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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Once upon a time, Republicans were against quickie divorces
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s use of the express lane at the Paulding County courthouse to obtain a divorce has prompted Tom Crawford at Capitolimpact.com to take a look at a recent Republican effort to slow down uncontested marital separations:
Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) introduced a bill in the 2005 session (SB 25) that would have extended from 30 days to six months the waiting period to obtain an uncontested divorce where minor children were involved, and required spouses to attend educational classes on the impact of divorce on children…
Seabaugh’s bill passed the Senate but was sent back to the Rules Committee in the House before it could get a floor vote.
Seabaugh attempted to do a little horse-trading on the bill during the 2006 session, offering favorable action by his committee on an Atlanta Gas pipeline bill in return for his divorce bill getting out of House Rules.
(Ironically, that same pipeline bill was later the center of an ethics complaint in which Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Kahn alleged that Richardson had an “inappropriate relationship” with a lobbyist working on the measure.) [The complaint was later dismissed.]
Seabaugh still supports the concept of requiring longer cooling-off periods for divorces, but did not re-introduce the bill this session.
“I still think it would be an admirable thing for us to do,” Seabaugh said this week. “I just couldn’t get it through the House.”
Republicans on earmarks: The Democrats did it!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congressional Republicans and Democrats both use thousands of earmarks every year to siphon billions of dollars out of the federal budget to pay for their own projects back home.
But House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a new website dedicated to showing America why Democrats are at to blame for the earmark process and are the chief obstacle to fixing a system that’s become emblematic of the Capitol Hill corruption and partisan hypocrisy against which voters are now revolting.
The first step in the campaign came last week when the House GOP forced a vote on legislation introduced by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) and supported by the Georgia’s six other Republican congressmen that would have put an immediate moratorium on earmarks.
Democrats, who wanted to prevent Republicans from claiming credit for reforms Democrats have already put in place, killed the bill, allowing Republicans to attack them as obstructionists.
Democrats argue that they have already reduced the number of earmarks by nearly half of what they were when Republicans ran Congress and made public information previously hidden from the public, including who would benefit from the earmark and what stake a House member has in the project.
Yet, the Republicans smell an election advantage in earmarks, made clear on a website packed with their own press releases about corrupt Democrats.
One thing the new website doesn’t do, however, is list the actual earmarks that for the first time this year are public record.
Maybe there isn’t enough room on the internet for the whole list. Or maybe the list would tell a different story, one along the lines that earmarks are really the last bastion of bipartisanship left in Congress.
Baptists knock on the doors, but find that certain people aren’t to home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hundreds and hundreds of Southern Baptists descended on the state Capitol on Tuesday.
Though they have become a natural GOP constituency, not every Republican member of the Legislature was happy to see them.
The top priority of Southern Baptist Day was to free a specific piece of legislation trapped in the House — H.R. 536, a proposed constitutional amendment that would establish the state’s interest in a human embryo at the moment of fertilization.
House Republican leadership has been hesitant to move the bill, which would require two-thirds approval for passage, because it would expose moderate GOP members in an election year.
Objections to the measure, intended to challenge Roe. v. Wade, include worries that it might threaten commonly used forms of contraception. And suburban women are a key ’08 voting demographic.
The state’s largest Christian denomination got behind the proposed amendment last November — DVDs and literature were sent to every member church — and have quickly learned that campaign blandishments don’t always translate into results at the Capitol.
“You can’t treat us as a voting bloc during the campaign and ignore us when you get into office,” said a frustrated Bucky Kennedy, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Vidalia and president of the Georgia Baptist Convention. “We’ve been used. We’d just like to see a little action.”
Blogwatch: A bill to exempt the state’s biggest polluter from fines
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On his blog, Dale Russell with WAGA (Fox5) writes today about S.B. 420, sponsored by state Sen. Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville), which would exempt the state Department of Transportation from fines when the agency violates state laws governing pollution and erosion control.
Writes Russell: “I can’t say for sure, but I wonder if this bill is in response to a story we did last year.”
Russell labeled the DOT the state’s single biggest polluter, with 11 consent orders filed against the agency, and fines of more than $400,000. His blog will guide you to the video.
Bob Barr sub for Ron Paul in White House bid? Doesn’t look likely
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Peachpundit spotted it before us, but Ron Paul’s decision to scale back his Republican presidential bid has caused some libertarians to press former Georgia congressman Bob Barr to jump into the contest.
This surfaced first on The Conservative Voice, which wrote:
Now an Atlanta-based activist with the Libertarian Party, Barr has repeatedly disavowed any intention of seeking the LP’s 2008 presidential nomination. He reiterated that stance Monday during an appearance on Neal Boortz’s Atlanta-based syndicated talk radio program.
“Right now, he’s concentrating on establishing the Libertarian Party as a viable third party,” said Derek Barr, the former congressman’s son, who now serves as his father’s communication and research director.
However, efforts to push a Barr candidacy were given new impetus last week when Rep. Ron Paul sent a letter to his supporters announcing plans to scale back his Republican presidential campaign and concentrate on his congressional re-election fight in Texas.
Several organizers behind the draft-Barr movement were supporters of the Paul presidential campaign. Last week, Barr introduced Paul at of the 35th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, calling the Texas congressman “the Constitution’s best friend” and “the gold standard of conservatism” in the GOP presidential campaign.
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