble is a difficult task.”
The former United Nations ambassador kicked it with these words of encouragement: “Listening to you practice in here, you need some writers.”
And the pair closed by singing “Let My People Go.” Really.
The robo-call and a distant apology
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So on Martin Luther King Day, a ticked-off white telemarketer sends out a batch of automated phone calls, targeting residents of black Atlanta with feigned outrage that U.S. Rep. John Lewis has refused to endorse another African-American in the race for president.
There are times when you think the human farce has no boundary left to push.
But then you come across the whereabouts of Lewis, who was not in Atlanta on Monday — and so was not at home to take his automated phone call.
Lewis was in Rock Hill, S.C., where the white mayor of that border city handed the congressman a formal apology for the beating he received there as a 21-year-old in 1961, while attempting to integrate the local bus terminal.
“I hope that by our reception today, you recognize that we are a better place, a better people,” said Mayor Doug Echols.
And perhaps some of us are.
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