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February 2008
Chapman has a defender on the Jekyll Island Authority
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You know that on Thursday, the Senate Economic Development Committee killed three bills sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Chapman (R-Brunswick) intended to upend current redevelopment plans for Jekyll Island.
In the process, two members of the Jekyll Island Authority — chairman Ben Porter and board member Steve Croy — accused the senator of using lies to make his case. See the details here.
This afternoon, we got this note from Ed Boshears, a third member of the Jekyll Island Authority, indicating some sharp division among members of that board:
“I want to make it clear that I have not accused Sen. Chapman of lying and I do not think he is lying.
“There is a difference of opinion about the interpretation of certain figures concerning Jekyll. Chapman may or may not be right in what he is saying. If Porter and Croy want to make shrill, hysterical accusations that Chapman is lying, then they need to provide proof and the only way to do that is to have an outside independent agency do an evaluation of the figures.
“We are taught as attorneys never to accuse anybody of lying unless you are prepared to prove it. Porter and Croy cannot prove that he is lying and they know it.
“As the dean of my law school used to say, ‘Figures don’t lie but liars can figure.’ I did not learn how true that maxim is until I got on the Jekyll Authority Board. Porter and Croy’s statements are grossly irresponsible and I do not want anybody to think that I agree with or condone their behavior.”
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Look who’s not sponsoring McCain’s ATM stop in Buckhead
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican presumptive nominee John McCain comes to town on March 6 for a $1,000-a-head Buckhead fund-raiser. Here’s the invitation, and here’s the detailed article.
It’s worth noting which GOP members of Congress are not on the list of hosts.
So far as we know, U.S. Rep. John Linder’s the only one absent who has a decent excuse. His candidate’s still in the race.
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DOT to ax 150 road projects next week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re picking up word that the state Department of Transportation, in an effort to reconcile the reality of funding with an overpromised list of projects, is preparing to issue stop-work orders on 150 current road projects contained within 70 contracts.
Which projects, we don’t know. Letters are to go out next week. About half of the 35 contracts could be renegotiated, but the others will be dropped entirely.
We’re told to anticipate a drop in annual funding for the Fast Forward program — Gov. Sonny Perdue’s top-shelf transportation program — from $2.7 billion to $1.1 billion.
Since roads are a big part of politics, the cuts are likely to spur legislative efforts to come up with more cash to relieve traffic congestion in metro Atlanta and elsewhere. Both the House and Senate are mulling over different approaches that involve a 1 percent sales tax.
Shortly after taking the job of DOT commissioner last year, Gena Abraham said her initial investigations found that her inherited staff couldn’t tell her how many projects the agency had. She also confirmed that the department needed $7 billion more over six years to cope with commitments it had made.
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Obama without a lapel pin is unpatriotic, but Kingston without one is a fashion statement
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A cardinal rule of politics: When attacking your opponent for failing to wrap himself in the flag, first make sure the banner in question is fastened securely around your own shoulders.
U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Savannah) caused a stir last week when he questioned the patriotism of Obamas on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO — Michelle for her statement about pride, and Barack for his supposed refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance and wear an American flag lapel pin.
Kingston has dropped the Pledge of Allegiance accusation. But he was on MSNBC’s “Live with Dan Abrams” on Thursday, hammering on that lapel pin.
Said Kingston: “Everybody wears ‘em, from a mayor to a county commissioner to members of Congress to the president. And it’s curious that suddenly there’s a guy who doesn’t want to do it….”
Abrams: “Congressman, first let me ask you, you’re not wearing a lapel pin, are you?”
Kingston: “I will wear one and I have worn one. But I’m not making a statement about it.”
Abrams: “But you see my point? I had no idea you were going to show up without a lapel pin, but it seems kind of absurd that you’re saying that Barack Obama’s patriotism should be questioned because he’s not wearing a lapel pin, and then you come on the show not wearing one.”
Kingston: “Well, Dan, I don’t follow that at all. I’m saying I will be glad to wear one. I have worn one and I do wear one. But Barack Obama says he won’t wear one. That’s a completely different thing.”
The Savannah congressman declared that his comments shouldn’t be characterized as attacks. They were just “a little banter back and forth.”
Hat tip to aTypical Joe for this one.
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The Speaker’s tax plan: Before the blow from the left, a swipe from the right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This afternoon, Democrats in the state House and Senate will formally announce their opposition to House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to shift the state away from the school property tax in favor of an expanded sales tax.
But they were beaten to the punch by Grover Norquist, leader of the Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform, who e-mailed a letter to House members urging them to vote “no.”
“This plan, which has been modified numerous times, is now being fast-tracked with little room for legislators to analyze or fully digest the consequences to taxpayers. This is not the way to set tax policy. Barring any possibility for further review, which would help clarify certain issues and allow signers of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to get certainty that this is in fact not a tax increase, ATR urges you to vote no on the GREAT plan,” wrote the leader of the anti-tax group.
This doesn’t bode well for Richardson, who needs two-thirds of the House to move his plan to the Senate.
See the complete letter on the jump.
Dear Legislator,
As you continue to debate the latest version of the GREAT plan, I urge you to take into consideration all of the moving parts of this package and ensure that taxpayers will truly be rewarded for the fruits of your labors. Before enacting comprehensive tax “reform”, please step back and consider the implications of each piece of the package.
Many of you have pledged to your constituents that you will oppose and fight against any efforts to raise taxes. As a result, you will want to ensure that the result of this package is at minimum, revenue neutral, or better yet, an overall tax cut.
In its current form, the package contains one key element to ensuring that this reform effort is a victory for taxpayers: assessment and millage rate limits. Without these essential taxpayer protections, you run the risk of enacting only “loosely-stitched” property tax relief that could easily be undone in future legislative sessions.
Without the guarantee of limitations to local spending, Georgians could be subject to increased local spending (supplemented by higher assessment and millage rates) on top of higher grocery and services bills. If these taxpayer protections are dropped, this package runs the risk of becoming a tax increase.
In stark contrast to the rate limits, one element of this package potentially disables the viability of your “reform” effort. Calling for an expansion of the states sales tax to include what appears to be a telephone-book listing of services, is a move that both harms the taxpayer and is likely to cause great contention if passed.
In the last 6 months, Michigan and Maryland each passed a similar services tax, which were immediately opposed by voters throughout the state. Michigan legislators were forced to overturn their tax, while Maryland legislators are currently working to do the same. It seems that taxpayers do not respond well when winners and losers are selected by their elected officials.
Experience in other states shows that the more moving parts involved in a tax “reform” package, the greater the risk of unintended consequences. Taxpayers oftentimes find themselves on the losing side of the bargain when comprehensive “reform” is on the table.
Bearing this in mind, I urge you to proceed with caution. Rumor has it that this bill continues to develop and that all of the aforementioned elements may have been subtracted or changed in the process. If that is the case, the likelihood of this package being an overall tax increase goes up exponentially. One thing is certain, if you cannot identify all the moving arts of this plan- you should be wary of what dangers may lay in store for taxpayers if it passes.
This plan, which has been modified numerous times, is now being fast-tracked with little room for legislators to analyze or fully digest the consequences to taxpayers. This is not the way to set tax policy. Barring any possibility for further review, which would help clarify certain issues and allow signers of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to get certainty that this is in fact not a tax increase, ATR urges you to vote no on the GREAT plan.
Onward,
Grover Norquist
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On dealing with dissident groups: First, remove the cash from their wallets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earlier this week, the state Capitol was flooded by men and women — many of them elected officials — representing the state’s school boards, city governments and county commissions.
All were protesting passage of House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to shift the state from school property taxes to an expanded sales tax.
The Georgia Municipal Association, the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, the Georgia School Boards Association and the Georgia School Superintendents Association all carry a great deal of weight.
So now we have H.B. 854, sponsored by state Rep. John Lunsford. As we understand it, the bill was defeated 6-5 Wednesday by the House Regulated Industries Committee.
But Lunsford, one of the Speaker’s “hawks,” asked for a vote of reconsideration. He got what he wanted, and the bill stands a good chance of resurrection today.
H.B. 854 was conceived last year as a measure to require unions to file all sorts of financial information with Secretary of State Karen Handel. But it has also been amended to say this: “No public funds shall be disbursed, either through contract or grant, to any organization which engages in lobbying.”
The influential organizations we named above are largely funded with dues paid by cities, counties and school boards across Georgia.
Sounds like someone’s trying to clear the halls in the Capitol.
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Another short list — but this one doesn’t include Sonny Perdue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Should a Democrat win the White House in November, the immediate question becomes who he/she would pick for the next opening on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The name of Leah Sears, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, currently tops one list on a legal blog run by a law professor at Ohio State University.
“Age 52 and the only African-American female chief justice in the United States,” is how Douglas Berman describes Sears.
Hat tip to Jason Pye and Peach Pundit for this one.
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Blogwatch: Fight brewing over legal ads between on-line firms, newspapers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Macon blogger Amy Morton is taking on state Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon) and his S.B. 391, which would require Secretary of State Karen Handel to hire a company to run a web site that publishes the legal ads that now go to local newspapers.
“I’d say that this bill is a not-so-thinly-veiled smack at [House Minority Leader] DuBose Porter [of Dublin] who owns several papers in rural Georgia if the truth were not a bit plainer,” writes Morton, a Democratic activist.
Global Notice, a California company, “has made $1,000 campaign contributions to both Staton and [state Sen. Chip] Rogers, two of the sponsors of the legislation,” she writes.
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Keep your day job — because the other one may not be there
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Early this morning, the state Department of Labor reported that the state’s unemployment rate rose to 5.2 percent in January, up a full percentage point since November.
It’s been 16 years since we’ve had a two-month increase like that, according to state record-keepers.
“I continue to be concerned by weakness in Georgia’s labor market,” said state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. “Clearly, the credit crisis and slumping housing sector are negatively impacting the job market.”
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Hutchins takes a shot at Lewis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Rev. Markel Hutchins, who’s challenging Rep. John Lewis in the Democratic congressional primary this summer, found fresh ammunition to use against the incumbent after Lewis announced he was dropping his support for Sen. Hillary Clinton in favor of Sen. Barack Obama.
Lewis’s decision to back Clinton, a friend, over Obama, potentially the nation’s first African American president, proved that he was out of touch with his district, which overwhelmingly backed Obama in the Georgia primary, Hutchins said.
Lewis’s switch to Obama, however, showed that Lewis is also a typical Washington political opportunist, Hutchins said.
“After nearly a month of suggestive posturing, denials and confusion, it became clear that Congressman Lewis has spent too much time in Washington and too little time listening to his constituents,” Hutchins said in a statement.
For his part, Lewis said Wednesday that he plans to run an aggressive campaign against Hutchins.
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Democrats to put themselves in front of House speaker’s tax plan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House and Senate Democrat leaders, plus state party officials, will assemble at the Capitol on Thursday to announce their opposition to House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to shift Georgia away from school property taxes — by expanding the reach of the sales tax.
If they hold together, Democrats could deny Richardson the two-thirds majority he needs in both chambers in order to get the measure on the November ballot for the required referendum.
Look for them to focus on the 174 new services that a sales tax would include — from haircuts to ATM withdrawals to car repair — to make up for the property tax revenue that now flows to school systems.
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Budget tales: How a parking deck became a foray into China
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, Gov. Sonny Perdue nixed $2 million lawmakers had approved in the state budget for a parking deck in Gainesville.
In the typical, round-about-way these things happen at the Capitol, at least some of the money may go to promote Perdue’s launching of a China economic development office when he travels there next month, according to our AJC colleague James Salzer
It’s only $2 million in among $20.5 billion. But it’s one of those seemingly minor issues that typically hold up passage of budgets at the statehouse.
The money Perdue killed for the parking deck was in the fiscal 2008 budget, which began last July 1. When the House began taking up the mid-year changes in January, it left the $2 million cut alone.
But the state’s economic development agency said it needed the money. So the Senate put the $2 million back in the budget.
House leaders said they weren’t told anything about how the money would be spent, and besides, it didn’t fit with the Senate’s often-repeated budget principles that the mid-year budget be used for school enrollment growth and emergencies.
House leaders — and Salzer — finally got a list this morning of how the money would be spent. About $250,000 would go to upgrade the Georgia.org web site. More than $500,000 would go to promote a biotech conference next year (including a “golf event”) and $250,000 would be spent on the launch of the state’s new China economic development office, including “significant expenditures” for advertising, public relations, marketing.
As part of the launch, Perdue is leading a group of business leaders on a trade mission to China as part of Delta’s inaugural flight to Shanghai.
House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans) said the economic development agency has already committed to spend much of the money it wants added to the budget. But little of what the agency wants to do, Harbin said, sounds like an emergency that demands immediate funding.
“We appreciate the work the department has done,” Harbin told Salzer. “None of these meet the criteria of an emergency or critical need. That’s why we are asking these questions. If these are emergencies, we are willing to work with them.”
Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) responded, “It’s not a lot of money considering all we are doing to try to recruit businesses to Georgia. It sounds like legitimate places to spend it, in the correct fields. I don’t know why the House should oppose the funding.”
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Studying ‘Terminator’ battlefield possibilities at Georgia Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a little offbeat, but Ronald Arkin of Georgia Tech is mentioned prominently in an AFP piece today on the battlefield use of killer robots — seriously, “gun-toting” robots — by the U.S. military:
“Robotics systems may have the potential to out-perform humans from a perspective of the laws of war and the rules of engagement,” he told a conference on technology in warfare at Stanford University last month.
The sensors of intelligent machines, he argued, may ultimately be better equipped to understand an environment and to process information. “And there are no emotions that can cloud judgment, such as anger,” he added.
We did a little Internet searching — and came up with this Arkin paper on “Governing Lethal Behavior: Embedding Ethics in a Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Robot Architecture.”
Happy reading, science fiction buffs.
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A TV tale of the EPD director and the chairman of the state DOT board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dale Russell at Fox 5 had a piece on Tuesday in which he said Carol Couch, director of the state Environmental Protection Division, overruled her own staff and federal regulators to give developers permission to build on top of an intermittent stream near Lake Lanier. For a local Walmart.
One of the developers was Mike Evans, chairman of the board that governs the state Department of Transportation. Couch’s decision eventually was set aside. Here’s a link to the video.
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Schaefer says she may jump into 10th District race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun may be picking up another opponent in the Republican primary this July.
State Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville) just told us that she’ll decide “in the next few days” whether to enter the race.
This is important because it would force a three-way geographic split in the 10th District congressional contest. Broun hails from Athens. House Majority Whip Barry Fleming, who announced last summer, draws his support from Augusta.
Schaefer currently represents northeast Georgia, which provided Broun with much of his surprise margin of victory in last year’s special election to replace the late Charlie Norwood.
Schaefer also does extremely well among conservative Christians, another point of support for Broun.
“We’ve had a poll run. We have quite a large group that has asked me to run on several occasions,” Schaefer said.
And the poll? “It was pretty favorable,” she said.
Democrat Bobby Saxon has also announced his candidacy for the 10th District.
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Put it on. Put it all on.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They roasted Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle last night.
All right, they didn’t roast him. They held a match under his feet until his toes got warm.
Since the collapse of the great Cracker Crumble, that irreverent and often ribald fund-raiser for the Georgia Press Association, the place of humor in local politics has been a touchy thing.
Tuesday night’s $100-a-seat cause was sufficient — TEAM Georgia raises money for highway safety initiatives and a scholarship for children who are victims of drunk drivers.
But it’s clear that even Senate chairmen, with bills and causes of their own at stake, were hesitant to poke fun at their boss in public. A non-politician, local radio voice Rhubarb Jones, got the largest laugh.
Listing what Cagle must avoid if he’s to become governor in 2010, Jones included, “No secret divorces in Paulding County.” Not something any lawmaker with legislation in play at the state Capitol is at liberty to say.
The lieutenant governor himself may have put on the most entertaining show. He walked in with a Great Dane — no, we’re not sure why — and immediately stripped off his shirt and tie to reveal a referee’s zebra togs.
Because he thinks of himself as the peacemaker between House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Gov. Sonny Perdue, that’s why.
During dinner, Cagle stepped behind a video screen to change back into a shirt and tie. But the screen was backlit. So the audience — the portion that was paying attention — was treated to the silhouette of the lieutenant governor doing a reverse strip-tease. Into a brown suit.
Take our word for it. Cagle may be many things, but he’s no Gypsy Rose Lee.
Still, for morality’s sake, it is somehow an encouraging thing to watch a politician put his clothes on in public.
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Because nothing eases a tense situation like a bottle of water and a coonskin cap
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Finally, Tennessee is cracking a smile.
Over the last few weeks, that state has reacted to Georgia’s call for moving their shared border a smidge north with a distinct lack of humor.
“Ill-conceived” and a “heinous assault on the sovereignty of Tennessee” was the wording of a resolution introduced Monday into that state’s legislature, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
But today, the mayor of Chattanooga — portions of which would be gobbled up by Georgia were the southern state to get its way — decided to give ridicule a try.
Chattanoogan.com is reporting this:
The city of Chattanooga, facing a possible Georgia land grab as part of an effort to get access to the Tennessee River, is sending a truck load of bottled water to Atlanta.
Mayor Ron Littlefield said the water will be delivered on Wednesday by his aide Matt Lea wearing a coonskin cap.
The mayor has officially proclaimed Feb. 27, 2008, as “Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day…..”
“Please know that we are willing to help our neighbors to the south with this complimentary truck load of water,” said Mayor Littlefield. “And along with this water, we want to send Georgia legislators a message that focusing on conservation efforts would be much more productive than an ill-conceived land and water grab.”
The water is being donated by the Chattanooga Choo Choo and others. The truck is on loan from a local automobile dealership.
Obviously, this must be dismissed as a publicity stunt. Serious diplomacy would include several cases of Tennessee whiskey to go with the water.
Also, we’ve come across a letter that state Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), sponsor of the border legislation, has sent to Ron Ramsey, lieutenant governor of Tennessee.
Ramsey had been quoted as saying that any border change would require approval of Congress and the legislatures of the two states — which the lieutenant governor called an impossibility.
Wrote Shafer:
“You may misunderstand the application of that requirement in this case. Neither the United States Congress nor the Georgia General Assembly has ever given approval to changing the border from the 35th parallel of northern latitude.”
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No matter where he’s gone, Lewis hasn’t been able to escape the pressure
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No doubt you’ve seen the report on ajc.com, in which the Rev. Joe Lowery says that U.S. Rep. John Lewis is ready to switch his allegiance to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and will announce it soon.
It’s impossible to imagine the pressure that Lewis has been under, but one of our AJC colleagues, Dan Chapman, caught a glimpse of it last Saturday at the Rev. James Orange’s funeral at the King International Chapel at Morehouse College.
Two hours into a five-hour service for the civil rights pioneer, Lowery was at the pulpit and wandered into the topic of Obama. He observed that most people in the chapel were eager to see a black American become president of the United States.
Then Lowery turned and smiled at Lewis, who was sitting behind him. Lowery remained silent for several seconds until the crowd got the joke, and began to applaud.
It was at the Orange funeral, Lowery said, that Lewis told him he’d move from Hillary Clinton to Obama.
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Sonny Perdue on SCHIP: ‘Give us more money, but don’t expand past health care for kids’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sonny Perdue was one of several governors to appear before Congress on Tuesday, to urge changes in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program — known as SCHIP nationally and PeachCare here.
Based on his prepared remarks, his was a mixed message. On one hand, Perdue said the funding formula for the program punishes success:
“Georgia has done well in implementing SCHIP. We’ve done too well - in fact, we’ve been penalized for it. We’ve enrolled so many kids in SCHIP that our percentage of uninsured children has dropped dramatically. As a state we’ve grown by over 1.5 million citizens since the inception of the program, however we’ve cut the number of uninsured children by over 22 percent.
“And because of a flawed funding model that partially bases states’ allotments on the number of uninsured children, Georgia, along with our neighbors like Mississippi and North Carolina, are facing growing shortfalls.
“The better you are at implementing SCHIP, the less funding you receive. If a state was 100 percent successful and reached all eligible uninsured children, its funding the next year would be drastically cut - because no children would be uninsured.”
But Perdue also condemned an expansion of the SCHIP program to adults — with all the passion of someone on a list of potential Republican vice presidential candidates:
“It is a grave mistake to expand taxpayer funded insurance to a level that undermines personal responsibility for those who are able to purchase private insurance on their own. By focusing funding and enrollment efforts on low income children, we are reaching those most in need, those who have no other options.
“It is not the role of government to provide health insurance for each and every citizen. Our role is to facilitate personal responsibility. We do this by giving people the information they need to make educated health care choices, and by creating tiers of options that help individuals graduate from public plans.
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Vanity plates for out-of-state schools might be grandfathered, permanently
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Never let it be said that the state Capitol is indifferent to an angry constituency.
After some heated protests from voters who like to use their car tags to advertise their out-of-state college ties, we’ve picked up the first signs of some alterations to H.B. 1165.
We asked Jack Murphy (R-Cumming), chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee about a possible Thursday hearing on the bill, which could bar vanity plates for out-of-state university alumni if neighboring states don’t make it easier for Georgia grads in their territory to do the same.
Murphy said details of the hearing are still being worked out. But he mentioned some changes that the bill’s two sponsors, state Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) and Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) are contemplating.
Should the bill pass as now written, out-of-state alumni would eventually lose their vanity plates once new ones are required. Johnson and Fleming are contemplating language that would grandfather in current plateholders, permanently.
Murphy acknowledged a heated lobbying effort at work, saying his office had been inundated with phone calls and e-mails.
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Because beer is a Sunday tradition — but only if it’s surrounded by a stadium
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill to permit a new minor league baseball stadium in Gwinnett County to sell beer on Sundays is No. 6 on the Senate’s order of business today.
Look for its sponsors to immediately move to engross S.B. 454 — and thus prevent advocates of Sunday sales of beer and wine in retail outlets from expanding the measure through amendments on the floor.
On Monday, we ran into one lobbyist for the latter, who argued that — regardless of whether they win that technical battle — theirs is a win-win situation.
Even if S.B. 454 remains as narrow as it currently is, this lobbyist argued, the retailers will have this current crop of senators on record as supporting the sale of alcohol on the Christian Sabbath.
Speaking of which: We haven’t heard anything from religious groups on the Gwinnett stadium bill. But, supposing baseball to be akin to religion, some might consider a Sunday beer as a kind of sacrament.
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Hey, did you hear the one about Obama and his wife…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rep. Jack Kingston, a conservative Savannah Republican, made his eighth appearance on the ultra-liberal HBO talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher” last Friday and wondered aloud whether Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, even like America.
Michelle Obama last week sparked conservative charges that she’s unpatriotic when she said she her husband’s progress as the first viable African-American presidential candidate made her proud of America for the first time in her adult life.
The rules of copyright prevent us from linking to the HBO clips posted on YouTube, but a simple search will put the video in your lap. Kingston starts in Part II, and really gets rolling in Part III.
“The thing she did not do and still has not done for three days is to explain what she meant,” Kingston said on the show. “It would have been that simple just to say, ‘You know, this is a great country and I’m just proud that people are getting involved in this election.’ That would have been the end of it.”
What made it worse, Kingston added, was the fact that Barack Obama himself also may not love the nation he wants to lead.
“When you combine [Michelle’s comment] with the fact that the guy would not say the Pledge of Allegiance and won’t put a American [flag] lapel pin on his coat, that’s things voters are watching,” Kingston said.
Maher interrupted and asked Kingston for proof that Obama won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. Kingston said it’s contained in “the famous picture of him standing while Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton have their hands over their hearts while saying the Pledge and Obama has his hands deliberately down.
“The concern is this guy is applying for the job on the No. 1 cheerleading squad for the United States of America. Where do they stand on America?” Kingston asked.
Now, about that “famous picture,” courtesy of Time magazine, the first media outlet to run it. The political trio wasn’t saying the Pledge. They were singing the national anthem.
But the photo provoked a new, Internet-style whisper campaign alleging that Obama is an unknown who may be, as the harshest of the rumors put it, a Muslim trained in the Middle East as a “domestic insurgent.”
Lighten up, Kingston said in an interview with us later.
Maher’s show is about entertainment — though it also includes substantive debates, he said. And besides, “If you run for president you’re going to be under a microscope.”
The reason people are questioning who Obama is, Kingston said, is because the country knows so little about the man who wants to lead it.
“It hit a very tender, sensitive nerve of the Democratic left,” Kingston said. “If we know that bringing it up is a problem for them, we’re going to bring it up over and over.”
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To vouch or not to vouch: Clayton County forces the question
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The threatened collapse of the 53,000-student Clayton County school system has shed light on some philosophical differences among the state’s leading Republicans when it comes to public education.
Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) is pitching his current school voucher bill as “a lifeline for the parents of these children.”
“S.B. 458 would require that the state funding for each child be offered to the parents as a scholarship that can be used to transfer the child to any public or private school that will accept the student.
“We estimate that the scholarship will be worth about $4,150 in Clayton County. That will cover a significant portion of private school tuition,” Johnson writes in an op-ed piece snared by Jason Pye and Peach Pundit.
But Gov. Sonny Perdue made it clear last week that he wants a sharp line drawn between his package to rescue the school system and any broad call for vouchers.
“I think they’re two entirely different things. I think…any kind of bill like [S.B. 458] requires a robust and healthy educational competitive environment. I don’t really think that a wounded type of environment would be the best way to see that bill,” the governor said.
Perdue said vouchers are fine for niche markets — like special needs students who were the topic of voucher legislation sponsored by Johnson last year.
But it’s no replacement for an entire public school operation. “Our goal is to restore the Clayton County school system to health and to being a school system that serves its students well,” the governor said.
Both men agree on one thing: Nowhere in the Georgia Code or state Constitution is there currently a mechanism that allows for the state to take over a failing local school system.
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Heads up: Dick Cheney to headline Georgia GOP bash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re hearing that Vice President Dick Cheney will make his way to Atlanta next March 10 as the keynote speaker at the state GOP’s annual Presidents Day fund-raiser. Look for the vice president to serve as John McCain’s attack dog until the presumptive Republican nominee settles on a running mate of his own.
We don’t have a locale for you yet. So far, we’ve heard of no plans to close Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.
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Keep it down. Water machinations at work
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Look for word to spread very quickly that Georgia needs to cool its rhetoric on a border fight with Tennessee, lest it let a bird in hand escape.
Since December, three new Bush appointees to the nine-member governing board of the Tennessee Valley Authority have been waiting confirmation by the full U.S. Senate.
One of them is the first Georgian ever to be nominated — Tom Gilliland of Blairsville, a vice president of United Community Banks.
The TVA is the agency that has jurisdiction over interbasin transfers of water — of the sort that Georgia would like to see.
Here’s the thing: In 2006, when the last batch of nominees to the TVA was advanced, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson — noticing a lack of Georgia representation — put a hold on a floor vote until the nominees promised, in writing, to pay attention to his state’s need for water.
But if the border volume gets too loud, either one of Tennessee’s two senators could return the favor and put a hold on Georgia’s only representation on the TVA board.
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Perdue: ‘I haven’t asked to be considered for veep’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The New York Times has this today about vice-presidential talk at a National Governors Association:
Republican governors said that Mr. [Tim] Pawlenty [of Minnesota] and Mr. [Mark] Sanford [of South Carolina] were in the top tier of potential running mates, but that Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida and Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia were also contenders.
Mr. Crist’s endorsement helped Mr. McCain win the Florida primary.
Mr. Perdue said he had not asked anyone to include his name on a list of potential running mates. But he said, “People include my name because we’re the capital of the South, a fast-growing region, and we’ve had wonderful success with a conservative fiscal policy.”
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Stop by a welcome center and see what the fuss is about
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The next time you drive into Georgia, stop at the welcome center and pick up a free 2008 road map of the state.
Unfold it, and look closely at the top. You’ll see the northern border with Tennessee as a strong, bold line.
But just above it runs another, barely visible line — the disputed 35th parallel, where many state lawmakers say Georgia’s border ought to be, intersecting with the Tennessee River.
The latitudinal line was added just last year. Not as a political statement, say the friendly people at the state Department of Transportation.
Just a cartographic “enhancement.” Other measurements of latitude were added as well. They’re just not as interesting.
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The male-female fight for platform committee delegates was particularly tight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Late last week, the state Democratic party finally released the delegate counts from the Super Tuesday presidential primary.
Barack Obama, naturally, won the lion’s share of delegates — 60 to 27 for Hillary Clinton.
If you want to see the breakdown in all it’s complicated, gender-specific glory, click here. Bring a calculator.
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The serious side of a Tennessee-Georgia border war
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“You’ve got to see this. Who’s got Google Earth on their computer?”
The demand came from a shirt-sleeved Sonny Perdue on Friday, and was directed at a staff bunkered in one of his basement offices in the State Capitol.
An aide quickly fired up the requested program. “I’ll take over from here,” the governor said. Perdue bumped the aide from his seat and grabbed the mouse.
A satellite image of Georgia’s northwest corner flashed on the screen. Perdue put the cursor — in the shape of a small fist — on the state border. The latitude read 34.59 degrees.
But the Georgia Code puts the Georgia-Tennessee border at 35 degrees north of the equator. Perdue moved his cursor northward into Tennessee, until the computer read-out hit the 35th parallel.
The small fist had grabbed the middle of Nickajack Lake, a reservoir fed by a brief swath of the Tennessee River that could water north Georgia for decades to come.
“Look at that,” the governor marveled.
Last week, the House and Senate passed separate measures requiring the state of Georgia to revisit its longstanding border dispute with Tennessee. The legislation was immediately pronounced an international punchline. The state Senate encouraged the giggles by singing a round of “This Land Is My Land” prior to unanimous passage.
But don’t be fooled. The people involved in this are looking at a water shortage, exacerbated by drought, that could jeopardize thousands of billions of dollars in development over the next 50 years. A wet state grows, a dry one stagnates — and the competition with neighbors is fearsome.
Sponsors of the legislation are as serious as a heart attack.
“I don’t think it’s a gimmick,” Perdue told reporters a few hours after his computer demonstration. But the enthusiasm the governor showed in the basement had shifted to a diplomatic practicality.
“I think we have to be very careful in the way we proceed in this effort. As it gets more and more serious, the people of Tennessee get more and more concerned. There was probably a better way to do this — legislation’s a sort of in-your-face sort of thing,” the governor said.
The idea for the border challenge sprang from a conversation about 10 months ago between Brad Carver, a 36-year-old utilities lawyer in Atlanta, and a water expert with the University of Mississippi.
The pair drew up a confidential, 19-page memo that outlined the history of Georgia’s 190-year dispute with Tennessee, and offered advice on how Georgia might finally win the argument and gain access to a river with 15 times the flow of the Chattahoochee River at Buford Dam.
“As the drought got worse, this made more and more sense. We can’t conserve our way to a solution,” Carver said. The state is growing too fast, he said — and the only alternatives are desalination plants on the Atlantic coast, and the Tennessee River.
Carver handed the outline to state Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell), a former power company man who was in the Legislature when the border issue was last tackled in 1971, and state Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), chairman of the Senate utilities committee.
You can see the memo here. It contains some spectacular maps.
For Georgia, the Tennessee River has every advantage over coastal desalination plants. Save for a single mountain range, the flow would be mostly downhill. “The right-of-way is already acquired. It’s Interstate 75,” Geisinger said. A pipeline would connect Atlanta and Chattanooga in revolutionary fashion.
Many people, including Perdue, have noted that moving a state boundary would be unprecedented in modern times — and thus might seem Herculean. (Ironically, Tennesee forced Mississippi in 1890 to move its border south. Because it violated the 35th parallel.)
But remember that neither land nor lines are the object here. Water is.
“Behind all this, it’s clear that the Tennessee River is the most important part of this idea,” Carver said.
No one will admit to it, but the underlying strategy appears to be this:
For the last eight years, the state of Tennessee has rebuffed the idea of sharing any water with metro Atlanta. Build a strong enough court case with the border issue and perhaps Georgia would agree to let Tennessee keep the current line — so long as Georgia gets the water it needs.
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The Gator tag bill picks up its first opponent in the Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It looks like opponents of H.B. 1165, the bill that could curtail prestige tags for alumni from out-of-state universities, have picked up their first champion.
The measure would prevent the renewal of those out-of-state university tags unless our neighbors — Florida and Alabama in particular — loosen their rules for alumni from Georgia schools. The House passed it on Thursday, and sent it to the Senate.
But on Saturday, state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) sent a note to Tim Cowan, president of the Atlanta Clemson Club, in which he said he doesn’t care how they do it in South Carolina, or Florida.
Wrote Seabaugh:
“I can not control what other states do - they have to answer to their voters. My constituents want the pride of displaying their alma mater. That is what I responded to when I voted for the alumni plates. Flordia citizens should expect the same from their elected officials.
“I will represent my constituents and their wish to have their alumni plates.”
The above e-mail was passed to us by Kurt Raulin, the attorney and Florida grad we mentioned in a previous post.
Raulin said the leadership of the Atlanta Clemson Club and the Atlanta Gator Club are now contacting other ACC and SEC alumni groups in the state to rally opposition to H.B. 1165.
Wrote Raulin:
“It would seem that over half of the other ACC and SEC alumni are in the process of applying for their own specialty tags. Even if half of these other alumni groups are ultimately approved (say, 11 of a total of 22 non-Georgia ACC and SEC schools) that would yield at least 11,000 more specialty tags and at least $275,000 in annual voluntary contributions to the state of Georgia’s treasury.”
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A few questions about the Gator tag bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We may have just found a University of Florida grad to speak against H.B. 1165 at the hearing we know Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson will want to put together.
Kurt Raulin is an Atlanta attorney who just happens to be a graduate of the University of Florida — a Republican who on occasion has donated to a campaign here and there.
On Thursday, he sent an e-mail to Carla Klepper, president-elect of the Atlanta Gator Club, offering advice on what to say about the measure sponsored by state Rep. Barry Fleming. His bill would ultimately do away with prestige auto tags for the alumni of out-of-state universities - unless neighboring states offer similar opportunities for grads of the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech.
The House passed H.B. 1165 on Thursday. Johnson, a Savannah Republican and the ranking member of the Senate, has already endorsed it.
In his e-mail, which he copied to us, Raulin posed the following questions:
Q: Have Sen. Johnson or Rep. Fleming contacted the legislative leadership in the adjoining states to address the “reciprocity” issue in a productive manner that is likely to produce results?
Q: Doesn’t changing the specialty rules after the fact seem unfair to those Georgia citizens who followed the existing application process and got approved?
Q: Do the adjoining states not have similar administrative and/or legislative processes for the approval of new specialty tags? Are those procedures any more or less fair than Georgia’s specialty tag application process?
Q: Shouldn’t members of the Georgia Assembly be more concerned with the rights of Georgia taxpayers and voters rather than fans of Georgia universities who live in adjoining states?
The Atlanta Gator Club just finished jumping through state-required hoops for its plates. Graduates of Auburn University already have theirs.
In a separate e-mail to us, Raulin added this:
“Members of the General Assembly are supposed to be adults and voices of mature reason; their job descriptions do not include launching rhetorical broadsides against their fellow Georgia citizens, residents, taxpayers and voters who happened to attend out-of-state universities, nor do their job descriptions include attempting to deny their fellow Georgia taxpayers and voters due process and the equal protection of the laws of Georgia.
“These may be members of my own political party, but it is apparent (to anyone who has considered the underlying legal issues) that these young gentlemen have not thoroughly considered where they are taking the State of Georgia and their fellow citizens in this matter. I can only express my sincere disappointment in them.”
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Perdue PAC spent $35,500 on polling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, Gov. Sonny Perdue shifted $787,000 in leftover funds from his re-election campaign into Perdue PAC, a political action committee formed as a 527 — capable of accepting cash gifts of any amount.
In his complaint to the State Ethics Commission filed on Thursday, Bobby Kahn said the group should have filed an end-of-year report showing what contributions have been accepted in 2007.
Perdue attorney Robert Highsmith said Perdue PAC has filed all the required paperwork, including an 8872 IRS form, which we’re happy to bring to your attention. Click here to see it.
In the federal form, you’ll note that Perdue’s biggest expenditure was $35,500 in mid-October for a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies. For what, we’re not sure. It was a non-election year.
Perhaps to see what Americans were looking for in a vice president? Certainly not to see how Georgians felt about the GREAT plan.
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When Black History Month meets Confederate History Month
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since today’s AJC is chockfull of stories about the Confederate flag and the paper trail of slavery, we thought we’d help develop the day’s theme.
Next month, Gov. Sonny Perdue is to sign a proclamation honoring Bill Yopp, a black slave born in 1846 near Dublin who served as a soldier in the Confederate army. He died in 1936, and is the only African-American buried in the Confederate cemetery in Marietta.
Yopp will be a focus of Confederate History Month in April. Several of Yopp’s descendants are to attend the March 5 signing ceremony.
Say what you will about Southern history, but it is never, ever dull.
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Cagle: Attack on Cousins Properties chief is ‘political nonsense.’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After reading today’s post about Senate approval of an amendment that would oust Cousin Properties CEO Tom Bell from the Grady Hospital Authority board, an angry-sounding Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle disavowed the action with this statement:
“Any allegation that Tom Bell and the other business leaders working to save Grady have done anything other than selflessly volunteer large amounts of time to save a critical indigent care hospital is ridiculous.
“Anyone spreading rumors to the contrary should be ashamed of themselves. This is exactly the kind of political nonsense that has plagued Grady for years, and it’s time for it to end.”
The amendment was to S.B. 353 sponsored by Sen. David Shafer of Duluth.
S.B. 353 is a conflict-of-interest bill that many thought was aimed at state Rep. Pam Stephenson (D-Decatur), who is currently acting as Grady’s CEO and is also chairman of the board that oversees the hospital.
The amendment affecting Bell was offered up by state Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), a strong critic of the effort to push the charity hospital into private management. But Republicans knew what they were doing — the amendment was co-signed by Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons).
Shortly after we got Cagle’s message, Shafer sent us this:
“I drew up the bill in consultation with the Lieutenant Governor’s office long before the names of any prospective nonprofit directors were announced. The bill lays out common sense principles and were absolutely not crafted with anyone in mind. I cannot speak to Sen. Fort’s motives, but it is hard to argue with the content of his amendment. I have confidence in Pete Correll and his team.”
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Blogwatch: Explaining that vote to table H.R. 536
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This week’s vote to table H.R. 536, the proposed “human life amendment” aimed at overturning Roe v. Wade, was both volatile — and, in many quarters, anticipated.
Blog for Democracy came across evidence of both.
It’s a lengthy, well-written e-mail — which obviously took some time to compose — that state Rep. Ed Lindsey (R-Atlanta) sent to his constituents shortly after the House subcommittee that Lindsey chaired consigned the bill to limbo on Wednesday evening.
The Lindsey e-mail is worth reading in its entirety, but here’s part of it:
“Law professors from each of the accredited law schools in Georgia … testified that the Human Life Amendment will have no impact on Roe v. Wade and, instead, will itself likely be struck down.
“The problem is simple. The federal constitution takes precedence in this country over state constitutions and Roe v. Wade is based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the federal constitution. In other words, if you want to overturn Roe v. Wade by constitutional action, you need to amend the U.S. Constitution and not our state constitution….
“An attorney on behalf of the Georgia Right to Life eloquently and forthrightly acknowledged in the final day of the committee hearings that the purpose of HLA is to end all abortions in Georgia. This included abortions for rape, incest or most other reasons except for the life of the woman.
“I do not believe that most of our state’s citizens — including many of us who have deep moral concerns about abortion — are prepared to go that far in mandating state action on the subject.”
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An attempt to remove the head of Cousins Properties from the Grady board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A wave of legislation aimed at Grady Memorial Hospital passed the Senate on Thursday, including S.B. 353 sponsored by Sen. David Shafer of Duluth.
S.B. 353 is a conflict-of-interest bill that many thought was aimed at state Rep. Pam Stephenson (D-Decatur), who is currently acting as Grady’s CEO and is also chairman of the board that oversees the hospital.
But wait.
State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), a strong critic of the Grady transformation to private management, added a little ol’ amendment that breezed right through the chamber. His co-sponsor was Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), which helps explain the greased track.
“All this does is strengthen what [Shafer] is attempting to do,” Fort told his colleagues. In the Legislature, this is a loaded phrase that means the exact opposite. Kind of like a bull pawing the ground, or a rattler shaking its tail.
The amendment, now part of the bill, says:
“No individual shall be eligible to serve in a governing capacity of a public hospital if that individual is an employee or director of or has a financial interest in a competitor of the public hospital.”
That description fits Tom Bell, chairman of the board and CEO of Cousins Properties. According to the company’s web site, Cousins — with its partner Emory University — owns 50 percent of the Emory Crawford Long Medical Office Tower.
We asked Fort who his amendment targeted. He wouldn’t supply a specific name. But he said this: “How can anyone sit on a board when they have an interest in a competitor down the street?”
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Ethics complaint filed against governor, Perdue PAC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bobby Kahn, the former chairman of the state Democratic party, has filed a complaint to the State Ethics Commission, accusing Gov. Sonny Perdue of failing to file an end-of-year report for Perdue PAC.
Perdue PAC is a 527, which means it can accept contributions of any amount.
Kahn says an end-of-year report should show money from contributions from at least three givers, who have noted their gifts elsewhere on the web site:
— $10,000 from AirTran Airways;
— $1,000 from Survey and Mapping PAC;
— and $25,000 from Donald Leebern. who owns liquor distributorships in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Leebern is a member of the Board of Regents, and has been a heavy contributor to Perdue’s political campaigns.
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Seriously, about that border war: If we’re to raise troops, we’ll need stronger editorial support
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After the singing of “This Land Is My Land” was done, the paired resolutions — passed by the Legislature on Wednesday — that demand the Tennessee-Georgia border be moved one mile north landed with dull thuds outside Atlanta.
This paragraph appeared in an Albany Herald editorial:
It would certainly be a convenient quick fix for the Atlanta region, which is suffering from a drought that hasn’t ended despite some welcome rain this winter. For the average Atlantan, it certainly beats the starch out of concepts such as conservation, sending growth to other parts of Georgia and living within your means.
And the Athens Banner-Herald was even harsher, especially toward David Shafer, author of the Senate resolution:
As one man’s quixotic quest, the effort to get Georgia’s northern border moved one mile farther north was an entertaining diversion from the more routine motifs of pettifoggery and pandering that dominate the annual sessions of the Georgia legislature….
It’s possible that the Shafer-led bid for access to the Tennessee River isn’t, as he suggests it could be, a long-term solution to Georgia’s water problems. At best, given the likelihood of lengthy legislative and legal wrangling, the boundary initiative might be a long, long, long-term solution to those problems.
Yet, Wednesday’s vote gives Shafer and every other state senator the opportunity to go home at the end of the legislative session and start campaigning for re-election at least partly on the claim that they’re doing something to address Georgia’s drought-related issues.
The truth, however, is that Senate Resolution 822 isn’t likely to do anything at all about those issues.
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John Lewis no longer groovy? Hutchins to oppose him
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Rev. Markel Hutchins will announce today that he’s going to oppose Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta in the Democratic primary this July, saying the civil rights icon who has represented the city in Congress for two decades is un-hip.
Hutchins, who calls himself the “next generation civil rights activist,” will make his announcement at 5:30 p.m. on the bridge near the Richard Russell Federal Building, 75 Spring Street SW.
Hutchins, 30, is pitching his campaign as a generational changing of the guard and himself as the youthful face of the Hip-Hop generation, with which, he said, Lewis is out of touch. The race, he said, is a choice between “the generation that started the movement to the one poised to continue it.”
As evidence of a gap between Lewis and young, civic-minded activists, Hutchins points to Lewis’ decision to back Sen. Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential race even though Obama is the first truly viable African American to run for president and the overwhelming favorite in Georgia’s Democratic primary this month.
Hutchins characterized Lewis’ choice of Clinton as a “decision to separate himself from his own electorate.”
Lewis, who spent much of his youth at the forefront of civil rights movement, enduring police beatings and threats, was recently quoted by the New York Times as saying that he was prepared to shift his support to Obama. But Lewis’ people have disavowed the report.
Lewis is 67. If that’s too old to be hip, it’s only going to get worse. On Thursday, he turns 68.
UPDATE: Just minutes before Hutchins was to announce his candidacy, we got a message from Lewis’ campaign reassuring us that Lewis isn’t too old to slug it would with Hutchins.
“Leadership cannot be given. It has to be earned with respect and integrity,” Lewis said in a statement that had a sit-down-junior tone to it.
“There is no question that something is happening in America,” Lewis said. “There is a movement, a movement I helped give birth to, that creates the conditions and the climate for change. I have always been a fighter.”
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Reading other people’s promises to keep mum
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earlier today, we mentioned the confidentiality agreement that Georgia has entered into as part of the tri-state water negotiations with Alabama and Florida.
Be comforted by the fact that two civilian entities were given a place at the table on your behalf — Georgia Power and Alabama Power. Which kind of tells you that mollusks aren’t terribly high on negotiators’ list of priorities.
Click here to see a copy of the entire agreement.
Amid the promises entered into:
“At the conclusion of each discussion, the States of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, the United States, and Alabama Power Company shall jointly determine whether a release shall be made to the media and, if it is determined that such a release is warranted, it shall be a joint release of all the Parties. Otherwise, during the course of the discussions, the Parties will make or permit no public disclosure of the discussions, except by express written permission of the other parties.”
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Preserving a teacher’s right to say ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Have a great Ramadan’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Though we think a truce was declared last month, state Rep. Tommy Smith (R-Nicholls) has signed up as a foot soldier in Bill O’Reilly’s war to preserve Christmas.
But in H.B. 1265, dropped on Tuesday, Smith expands the conflict to include Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Hannukkah, and things Hindu.
The bill is short — only five paragraphs. Here’s the gist:
“No employee of the state or any political subdivision of the state or any public authority or corporation and no student, prisoner, ward of the state, or any other person under the care or control of the state or any political subdivision or authority of the state shall be restricted or discouraged in any way from expressing greetings or salutations associated with any religious or cultural day or period of commemoration, including, without limitation, ‘Merry Christmas,’ ‘Ramadan Kareem,’ ‘Namasté,’ ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ and ‘Happy Kwanzaa.’”
Happy holidays, y’all. Whatever they may be.
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Why info on water negotiations has dried up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press has this story out of Washington today:
Officials from Alabama, Florida and Georgia signed a confidentiality agreement in January that includes two private utilities and prohibits the parties from disclosing to the public details of the ongoing negotiations over water rights in the region.
A Florida seafood industry group says the secrecy deal, which also includes the federal government, is illegal and is asking the state’s open government commission to throw it out.
“It just fuels suspicion on the part of people down here whose livelihoods depend on this,” Kevin Begos, executive director of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Task Force, said Tuesday. “We just feel that we have no real say in what’s going on and we’re not getting any solid information about what’s being discussed.”
The task force obtained a copy of the agreement through an open records request after state and federal officials provided few details on the status of negotiations last week.
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Michelle Obama, her pride and ‘Beatlemania’: A sign of things to come
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Already, we’re getting a taste of what’s in store for the next nine months. One side will insist on speaking in French. And the other will listen only in German.
The network was Fox, of course, the host was John Gibson, and the video clip showed Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, saying this:
“For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”
(Some news outlets quote her as saying “really proud,” but a video hiccup prevents us from settling the point.)
In any case, the first at Fox to rake over her words on Tuesday was Ralph Reed, the former Georgia GOP chairman:
“The reason why I think this isn’t going to go away, unless she apologizes quickly, is because it plays into a stereotype about the left wing of the Democratic Party, that it blames America first, that they don’t see the greatness of America, and it really makes me wonder if somebody who is roughly about Barack and Michelle’s age, what country she grew up in.
“I mean, I was proud of America when we won the Cold War and the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated. I was proud when we expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. I was proud when we liberated 50 million people from the Taliban of Saddam Hussein. I was proud when we provided humanitarian aid to the victims of an earthquake in Iran and to a tsunami in Asia.
“I think the other thing it does is it plays into this weakness that’s developing that the Obama candidacy is sort of a modern political equivalent of Beatle mania rather than a legitimate aspiration to be commander-in-chief.”
Replied analyst Kirsten Powers: “In reference to that little speech that Ralph just gave, I mean why do people think that about liberals? It’s because people do what Ralph just did.
“They sit around and they claim that because apparently Ralph Reed and all his friends were marching around in excitement, the day that they remember that we won the Cold War, and she doesn’t rah-rah about it the way they do, that therefore she is not a proud American.
“Look this is a woman who is a mother, she is a lawyer, she’s not somebody who has been politically active as far as I can tell. If you’re asking what was she thinking when we won the Cold War when she was probably in law school, I don’t think it probably tells you that much about her.
“She has come out and she has clarified what she meant. Look, this is the front-runner. The fact of the matter is that she has been really lucky, I think that, she really hasn’t tripped up yet.”
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Lewis to black lawmakers: ‘Barack Obama is my friend, too’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We weren’t there, but we’re told that on Monday night, U.S. Rep. John Lewis popped in at the Legislative Black Caucus’ annual soul food dinner at the Depot near the state Capitol.
Lewis prompted a noisy reaction — cheers for the congressman as well as shouts of support for Barack Obama. Neither shook the civil rights icon into clarifying whether he’s switched sides in the Democratic presidential contest.
State Rep. Stan Watson (D-Decatur) told our AJC colleague Stephanie Reid that Lewis left him with the impression that he’s now siding with Obama.
But state Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) said that, in the congressman’s minute-long address, Lewis gave absolutely no indication that he has abandoned Hillary Clinton.
Lewis did acknowledge the enthusiasm that Obama has stirred. Local journalist Maynard Eaton, who also attended the event, offered this take: “His first words were, ‘Barack Obama is my friend, too.’”
Eaton said that afterwards, Lewis declined to elaborate.
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McKinney seeks access to Georgia’s presidential ballot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She’s baaaaaaack! But not to run for Congress.
Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, now seeking the presidential nomination of the Green Party, was campaigning in Washington Tuesday and told our colleague Scott MacFarlane of Cox Broadcasting that she’s working to get her name on Georgia’s 2008 presidential ballot.
McKinney, a former Democrat, lost her bid for a seventh congressional term in 2006 after she got into an altercation with a Capitol police officer. She left Georgia shortly after that, bound for California.
Still, there were those in Dekalb County who wondered - Hoped? Feared? - if she’d return to Georgia to challenge the man who took her seat, Rep. Hank Johnson. But McKinney now says that’s not going to happen.
“There are a lot of people in the state of Georgia who’d like to see me go back to Congress,” McKinney said. “But what I’m learning is that there are a lot of people in New York, Massachusetts, California, and Wisconsin who’d like to see me do this job first.”
The Green Party needs 40,000 petition signatures to get its nominee on Georgia’s ballot. So far, it has fewer than 3,000.
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Chamber to Senate: Don’t pretend that health care in Georgia obeys the rules of the market
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earlier today, we told you that Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) had publicly wondered why the Georgia Chamber of Commerce was opposing a private cancer hospital’s entry into the state.
Not long afterwards, the business organization put a lengthy explanation of its position on the desk of every state senator.
Said the Chamber:
“We often hear it argued that free market principles should be applied to health care. But unfortunately, health care in the U.S. does not respond to the free market, since 60 to 70 percent of reimbursements to hospitals and fees to physicians are Medicaid or Medicare…
“The Georgia Chamber of Commerce believes that, until market forces can be brought to bear in these cases, there should be no erosion of the [certificate of need] program in any area. For that reason, we oppose the efforts of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) to obfuscate the CON process,” says the letter from Chamber president and CEO George Israel.
Read the entire letter on the jump.
February 19, 2008
Dear Senator,
At a meeting on January 14, 2008, the Board of Directors of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce overwhelmingly reaffirmed its support of the Certificate of Need (CON) program. I wanted to make you aware of the rationale that led to this decision by our Board.
Over the last four years, whenever we surveyed our members, we found healthcare costs were the number one concern of both self-insured and insured employers. Most have witnessed double-digit cost increases.
There is also a growing concern about access to quality healthcare. Many of our members were disturbed last year when they read that some local hospitals were financially at risk. We learned that as many as 90 Georgia hospitals, many of them in rural areas, were operating at a loss. The publicity surrounding Grady Hospital only serves to reinforce this concern. Our members know that only solvent hospitals can recruit and retain physicians as staff members.
Georgians also know how important hospitals are to their local economy. When healthy and thriving, they can have a significant positive impact on local communities; if for no other reason, they are quite often the largest employer in the county. They attract physicians to the area and support a wide range of ancillary vendors and suppliers.
We often hear it argued that free market principles should be applied to healthcare. But unfortunately, healthcare in the U.S. does not respond to the free market, since 60-70% of reimbursements to hospitals and fees to physicians are Medicaid or Medicare. Only 20-30% is self-pay, insured pay or from a self-insured employer’s third-party administrator. Because of reductions in government reimbursements over the past decade, employers turned to managed care to help them stabilize and reduce “cost shift.” Together, lower reimbursements and managed care have put hospitals in a very difficult position and reduced fees to physicians, resulting in a situation where hospitals are too often pitted against doctors.
Physicians want to be allowed to perform general surgical procedures in an office or clinic setting, bypassing the hospital. This would effectively deny hospitals one of the very few profitable product/service lines they have to offset the losses resulting from Medicaid, Medicare and covering the uninsured. This practice is not currently allowed under CON, which physician groups favor abolishing.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce believes that, until market forces can be brought to bear in these cases, there should be no erosion of the CON program in any area. For that reason, we oppose the efforts of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) to obfuscate the CON process.
We congratulate and support your efforts to close the gap in Medicaid reimbursements. If hospitals are made whole in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements and a way can be found to insure more of our fellow citizens who are currently uninsured, we might then reach a point where true market forces can be utilized, which would be our sincere hope.
It is important to protect one of Georgia’s most critical existing industries — our hospital employers — from potential competitors that wish to change the rules in mid-stream, especially at a time when many of our community providers are at financial risk. Georgia’s existing cancer treatment facilities provide outstanding, first-class service to our state and region — in fact, to the nation — and they have invested millions and millions in the very same treatment technologies as CTCA. It is only fair and equitable that all new entrants to this area be subject to the same procedures as their predecessors.
Thank you for your leadership and friendship.
Sincerely,
George M. Israel, III
President & CEO
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Says Superdelegate Carter: ‘We’ll try to hold the party together’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Albany Herald reports today that Democratic superdelegate Jimmy Carter is keeping mum when it comes to whether he’ll cast his vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
The former U.S. president said he has his favorite, but declined to make it public during Presidential Day festivities in Plains. (Remember that Carter appeared at a John Edwards event last year.)
But Carter seems to think that the 790 superdelegates, who will make up about one-fifth of the votes at the Democratic National Convention, will make sure the final tally is decisive enough to avoid any split.
“One of the main candidates, either Clinton or Obama, will be a big majority,” Carter said. “We’ll try to hold the party together.”
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Williams: It ain’t good business for a Chamber to say no to business
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) is shaking its finger at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce for its opposition to a standalone, private cancer treatment center that’s trying to push past state regulators and into Atlanta.
S.B. 433 would give an exception to the cancer hospital — based on its promise that most patients would come from out of state. The bill is to come up for a Senate floor vote late this week or early next week.
Williams points to an e-mail from a Georgia Hospital Association lobbyist, giving advice to hospital executives on what to say to state senators:
“I encourage you to tell your Senators that the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and its Board of Directors are 100 percent with us on this issue. Oftentimes, the Chamber position makes it a little easier for a lawmaker to make up his or her mind, as the Legislature is comprised mostly of business people,” says the e-mail from GHA lobbyist Earl Rogers.
The GHA says it’s opposing the legislation because of the precedent it would set.
But the Senate majority leader thinks the Chamber’s opposition is odd. Why would the business organization oppose a business — and a wealthy one, to boot — that wants to come into the state?
Williams is entirely willing to provide the answer to his own question. He’s counted about 20 hospitals, medical chains and other interests that are listed as “cornerstone” donors on the Chamber’s web site, which means they donate at least $10,500 annually.
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Taxes and Republicans: The pressure of real life on the Georgia GOP
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In 2003, the first move of a newly elected Sonny Perdue was to propose a package of tax hikes on booze and tobacco, to cope with a downturn in state revenue.
The move roiled newly empowered Republicans in the Legislature, and many called the governor everything but a child of God.
Five years later, we are finally getting down to business in the current session at the state Capitol. And no fewer than four measures that will be construed as tax hikes in someone’s election-year propaganda — all backed by Republican lawmakers — are on the table.
There’s the $1 per pack increase in the state tax on tobacco. And House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s $10 car tag fee to pay for a state trauma network. And two proposals, one launched in the House and the other in the Senate, would use a new sales tax to address, in part, metro Atlanta’s massive traffic congestion.
(We’re not even counting the 174 services that would be subject to a new sales tax, if Richardson’s effort to eliminate school property taxes succeeds.)
Sponsors of the first two measures point to offsets that negate the impact of the increases. Both transportation plans would merely give voters permission, through referendums, to tax themselves.
But that hasn’t prevented rumblings within GOP ranks, and not a little maneuvering among Democrats. It’s the burden that a political party inherits when it is tasked with not only winning elections, but actually running a government.
Competency costs.
Earlier this month, an explosion at a sugar refinery near Savannah killed nine and injured dozens. Only days later, Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson announced his support for Richardson’s $10 car tag fee, which would raise $73 million to support emergency treatment available in hospitals across the state.
Richardson has paired the tag fee with the elimination of the property tax on vehicles. To Johnson, semantics don’t matter.
“I don’t run from the tag fee being a tax. It would be a tax. But I have been a budget hawk on health-care spending, and on spending in general,” Johnson said. “On trauma, that is a legitimate duty for the state to participate in. No individual, no insurance policy can pay to have the helicopters on the ready and the patient system set up.”
The car tag measure was presented to the House Governmental Affairs Committee last week by state Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Garden City). The body of Tony Thomas, one of Stephens’ best friends dating back to high school football days, was the last recovered from that sugar plant.
“We’re at the brink of the trauma system collapsing,” Stephens said.
The committee approved the bill, but without the help of an unmoved state Rep. Mark Hatfield (R-Waycross). “I’ll vote against every tax increase that comes along,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether its for transportation or trauma care. We need to work within the resources we have.”
Democrats are likely to support the car tag hike, for much of the cash raised would go toward Grady Memorial Hospital — although state lawmakers have been careful not to say how much.
Stephens, incidentally, is also a sponsor of the $1 hike in the state cigarette tax. “I don’t view it as a tax increase,” the lawmaker said.
Raising the price of a pack of cigarettes would reduce the number of people smoking. That, in turn, would lower the amount of money the state pays in Medicaid bills. And some of the $500 million raised could go toward tax credits to encourage Georgians to purchase health insurance.
House Republican leaders aren’t buying the argument, and H.B. 1197 is unlikely to move very far.
The House and Senate transportation plans are the most vulnerable to anti-tax sentiments, for each requires a two-thirds approval of the Legislature to win placement on the November ballot.
The House plan would impose a one-cent tax for transportation statewide. The Senate plan would permit single counties, or groups of counties, to impose the tax.
On Tuesday, House Democrats will propose a third way. The state current levies a 4 percent sales tax on motor fuel in Georgia. Three pennies on the dollar go to the state Department of Transportation. A fourth penny, worth $200 million a year, goes to the general fund.
House Democrats will argue that the fourth penny be permanently shifted toward transportation — not just for the repair and construction of roads and bridges, but for mass transit as well.
“This way, the money comes from current resources,” said House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin. “What we have here are tax-and-spend Republicans in Georgia.”
Somewhere on the second floor of the state Capitol, a governor has just allowed himself a small smile.
John Lewis says he’ll switch his vote to Obama?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The New York Times is quoting U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the Civil Rights movement and one of Hillary Clinton’s prime black supporters, as saying that the congresman is ready to cast his superdelegate vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
The story is here.
We’ve got a call into Lewis’ staff, but have not heard anything back.
This comes on the heels of an Associated Press story that says U.S. Rep. David Scott of Atlanta says he’ll vote for Obama.
Wrote the Associated Press:
“You’ve got to represent the wishes of your constituency,” Scott said in an interview Wednesday in the Capitol. “My proper position would be to vote the wishes of my constituents.” The third-term lawmaker represents a district that gave more than 80 percent of its vote to Obama in the Feb. 5 Georgia primary.
Ralph Reed’s advice for John McCain: ‘Build those bridges quick.’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta, who had backed Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, was to announce today that he’s backing Sen. John McCain.
Not a surprise, since Romney himself endorsed the presumptive GOP nominee on Thursday.
But to truly understand the effort that many Republican conservatives are making to unify their fractured party, look no further than Ralph Reed.
If you know Georgia politics, then you recognize that there’s been something of a gulf between McCain and Reed, a former state GOP chairman and the former head of the Christian Coalition. We need not go into specifics here.
But twice this week, Reed offered the Arizona senator some public, constructive advice on courting the social and fiscal conservatives who feel shortchanged by his success.
The first venue was the influential Beltway blog operated by David Brody, the political correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. In it, Reed called McCain’s CPAC speech last week “a good first step.”
Wrote Reed:
”There is still much work to do for McCain to win conservative hearts and minds. I talked to two nationally prominent social conservative leaders over the weekend who told me that right now they do not plan to vote for McCain….
“What can McCain do? First, he should choose a running mate with strong conservative credentials, both on social issues and economic issues. Then he should adopt a conservative platform at the convention, and run a general election campaign that sounds conservative themes on taxes, terrorism, and values.
“If he does those things, he should be able to unite the party. If not, it will be difficult to rally the grassroots and win a highly competitive, close race in November.”
Then there was the note that Reed sent to us this week:
“In the Virginia primary, self-identified evangelicals doubled from eight years ago to 4 out of every 10 voters, and Huckabee won them 62 percent to 30 percent.
“Huckabee also won the larger conservative vote 51 percent to 38 percent. It is imperative for McCain to build a bridge to these voters because he needs their enthusiasm to win in November.
“McCain’s campaign must recognize that there is no quick fix. Like any troubled relationship, McCain’s difficulties with conservatives and faith-based voters did not happen overnight, and will not be repaired overnight.
“It will require an ongoing effort by McCain to allay the concerns of conservatives and reassure them. Before he can turn to defining [Hillary] Clinton or [Barack] Obama in a general election campaign, building a bridge to conservatives and faith-based voters in his own party must be McCain’s highest priority.”
174 services on Richardson’s sales tax list; See if your business is one of them
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Glenn Richardson went before a House Ways and Means subcommittee on Thursday to give a three-hour defense of his plan to shift the state away from property taxes, beginning with the ones that pay for schools.
It’s no longer called “the GREAT plan,” by the way. The acronym has been dropped, and the new proper name is the Property Tax Reform Amendment, or H.B. 979.
Changes have been made to the bill that aren’t yet reflected online. We’re happy to be the first to bring you a list contained in the legislation — which could still change, obviously — of 174 different services that would be required to charge a sales tax, to replace the revenue generated by school property taxes.
Click here to see if you’re on it.
The list is 10 pages long — pardon the crude formatting. We had no neat way of converting the bill’s legal pages to the dictates of an 8-by-10-inch copier.
Ehrhart: Faulty ethics complaint demands criminal prosecution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earl Ehrhart is more than a little steamed at George Anderson.
The House Rules Committee chairman says he’s resolved to take Anderson to court for statements made in an ethics complaint that Anderson, a self-appointed government watchdog, filed this week with the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee.
Said Anderson: “Let him go for it.”
In his complaint, which can be read here, Anderson accused Ehrhart of having accompanied Richardson on a lobbyist-funded trip to Las Vegas.
On Wednesday, in this same space, Ehrhart called the accusation “garbage.” Today, he told our colleague Ben Smith that the words amoung to an act of felony false swearing, and are the makings of a possible slander suit.
“I haven’t been to Las Vegas in 15 years,” said Ehrhart. “I don’t know how I can not prove that. I also haven’t been to Timbuktu. I don’t know how I can not prove that either.”
“It’s patently untrue, it’s malicious and I think it meets the standards [for a criminal case and a lawsuit],” he said.
Ehrhart says Anderson broke the law he when signed an oath at the end of the complaint. The oath states: “to the best of my knowledge and belief, the above information true, correct and complete and submitted of my own free will.”
Anderson said he lobbed the same accusation against Ehrhart in a separate ethics complaint he filed in 2006. He said he complaint was based on newspaper stories he’d read.
According to AJC archives, a Feb. 12, 2006, article states that a title loan executive “flew Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) to a legislative conference in Dallas and House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) to a conference in Las Vegas.”
In other words, the two legislators took separate trips to separate destinations.
“He makes this stuff up,” said Ehrhart. “Mr. Anderson has made crazy complaints about me for 15 years and every one has been tossed out, every single one.”
Said Anderson, “Earl Ehrhart has hated my guts for years, and if I make any allegation whatsoever against him, he threatens legal action.”
Because consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, we mentioned that the state Senate had refused to take up the issue of Sunday sales of beer and wine, didn’t we?
Things have changed since then. The Senate will take up a bill to permit the sale of alcohol on Sunday. But only in Gwinnett County. And only in a soon-to-be-built minor league baseball stadium.
Republican senators from Gwinnett have dropped S.B. 454, legislation designed to permit adult beverages to be served on the Christian Sabbath in the county-built, 10,000-seat stadium that will soon house the Braves minor league team now located in Richmond, Va.
Georgia municipalities already have the power to permit such sales in stadiums, but counties don’t.
The lead sponsor of S.B. 454 is Renee Unterman of Buford. But the second signature belongs to David Shafer of Duluth — whom supporters of a statewide Sunday sales bill blame for holding up the legislation last year.
Bottom line: Richardson says life-at-fertilization measure won’t move
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We weren’t at the Cobb County GOP luncheon held near the state Capitol on Tuesday.
So we didn’t hear House Speaker Glenn Richardson say that he will not let H.R. 536, the measure to declare that life — and the state’s interest in preserving it — begins at fertilization, come up for a vote this session.
But here’s a less-than-neutral account of Richardson’s reaction to a question about the bill, posted Wednesday on the web site of Georgia for Life, one of many anti-abortion groups that support the measure:
Glenn was fit to be tied. He got very red in the face and let the entire room know in no uncertain terms that he had no intentions of having H.B.1 and H.R. 536 on the House floor. There was a bit of a gasp in the room.
Mr. Richardson went on to say that his concern was for the living children, and so he had legislation for a tax break of $2,000 for parents who adopt a foster child. This rang rather hollow, and I’m sure he knew it.
We called Scott Johnson, chairman of the Cobb GOP, who emceed the event. Johnson said he couldn’t vouch for the theatrics described above. He didn’t see the speaker’s complexion change, and heard no gasps in the room.
But Johnson confirmed the bottom line: Richardson told the Republican group that H.R. 536 would not move this year. Johnson said the speaker expressed concern that the measure could have unintended consequences, and might even interfere with the state’s ability to apply the death penalty.
Richardson also noted, according to Johnson, the many anti-abortion measures the Legislature has already passed since Republicans completed their takeover in 2004 — including the “woman’s right to know” bill and a measure to require physicians to offer sonograms to women seeking abortions.
If a tree falls in the Capitol, and all the occupants have their ears plugged, does it still make a sound?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes you have to be careful about what you don’t wish for. Take Georgia’s prohibition on Sunday sales of beer and wine.
“At this time, there simply has not been any kind of broad expression of support for a vote on Sunday sales this year from Senate members or from the citizens of our state, ” said the spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle this week.
And so this electronic petition has sprung up on the Internet. We don’t know much about it. We’re told a Republican businessman started it, but that doesn’t exactly narrow the field.
The petition is addressed to Cagle, Gov. Sonny Perdue and the General Assembly, and as of this morning had 234 signatures.
It’s drawn up in specific support of S.B. 138 sponsored by state Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland).
The petition states in part:
[W]hereas religious objections are cited by members of the Georgia General Assembly, Georgia Lieutenant Governor and Senate President Casey Cagle, and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue as the rationale for the continuation of existing “blue laws” in the State of Georgia,
And, whereas such blue laws were originally designed to enforce moral standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest, they were established in earlier eras of our history to enforce the religious beliefs and practices of some people on the entire population of the State of Georgia,
And, whereas the Undersigned clearly respect the right of all residents of the State of Georgia to exercise freedom of religion, freedom of belief, and freedom of worship….
Bo, say it ain’t so
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Political blogs are at the moment aflame with the news:
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential front-runner and decorated Vietnam veteran, just hired Bo Harmon as national political director for McCain’s Republican front-runner campaign.
Harmon, Georgia politicos will remember, was managing Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ 2002 campaign when it put up a now notorious television ad criticizing another Vietnam vet, Democratic Sen. Max Cleland.
The ad, which featured pictures of Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, along with those of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, instantly outraged Democrats across the country and upset McCain to the point that he denounced his fellow Republican senator’s action as “worse than disgraceful.”
It’s a juicy story. Or at least it would be if it were true.
“That report is inaccurate,” Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said Wednesday night.
Harmon does work for McCain’s campaign. But he’s not national political director. He was hired as an independent contractor to run the phone operation used to contact voters. And he wasn’t just hired. He’s been on the job for six to eight months.
And, yes, the McCain campaign is aware of Harmon’s pedigree, but didn’t fuss over it given that Harmon isn’t working in any decision-making capacity.
Moreover, Harmon had nothing to do with the Cleland ad that has haunted him on other campaigns he’s worked, according to the man who created it, Tom Perdue.
“He had nothing to do with our media,” Perdue said. “His job was to greet visitors who came into the campaign headquarters.”
Harmon did have the title of campaign manager, Perdue said, but “he was not involved in strategy”
Harmon couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday night.
And so it goes. If it sounds too juicy to be true….
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Smith: Regents bill intended to restore Talmadge-era reform
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Athens this morning on WGAU (1340AM), radio host Tim Bryant asked state Rep. Bob Smith (R-Watkinsville) why his bill to remake the Board of Regents shouldn’t be viewed as a power grab by the Legislature.
Listen to a two-minute sound bite here.
Currently, the governor appoints members of the board, which oversees the state university system, to seven-year terms.
Under H.B. 1156, the majority of appointments would go to the Legislature.
Smith says this would remove the governor from dominating the picture — as was intended, six decades ago.
In 1941, Gov. Eugene Talmadge persecuted two academics — one at the University of Georgia and another at what is now Georgia Southern — for their alleged advocacy of race-mixing.
The interference led to a loss of academic accreditation — upsetting voting parents greatly. To avoid any repetition, the Board of Regents was established. Their lengthy, seven-year terms would prevent any governor — who was limited to a single four-year term — from dominating the board.
But in the 1970s, the state constitution was changed to permit governors to serve two consecutive terms — a total of eight years.
“This legislation brings us back to square one,” Smith said.
McKinney recovers, wins the Green vote in D.C.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Looks like former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has recovered from her thumping in California.
On Feb. 5, McKinney lost to Ralph Nader in the Green Party presidential primary in that state, 41 to 26 percent.
But on Tuesday, McKinney won the Statehood Green Presidential Preference race in the District of Columbia.
She won 202 of the 487 votes cast, or 41 percent. Nader wasn’t on the ballot.
To be frank, we don’t know how this impacts her Green Party fortunes.
In the D.C. Democratic primary, Barack Obama did pretty well himself, with 85,534 votes, or 75 percent.
Sign up for war! See Rock City!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s border war against Tennesee now has its own Facebook locale, called “35 or Fight.”
The digital militia’s leader is Lt. Col. Jason Shepherd, a local Young Republican. He lists his address as “Chattanooga, Ga.”
In reply, Tennessee has set up its own Facebook defensive force, with the more pedestrian but accurate name of “No Georgia, You Can’t Have Our Water, or Part of Tennessee.”
The provocation in all this, of course, is S.R. 822 filed by state Sen. David Shafer, which claims that the current Tennessee-Georgia border doesn’t follow the 35th parallel as it ought, but runs south of that.
By pushing north, Georgia forces can grab a bend in the Tennessee River and solve north Georgia’s water crisis.
You have to be a Facebook member to choose a side. You can be a friend, or fight. Or both. There’s no safer place for hand-to-hand combat than the Internet.
Hat tip to Blog for Democracy for this one.
Speaker’s divorce draws an ethics complaint
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Updated at 3:45 p.m.:
The effort by House Speaker Glenn Richardson to obtain a speedy divorce and quickly seal the documents has prompted a complaint to be filed to the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee.
Read the document in its entirety here. The author of the complaint is George Anderson, a self-appointed government watchdog.
The complaint says that Richardson used his influence ”to obtain favoritism, unlawful/illegal gain, and control of the judicial system of the state of Georgia….”
“Richardson has had the audacity to have his friend/former law partner, James Osborne, preside over his personal divorce case, in private/closed chambers [and] seal the records of the civil divorce case, immediately,” the complaint reads.
The document is wide-ranging, and often vague — clearly not written by a legal professional. Included in the complaint is the speaker’s decision to deprive four House Republicans of their leadership assignments in retaliation for their failure to toe the line on the election of members of the state transportation board.
Updated material: Some mentioned in the report say Anderson is well off-base in many of the facts he posits. For instance, Anderson accuses Richardson and House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) of using a plane owned by a title loan company executive for a trip to Las Vegas.
“It’s garbage,” Ehrhart said. “I’ve never been to Las Vegas.” The rules chairman said he did use the executive’s plane once, to attend a conference in Washington D.C., but Ehrhart said the private jet was headed in that direction anyway — and that he reimbursed the company for the expense.
Anderson has also filed a complaint with the Judicial Qualifications Commission against Judge Osborne. See it here.
A Mac Collins sighting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Tuesday, who should walk out of the state Capitol but the long lost Mac Collins, the former trucker and Georgia congressman — who has yet to concede his ‘06 defeat at the hands U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon.
The immediate question, of course, is whether the Republican will run again, despite the fact that Rick Goddard, a retired Air Force major general, has already jumped into the GOP primary.
Will he join the race? “The race hasn’t started yet,” said Collins. Technically, he’s right. Qualifying is this spring.
Will he join the contest then? “Never say never,” Collins said.
But casket tags for Gator fans will require a $60,000 up-front fee and approval by the Legislature
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Walter Jones at Insider Advantage says the state Board of Regents today is expected to eliminate a 26-year prohibition on decorating one’s casket with with bulldogs, yellow jackets, eagles — any of the logos of Georgia’s 34 colleges and universities.
Jones writes:
The prohibition appears on a list of forbidden uses for University System of Georgia trademarks approved by the regents in 1982. Ironically, the list was never incorporated into the regents’ policy manual.
“It’s sort of a procedural limbo here because it wasn’t a policy,” said Chancellor Erroll Davis.
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.
One state credit card, one heckuva shopping list
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Possibly you heard that federal agents on Monday searched the Marietta home of a former Georgia Tech employee who allegedly rang up more than $316,000 in personal charges on her state-issued credit card.
But for the entire list of items the feds were looking for — from an “Impulse Cordless Framing Nailer” to a “Ruler of the Plains” print in a mahogany frame, click here.
The “Ruler of the Plains” item? She had an inclination toward Auburn University. It’s a portrait of an Auburn tiger.
Thou shalt not lie, unless thou art in the General Assembly, in which case fibs will be overlooked
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Sen. Ed Tarver of Augusta, a Democrat, has produced a pair of bills with a bipartisan future — but it’s difficult to get one’s head around the revolutionary concept he has proposed.
Tarver thinks that it should be illegal for witnesses to lie in testimony they present during House and Senate hearings. S.B. 441 would require an oath from the presenter of “any oral evidence in support or opposition of any legislation or request for appropriation to a committee or subcommittee of the General Assembly.”
S.B. 442 would impose a maximum fibbing penalty of not more than $1,000 and five years in prison.
Both bills have the signatures of three Democrats and three Republicans. State Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome) is the leading Republican on the bill.
From what we gather reading the legislation, the bill would apply to common citizens, lobbyists, and members of the governor’s staff. Even the governor himself.
But it specifically exempts 236 members of the General Assembly.
Republican lawmakers to Florida: Give us a Bulldog plate, or we’ll ditch the Gator tag
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s only one topic in the state Capitol that can unite Republican lawmakers.
And it’s not Hillary Clinton.
It’s the University of Florida.
On Monday, GOP lawmakers announced a united House-Senate effort to — let’s say it — blackmail the state of Florida into permitting vanity car tags that honor University of Georgia alumni.
Otherwise, lawmakers said, they’ll yank the Gator tags just won by an Atlanta group of University of Florida grads from the state Department of Revenue.
House Majority Whip Barry Fleming (R-Harlem), who just happens to be running for Congress and requires support from Athens, is pitching the bill.
Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said he is eager to get hold of the legislation and ram it through his chamber.
“I don’t know that we could yank an existing tag, but we don’t have to renew it. I think that would be what would happen,” Johnson said. “If this bill passes and you can’t get a University of Georgia alumni tag in Florida, then they would not be able to renew [their] tag.”
Johnson said the bill would also apply to other states — including Alabama. For a small extra fee, Auburn University alums can buy a prestige plate in Georgia — but Bulldogs can’t buy a Georgia alumni plate in Alabama.
Johnson put up token opposition when the idea of a University of Florida vanity tag first surfaced — saying that cars on blocks didn’t need license plates.
“We’ve had some fun with them — a prestige tag and Florida tag are oxymorons,” Johnson said. But this time the Senate leader says he’s dead serious.
A war with Florida and Alabama would be timely, too. Georgia lawmakers have already picked a border fight with Tennessee. Napoleon might not advise it, but a three-front offensive would be exciting.
Reed, Sekulow in on Romney-as-face-of-conservatism meeting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, immediately after Mitt Romney pulled out of the Republican presidential race, we noted that his CPAC address sounded less like a concession speech and more like a bid to become the voice of the culture wing of the GOP.
Darn, we’re good.
Turns out that after the applause died, Romney huddled with “some 50 stalwarts of the political right” to discuss making the former Massachussetts governor “the face of conservatism, as Ronald Reagan became en route to his 1980 election win,” the Washington Times reported this weekend.
Participants at the meeting included Georgia’s Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, and Jay Sekulow of Alpharetta, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, who served as a kind of liaison to evangelicals for the Romney campaign.
“The movement needs someone of Ronald Reagan’s stature and Romney could fill that role,” the Times quoted Sekulow as saying.
The newspaper reported that American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene presided over the meeting, in the same hotel where the Conservative Political Action Conference was held.
Others at the meeting included radio talk show host Laura Ingraham; former Reagan White House official Donald J. Devine; Indiana Republican National Committee member James Bopp Jr.; Freedom Alliance President Tom Kilganon; former Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri; Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis; Human Events editor-in-chief Tom Winter; conservative activist Bay Buchanan; Ann Corkery, a Catholic activist; and Rabbi Nate Segal, a Rush Limbaugh associate. Free Congress Foundation President Paul M. Weyrich listened in via phone.
Olens on transportation plan: 20 percent off the top is too much
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As House lawmakers walked out the door on Friday, they dropped their answer to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s transportation funding proposal.
They may have an immediate fan in Sam Olens, the chairman of the Cobb County Commission — but who is more importantly the chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Cagle’s plan would allow every individual county in Georgia to pass a special one-cent local option sales tax for transportation, and would allow these counties to band together to address regional issues.
But the Cagle measure would also allow the state to rake 20 percent off the top of all the receipts. This is designed to win support from downstate lawmakers — a two-thirds margin is needed to pass both chambers of the legislature — and from Sonny Perdue. The governor says areas with retail centers drain money from areas that don’t.
Said Olens in Saturday’s Marietta Daily Journal: “Having the state allocate 20 percent of the county’s funds elsewhere is a non-starter.” (We’d offer a link, but can’t find it. We’re reduced to Saturday’s hard copy.)
The House proposal would apply the penny sales tax statewide. And the state take would be only 10 percent.
Over the weekend: Franklin loses her ‘super’ status at exactly the wrong time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over the weekend, Shannon McCaffery with the Associated Press made this excellent point:
Shirley Franklin’s tenure as president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors expired at a bad time for presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
The Atlanta mayor stepped down as head of the group just two weeks ago after a year at the helm. She lost not only her title, but her status as a Democratic Party superdelegate, which comes with special privileges to cast a ballot at the party’s national convention this summer.
Franklin, an Obama supporter, handed the baton to Providence, R.I., Mayor David Cicilline, who’s backing his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It’s unlikely that the race for the White House will come down to a single vote. But the superdelegates could become critical if the race between Clinton and Obama remains a virtual dead heat.
If neither candidate receives enough delegates to claim the nomination, the superdelegates would end up selecting the winner.
Obama trounced Clinton in Georgia with 66 percent of the vote on Super Tuesday. Clinton leads the national race for superdelegates. A survey by The Associated Press found that she is outpacing Obama in Georgia as well, winning support from five of the state’s 13 superdelegates. Only two are backing Obama. The other seven are publicly uncommitted, including former President Jimmy Carter.
Clinton’s superdelegates are U.S. Reps. John Lewis and David Scott, both of Atlanta, along with state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. Carole Dabbs, an aide for former Sen. Max Cleland, is also behind Clinton. So is former electricians union leader Lonnie Plott.
U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson of Lithonia and Sanford Bishop of Albany are supporting Obama.
U.S. Reps. John Barrow, of Savannah, and Jim Marshall, of Macon, remain uncommitted and both said through spokespeople that they have no plans to endorse. State Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd and longtime party activist Mary Long are also officially neutral.
House pitches a statewide, one-cent transportation plan, with a 15-year sunset
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House late Friday dropped its version of a transportation plan, to match the one dropped by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and his Senate on Thursday.
The Senate version is a county-by-county, one-cent special local option sales tax. The House is a statewide plan - one penny collected on the dollar in 159 counties, with a 15-year sunset.
The Senate version rakes off 20 percent of the take in every county and ships it to the state Capitol — a nod to Gov. Sonny Perdue, who thinks poor Georgia counties lose out on sales taxes, because the cash flows to rich ones with massive retail centers. Half of that 20 percent must be spent on something other than bridges and roads — i.e., mass transit.
“Ninety percent of the amount collected in a regional commission area…shall be spent for transportation purposes in the regional area where it was collected,” says H.R. 1226.
The House version rakes 10 percent off the top — and the General Assembly decides where that money goes. The House also includes an increase in the state motor fuel tax.
Don’t focus on the details. The real action will take place in a House-Senate conference committee. And here you could see a new dynamic.
Promoting the Senate version of the transportation plan with Cagle on Thursday were two suburban Democratic senators — Doug Stoner of Smyrna and Valencia Seay of Riverdale. This was important.
Both the Senate and the House are proposing constitutional amendments, which require two-thirds majorities for placement on the November ballot. Democrats will be needed by both Cagle and by House Speaker Glenn Richardson — first to pass each chamber’s version, then to sign off on a compromise.
Look for Democrats to quietly require two seats in the six-person conference committee — one Senator and House member. Which would set a very, very different tone for bargaining.
It’s a protest, but they’re not out to pick another fight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House on Friday approved a mid-year budget that added $300 million in spending for the remaining five months of the fiscal year. Six lawmakers, all Republican, voted against it.
They are members of the 216 Group: Steve Davis of McDonough, Bobby Franklin of Cobb County, Tom Graves of Ranger, Doug Holt of Social Circle, Barry Loudermilk of Cassville and Martin Scott of Rossville.
“During the 2007 session of the General Assembly, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to return surplus revenues back to the taxpayers to whom it belongs,” the Budget Half-Dozen said in a signed letter of intent just released.
The six lawmakers think it’d be a good idea to do that again.
The thing is, two of the six — Graves and Scott — were disciplined by House Speaker Glenn Richardson this week for failing to cast their votes for members of the state board of transportation in the enlightened fashioned that the speaker required.
Both were stripped of all leadership positions. Graves was removed from his state Capitol office.
But this had nothing to do with that, the Budget Half-Dozen wanted to make clear.
“Our votes against H.B. 989 are not a negative comment upon the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, House leadership, the governor or members of the appropriations committee,” the document states.
Because even state lawmakers need to be protected from themselves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You’ll recall that last year, during the Genarlow Wilson hoopla, evidence used in the young man’s trial began circulating around the state Capitol — specifically a video of Wilson and his male and female friends partying, with several caught in flagrante delicto.
This circulation continued until it was pointed out that such action fit the definition of “distribution” contained in state anti-child pornography laws.
Obviously, we needed a law to protect lawmakers from themselves in such cases. And now we have.
State Reps. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna) and David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) have introduced H.B. 1020, which would bar the release of obscene and sexually explicit evidence used in a criminal prosecution.
Particularly worrisome to the Georgia Press Association is a provision that would permit judges to clear the courtroom when such evidence is presented during trial.
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Looks like that DOT vote will percolate through the weekend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Gainesville Times has this:
The Hall County Republican Party has called on Glenn Richardson to reinstate state Reps. Doug Collins, Tom Graves, Martin Scott and John Meadows to their former leadership positions.
The four were stripped of their committee assignments and other leadership positions after they voted for incumbent Mike Evans and not Glenn Richardson’s chosen candidate, Stacey Reece of Gainesville, as the DOT board member for the 9th Congressional District.
It’s worth noting, as we’re sure many of you have, that this is the home turf of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Reed, the Post and a baseless GOP nominee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes you stand so close to history that you can’t see it happening. These two paragraphs stand out in today’s Washington Post, in a Ruth Marcus column:
It’s hard to recall a presidential nominee so at odds with his party’s base. “This is the first time in 32 years that anybody’s won the Republican nomination without support from conservatives and evangelical voters in the primaries,” former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed said before [John] McCain’s appearance at the Omni Shoreham.
Reed may have reason to dislike McCain — the senator’s probe into the dealings of lobbyist Jack Abramoff showed him in none too flattering a light — but it is hard to disagree with his analysis.
Joe Lowery gloating? Not him. Never.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In one of its post-primary stories, the Associated Press quoted John Lewis and Andrew Young as saying they had no regrets about supporting Hillary Clinton — but that they were also happy to see that Barack Obama did so well.
But the 86-year-old Rev. Joseph Lowery, an Obama supporter, was less kind.
“He quipped that older black leaders who have chosen Clinton are simply ill,” the AP reported.
Said Lowery:
“They are infected with a disease called establishmentarianism. That is a succor to the folks who they think either have the power, or are about to get the power. They’re just stuck in the past and they can’t move forward. But the people have gone and left them. They’re like the drum major who couldn’t find the band.”
Catching up: In the brewing 10th District race, the GOP challenger has an unusual advantage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This presidential primary has caused us to neglect some of the nuts-and-bolts of the Georgia political scene.
That includes the brewing internal Republican fight between incumbent U.S. Rep. Paul Broun of Athens and his primary challenger, Barry Fleming of Harlem, who is now the House minority whip.
Both have filed their reports to the Federal Election Commission. Broun’s can be found here, and Fleming’s report is here.
Bottom line, the challenger in the 10th District congressional race has an unusual financial advantage. Fleming is reporting $488,129.88 in cash on hand, as of Jan. 30, compared to Broun’s $125,290.
For the math-challenged, that’s nearly a four-to-one advantage.
Moreover, Broun is still carrying a debt from his special election campaign of $272,079.
But Broun is still the incumbent, and that means a lot in Washington, especially to political action committees. Broun lists $387,390 contributions from individuals, and $84,366 from PACs.
Among the latter: $1,000 from a group called Government Is Not God; $1,000 from the Committee for the Advancement of Cotton; nearly $6,000 from the NRA Political Victory Fund; and $5,000 from the Realtors PAC.
Individual contributions to Broun reflect the fact that the struggle for this district is largely geographic — a fight for dominance between Athens (Broun’s home) and Augusta (Fleming’s neighborhood).
But donors also include former congressman Bob Bar, who gave $5,000. Broun, like Barr before him, has been a different kind of Republican.
And it’s clear that Broun’s Republican colleagues from Georgia are steering clear of the contest. U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah is the only Georgia congressman contributing to Broun — and that’s an in-kind contribution.
Fleming’s contribution list, on the other hand, reads like a directory for the state House of Representatives. Fleming reports 55 donations from current and former Republican members of the Georgia House, totaling $50,500.
Donors include House Speaker Glenn Richardson. Most House members gave $1,000.
Romney suspends, but may be angling as the voice of the GOP’s culture wing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The instant analysis of Mitt Romney’s suspension of his Republican campaign for president is focusing on Romney’s citation of the war in Iraq as his reason for quitting.
Emphasizing the primary platform plank of John McCain — now the presumptive Republican nominee — is an implicit endorsement, pundits quickly said.
And some of that’s true.
“If I fight on in my campaign all the way to the convention, I’d forestall the launch of a national campaign. And frankly I’d be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win,” Romney said.
But something else might be happening, too.
We may be seeing the start of a second campaign — a fight between Romney and Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist preacher now the undisputed No. 2 Republican remaining in the race, to become the guardian of social conservative values within the GOP.
In a 22-minute speech in Washington this afternoon, Romney just may have been pitching himself as the liaison between McCain and the GOP’s most conservative elements.
Romney spent the first two-thirds of his address emphasizing very non-McCain-like topics. And didn’t mention McCain’s until the last three minutes.
“I’m convinced that unless America changes course, we could become the France of the 21st century,” Romney said.
He spoke of a “culture-killing” dependence on welfare, attacks on faith and religion, the “celebration of pornography, and repeated his support for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage.
“Europe is facing a demographic disaster. that’s the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life, and eroded morality,” Romney said.
This was his money line:
“Some reason that culture is merely an accessory to American vitality. We know that it’s the source of our strength.
“And we will not be dissuaded by the snickers and knowing glances while we stand up for family values and morality and culture.”
Presenting John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For those who claimed Super Tuesday wouldn’t - and didn’t - produce a presidential nominee, we give you John McCain.
Mitt Romney, who was touted as the electable alternative to long-shot conservative contender Mike Huckabee, suspended his campaign today - all but guaranteeing that McCain will be the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.
Romney’s announcement came two days after Super Tuesday results boosted McCain’s already considerable advantage.
It’s a two-man race now, and things don’t look good for Huckabee, who won Georgia’s GOP primary Tuesday despite GOP party pressure to vote for the more electable Romney. McCain came in third in Georgia’s three-man race and the question now is whether McCain can win over Georgia Republicans in time for the general election
At the moment, McCain has a wide lead over Huckabee in the number of delegates won (707 to 195) and money raised ($41 million to $9 million).
And while it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, it would take a political miracle to see Huckabee accepting the nomination at this summer’s GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.
ICYMI: Anti-abortion measure, DOT vote were briefly on the same table
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just wanted to bring your attention to this story today by our AJC colleague Ben Smith:
A Georgia lawmaker demoted over an election for the state Department of Transportation board had talked beforehand with Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) about a deal to trade his vote for the House leader’s backing on anti-abortion legislation.
A Richardson aide on Wednesday confirmed that state Rep. Martin Scott (R-Rossville) and the speaker had discussed —- and dismissed —- the idea briefly a few hours before Scott and other lawmakers re-elected Mike Evans chairman of the state DOT board….
Clelia Davis, the speaker’s communications director, said Richardson never proposed such a deal, either in person or through a go-between.
“A House member … came to the speaker and suggested that some DOT board votes may be for sale if the speaker agreed to a floor vote on the Human Life Amendment,” Davis said in a prepared statement. “Speaker Richardson said absolutely not.”
How cloning might help House Speaker Glenn Richardson pass his GREAT plan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Honest to Darwin, this is the press release that rolled across our desk:
HOUSTON — (Feb. 6, 2008) — As reported in this week’s issue of “New Scientist” magazine, research by Rice University professor of political science John Alford indicates that what is on one’s mind about politics may be influenced by how people are wired genetically.
Alford, who has researched this topic for a number of years, and his team analyzed data from political opinions of more than 12,000 twins in the United States and supplemented it with findings from twins in Australia. Alford found that identical twins were more likely to agree on political issues than were fraternal twins. On the issue of property taxes, for example, an astounding four-fifths of identical twins shared the same opinion, while only two-thirds of fraternal twins agreed.
The article didn’t say what impact shared DNA might have on attitudes toward a replacement sales tax.
Good morning. All hell will now break loose
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Republicans this morning will try to force a vote on an earmark moratorium, a strategy in which Georgia Republicans have played a crucial role developing.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Jack Kingston, a Savannah Republican, and co-sponsored by the six other GOP members of the Georgia delegation, would establish a 16-member study commission to review all aspects of often-secretive earmark process, which allows lawmakers to slip funding for pet projects into massive spending bills with little or no public review.
Under the bill, no earmarks could be introduced while the commission is conducting its study.
The bill calls for greater transparency in the process and would require all earmarks to be categorized as national, military, or as a local project, making pet projects easier to identify and oppose.
The Georgia delegation sought more than $200 million in earmarks in the 2008 federal budget, but at least three Republicans have since vowed to stop using them.
Oh, those Young Republicans: ‘Talk radio is inflammatory, divisive’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Things were moving too fast on Tuesday to make mention of it, but the Georgia Young Republicans have picked a fight with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham over their denunciation of emerging Republican nominee John McCain.
“It’s hard enough to reunite after a tough primary process,” said Jason Shepherd, chairman of the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs. “They talk into a microphone or TV camera with no consequences and it is us activists that must pay the price as we fight for our candidates precinct by precinct.”
While specifically excluding local talk artist Neal Boortz, the group’s board of directors issued a resolution that “condemns and denounces the actions and speech over the past several weeks by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and others for breeding contempt, disunity and hatred among the Republican Party in order to bolster their own careers.”
Read the entire collection of whereases and therefores on the jump.
Whereas: Political Pundits like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter, along with other talk show hosts in national and local markets, have viciously attacked Republican candidates running in the primary election; and
Whereas: Many of these same pundits have used their shows and their vast audiences to spread disunity among Republicans when we need to be uniting to face the greater threat to our national security and well being that is embodied in the Democrat candidates for President; and
Whereas: Despite all of these pundits invoking the greatness of Ronald Reagan, none of them have paused for a second to remember Reagan’s 11th Commandment; and
Whereas: Each of the above named have, through their actions and words, lost the confidence of millions of their fans and Republican voters; and
Whereas: The members of the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs are prepared to support our nominee, whether he is Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul or Mitt Romney, against the real threat, the Democrat nominee; now
Therefore, be it resolved, this 5th Day of February, 2008, that the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs strongly condemns and denounces the actions and speech over the past several weeks by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and others for breeding contempt, disunity and hatred among the Republican Party in order to bolster their own careers; and
Therefore, be it FURTHER resolved, that the Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs praises talk show hosts like Neal Boortz, who, despite making their preference known, have chosen not to make it their mission to tear down other GOP candidates.
The Baptist factor: ‘How much does it matter that a candidate shares your beliefs?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If there was one exit poll question that captured the dynamics of Mike Huckabee’s win in Georgia last night, it was this one:
“How much does it matter to you that a candidate shares your religious beliefs?”
Thirty-seven percent said it mattered “a great deal.” Of those, 58 percent voted for Huckabee, 25 percent voted for John McCain, and 15 percent chose Mitt Romney.
Romney’s Mormonism — and Huckabee’s former position as a Southern Baptist preacher — clearly played a role among voters.
The Romney campaign played into it, actually. Late last night, less than an hour before the polls closed, the Romney campaign let loose with a robo-call that broadcast the denunciation of John McCain by James Dobson, the influential leader of the evangelical group Focus on the Family.
Dobson listed McCain’s many sins, including support for embryonic stem cell research, opposition to a gay marriage ban for the U.S. Constitution, and the use of “foul and obscene” language.
But Dobson didn’t say who evangelical voters should vote for, leaving many to guess. And on Tuesday, in many cases, like chose like.
Meanwhile, in California: Cynthia McKinney takes a dive
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While Hillary Clinton was muscling through a big win in California on Tuesday, Cynthia McKinney was getting trounced by Ralph Nader in that state’s Green Party presidential primary.
Nader took 61 percent of the vote. The former Georgia congresswoman came in a distant second with only 26 percent, or 7,152 votes statewide.
By comparison, in Georgia, Democrats in her old haunt of DeKalb County cast a total of 148,773 votes.
McKinney did win San Francisco County with 46 percent of the vote. But Nader walloped her everywhere else.
Watercooler ammunition for Democrats: They won the generic ballot race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a Democrat, this is the number you should be cheering about: 1,012,747.
That’s how many Democratic votes are recorded on Secretary of State Karen Handel’s web site this morning.
That’s 52 percent of all ballots counted.
The Republican vote total comes to 937,604.
The morning numbers put turnout at more than 43 percent. A record, we think.
In the 1988 presidential primary, turnout hit 40 percent, with 622,752 Democratic ballots cast and 400,928 Republican ones.
For Hillary Clinton supporters, the news in Georgia was pretty grim. We advise quickly shifting the subject to California.
According to our exit polling:
— Hillary Clinton won white women by 56 percent, virtually the only demographic group she claimed last night. Barack Obama even won among white men, albeit narrowly.
— Clinton also won among people over 65 years old, but no other age group.
— While in other states we’ve seen Clinton do well among lower income households and those who never went to college, there was no blue-collar bump for her here.
— 92 percent of Democrats who voted Tuesday rated the economy “not so good” or “poor.”
— There were signs of a Bill Clinton backlash. About a quarter of Democratic voters said they had an unfavorable opinion of President Bill Clinton. Of those, more than 80 percent voted for Obama.
— All in all, Clinton can say she finished a close third in a five-person race. And Romney finished last. The current totals:
Obama: 671,158 votes
Huckabee: 318,860
Clinton: 315,633
McCain: 295,242
Romney: 283,205
Watercooler ammunition for Republicans: How Tuesday’s vote went down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s talk Republicans first, since they were more interesting.
Much of the GOP establishment went with Mitt Romney, including four congressmen and Sadie Fields, leader of the Georgia Christian Alliance.
Georgia’s two U.S. senators went with McCain, as did House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
But the GOP base chose Mike Huckabee, the candidate chosen by U.S. Rep. John Linder. There’s no indication that Huckabee’s endorsement of the Fair Tax — supported by Linder — did Huckabee a great deal of good, but neither is their any evidence that it did the former Arkansas governor any harm.
Geographically, Mitt Romney did best among establishment Republicans in suburban Atlanta. He won seven counties: Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Fayette, Forsyth, and — his only south Georgia victory — Glynn.
But Romney’s suburban victories were narrow, and couldn’t keep up with the margin that Mike Huckabee rolled up in rural and exurban Georgia — Democratic counties brought into the Republican camp by Sonny Perdue. Huckabee’s counties included Houston, Bibb and Cherokee.
McCain did well in counties with a heavy military population, including Richmond and Muscogee. But he also took Savannah and Chatham County, where Romney was supposed to have done well.
According to our exit polls:
Of those participating in the Georgia Republican primary, half said shared values were more important in a candidate than experience, religious beliefs or electability in November. And among those voters, Huckabee won half of those votes — by far the largest share. McCain received 14 percent, and Romney 31 percent. This is evidence that Romney’s Mormonism was indeed a factor in Tuesday’s results.
Huckabee received more than half the support of Georgia’s most devout Republicans - those who attend church or synagogue more than once a week.
Huckabee did better than his two main rivals among women, who made up slightly less than half of the GOP electorate.
Huckabee did particularly well among voters under 30, while McCain and Romney were splitting those over 45.
Throughout the campaign, Huckabee has aimed his message at what he calls “Walmart Republicans, not Wall Street Republicans.” According to the exit polls, Huckabee had his highest success among those whose family income is than $50,000 a year, and among those voters with no college degree.
The most highly educated among voters, those with college degrees or better, leaned toward Romney.
Surprisingly, Huckabee got a greater share of those who identified themselves as independent than did McCain.
Huckabee and Romney split those who called themselves somewhat or very conservative - more than two-thirds of the electorate. McCain did far better among those who considered themselves moderates.
Of the three candidates, McCain did best among those who expressed negative feelings about the Bush Administration, and worse who had positive thoughts about the current administration.
McCain, who has argued that his push for a surge of U.S. troops has turned the tide in Iraq, did best among those GOP voters who disapprove of the war. Of the three candidates, McCain was doing the poorest among those who approved of the war.
Last-minute robo-call blast from Romney: Huckabee and McCain in cahoots
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In an indication that this Republican primary race will remain tight through the night, we’ve got a Cobb County home that at 6:10 p.m. received a robo-call from the Mitt Romney campaign, referencing the James Dobson condemnation on the Laura Ingraham radio program. (Click here for previous post).
The phone message, sent out a mere 50 minutes before polls closed, quoted Dobson, founder of the evangelical Focus on the Family organization:
‘I’m deeply disappointed the Republican party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, who voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, who opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, and who has little regard for freedom of speech, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.”
This seems like a good place to remind readers that, at least technically, McCain is a former sailor.
And we just we just got a phone call from the national Romney campaign, giving us the script of another automated telephone they’re putting out in Georgia.
Click here for the sound.
The last-minute blast — the campaign won’t tell us how many households it will hit — accuses John McCain and Mike Huckabee of collusion, and appears to be referencing this blog posting by Jim Wooten.
Here’s the script:
“Mike Huckabee and John McCain have joined forces to insure that the conservative agenda gets derailed during today’s primary voting. In fact the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that today’s convention vote in West Virginia was reminiscent back to the days of “smoke filled rooms and backroom deals” when McCain threw his votes to Huckabee in order to stop Mitt Romney from winning.
“In fact, the Journal-Constitution said ‘Huckabee is the spoiler. He has no chance of getting the nomination, but he’s certainly useful to McCain — as today’s alliance indicates.’
“Don’t let liberal John McCain and Mike Huckabee beat conservative values. Vote for the real conservative- Mitt Romney.”
Now, out of fairness, we need to note that Mitt Romney blew through Atlanta on Monday, and had this message for Huckabee, who was complaining of rough treatment. “No whining,” Romney said.
Ratings on Clinton’s town hall meeting delayed until after Super Tuesday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve picked up some e-mail traffic indicating that Nielsen has delayed the release of yesterday’s national cable overnight ratings “due to an issue loading necessary reference data updates.”
The numbers are to be released at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Which means we won’t know how many people tuned in to Hillary Clinton’s town hall meeting on the Hallmark channel until after Super Tuesday.
Conspiracy theorists are having a ball with the topic.
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Leslie has a crush on Obama too
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Have you already watched all of the Barack Obama tribute videos on YouTube? Seen all the stunts and songs?
Well, folks from Atlanta have contributed a number of tributes of their own, including a three-video series on Obama’s wife, Michelle, speaking in Georgia.
But here’s one we came across featuring Leslie, a “mostly stable mom” from the ATL, who skips the traditional testimonial for a song and dance number.
Leslie did err in describing Obama’s record on the Iraq war. But she corrected the mistatement in a second video.
Leslie reassures viewers that her video isn’t intended to put down Obama’s chief competitor in today’s 20-plus state primaries, Hillary Clinton. Still, the only thing she said about Hillary was a line from “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne: “She’s like so whatever, you can do so much better.”
Talk radio goes after McCain; James Dobson says if McCain wins, he won’t vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With presidential primaries rolling toward evening rush-hour, much of conservative talk radio — led by Rush Limbaugh — has convulsed at the thought of John McCain as the Republican nominee, and is pushing its listeners to Mitt Romney.
The Romney campaign has just put out this YouTube link to this morning’s broadcast by Laura Ingraham, heard in Atlanta on WGKA (920AM), in which Ingraham reads a statement damning McCain by James Dobson, leader of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family.
In part, the statement reads:
“But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime.
“I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life.”
We don’t think radio guru Neal Boortz in Atlanta — whose conservatism can’t exactly be called orthodox — joined in the McCain bashing. You can read his comments here.
Evans on long voting lines: ‘We can’t think this is a good sign for November’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Election Board member Randy Evans, who earlier expressed concerns about a lack of poll workers today, had this to say to our colleague Ben Smith about the long lines being reported:
“When Walmart sees lines, it will consider the possibility that it does not have enough cashiers. As we now see lines at the polls in Georgia, unacceptably long lines on a primary day (as opposed to the general election) with a very short ballot, we can’t think this is good sign for November. It is not enough to be thankful that voters showed up. Instead, there needs to be an active effort to accommodate the large numbers of voters who do show up so that they will be more inclined to come back again.”
More on robo-calls: What Hillary’s saying, and how she might know your name
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With so many states and money spread so thin, it’s no wonder that Georgia is swimming in automated phone calls.
A reader has kindly sent us sound from a robo-call originating with the Hillary Clinton campaign. Click here to listen.
Judging from the message, the campaign might be worried that their supporters might give into predictions of a Barack Obama win in Georgia - and perhaps wander into a Republican booth.
“It’s going to close, and I need your help,” Clinton says.
Also, in an earlier post, we wondered about a Mitt Romney robo-call that addressed voters by their first names. A Republican operative, who asked to remain anonymous, sent this explanation:
“It is a relatively new technology in politics that started back in 2006.
“I tested it when I was at the [place he worked]. Basically, the caller records around 540 common names (yes, one at a time) and it is supposed to match up with about 80 to 85 percent of the voter file. You can include several rotated messages, like a name, time of the call (like Romney did saying, “Monday afternoon”), county, and issues targeted toward that particular voter.
“Depending on how many interchangeable sections you have in the call, they tend to cost 10 times the cost of an ordinary 40-50 second auto-call. However, if you can afford them, they penetrate a few percentages more because the personalized message, name, issue, location, etc. supposedly catches your attention.
“These typically work well when you have a micro-targeting project on voters’ issue preferences.
“I recorded over 500 names, 7 days with three time periods each, 15 cities, and five individual issues for our test. It took me about an hour and a half to record everything and it sliced together very well just like your Romney call.”
About those NRA contributions …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Someone in the state Capitol took the trouble to send us a spreadsheet of all the money the National Rifle Association has handed out to state lawmakers and others this cycle.
The total came to $22,750, given to 20 senators, 13 House members, one lieutenant governor and a state attorney general.
Here’s the thing: The Senate conferees on H.B. 89, the NRA-backed gun bill to end all gun bills, are Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour of Snellville, Ronnie Chance of Tyrone, and Joseph Carter of Tifton.
None of them are listed as having received a dime from the NRA.
Oops.
Romney launches last-minute, robo-call assaults on McCain, Huckabee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of us lives in Cobb County, and is thus able to listen to much of the automated traffic that travels over Republican phone lines.
In Monday evening’s collection of answering machine messages are a pair of attacks on both John McCain and Mike Huckabee, paid for by the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
John McCain began the string over the weekend. We’ll go through the rest — who called Monday — one by one:
— Cindy McCain, wife of the candidate, called to reaffirm her husband’s earlier promise “to lead our nation and our party as a Ronald Reagan conservative.”
Her message: “As you may know, we have two children serving in the active duty military….”
— Then came the first Romney call. “Hello, James. This is Governor Mitt Romney.” We don’t know how he knew, but it got our attention.
The candidate said the White House needed “someone with the vision and the values and the experience to bring real conservative change to Washington.”
— Then came a call from Georgia Right to Life endorsing Mike Huckabee, who — the voice said — “has the strongest position on all the life issues of any of the remaining candidates for president.”
— Which was followed by a Romney attack on his principle rival:
“John McCain and Ted Kennedy wrote an amnesty bill. And McCain teamed with another liberal Democrat to write campaign finance reform.
“John McCain also joined with Democrats to vote against the Bush tax cuts. And listen to what Bill Clinton says about John McCain: ‘She and John McCain are very close. They always laugh that if they wind up being the nominees of their party, it would be the most civilized election in American history.’
“No wonder former Senate Republican leader Rick Santorum said — quote — John McCain was not only against us, but leading the charge on the other side.”
— But then Johnny Isakson called to reassure the family that McCain “will limit spending in Washington and eliminate pork in our federal budget.”
— The second attack by Romney followed, this time on Huckabee:
“Mike Huckabee raised taxes by $500 million and increased the sales tax by 37 percent. Huckabee pushed state-funded scholarships and tuition for illegal immigrants.
Mike Huckabee even criticized President Bush’s policies on the war on terror. That’s why conservative leaders [and radio talk show hosts] like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are supporting Mitt Romney for president.”
This is the heart of the message:
“Don’t split the conservative vote. Let’s stop the McCain moderates, and take back our party with a viable conservative candidate for president.”
— As we transcribed this, a Democrat in Atlanta called with a misplaced robo-call from Huckabee, who declared himself the candidate “for authenticity, conviction and proven leadership”
Said Huckabee: “I’ll never sacrifice our principles for anybody’s politics.” That, in case you have no ear for politics, was a clear shout-back at Romney.
Ga. Republicans to Bush: ‘That ain’t pork’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Bush released a record $3 trillion budget proposal for 2009 on Monday and he’s left at least three Georgia Republicans stomping their feet, and shouting at him.
Bush included in that budget no construction money for the expansion of Savannah Harbor, upsetting both of Georgia’s Republican senators - Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss - along with Rep. Jack Kingston, a Savannah Republican and member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Kingston called Bush’s action a “shock and disappointment.”
The expansion project includes deepening the harbor from its current 42 feet to 48 feet to allow for larger cargo ships to dock there. Bush is providing $700,000 for planning and design work but nothing for construction.
The three lawmakers vowed to add construction money to the budget as it moves through Congress. They didn’t say how much they’d seek, but Kingston said that with the public down on “pork barrel” spending, it’s going to be harder than ever to get the additional money.
“This is the type of investment that would put Georgians back to work at a time when we need to revive the economy,” Kingston said. “We will work hard but, with the backlash against earmarks, getting funding will be an uphill battle.”
Sadie Fields says she’s for Mitt Romney
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After remaining on the sidelines for months, Sadie Fields, the chairman of the Georgia Christian Alliance, on Monday took the stage with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a Georgia Tech rally.
Fields stood right behind Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and gave her personal endorsement of Romney in an interview afterwards.
“I believe that Governor Romney is the best man to run the country for the next eight years. He’s the only candidate running who has created jobs,” said Fields, whose Christian Alliance — formerly the Georgia Christian Coalition — is the most active religious conservative political group in the state.
Since early last year, Fields had refused to make an endorsement in the Republican presidential contest, declaring that none of them appealed to her.
But on Monday she said that she found McCain to be unacceptable because of his sponsorship of compromise bills on immigration and the environment, and because of his backing of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill — which Fields described as an attack on free speech.
On Saturday, Fields had declared an endorsement of McCain by U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss to be “disappointing.”
When asked about Mike Huckabee, Fields simply said, “I believe Romney is the best qualified to handle our economic problems.”
With 24 hours to go, a Huckabee message to Romney
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the final 24 hours of the Georgia presidential primary, it’s notable that Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee continues to take aim at Mitt Romney — not John McCain.
He’s decided it’s easier to pry votes away from Romney than from the candidate who’s getting more and more support from the GOP establishment.
Huckabee doesn’t have the resources of the Romney campaign. But he set up an e-mail tree to spread a video addressed to his supporters, made during his Sunday visit to Macon.
The video employs what’s become his trademark sense of humor:
“Don’t let anyone who’s going to vote for us stay home. And if there’s somebody you know who’s not going to vote for us, don’t let them out of their house,” Huckabee says. “You let the air out of their tires and keep them from getting out. Tell them the primary’s been moved to March. But don’t let them near a voting booth until after Tuesday.”
But all of Huckabee’s invective is saved for Romney:
“Mr. Romney has spent about $100 million to have basically the same number of delegates that I have, and I’ve spent about $7 million. You know with the business background he has you’d think at this point he’d come to the conclusion that he’s not selling his soap very well….
“I’ve got a suggestion, Mr. Romney. Rather than me drop out, why don’t you give it up and go back to Boston?”
That’s a rather Southern thing to say, if you think about it. And we’re sure Huckabee has.
Putting a stake through the heart of an already dead gun bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson of Savannah on Monday threw a few more handfuls of dirt on H.B. 89, the guns-in-parking-lots bill that was loaded up by the House with new rules on where concealed weapons could be carried.
The Senate deep-sixed the bill on Friday by rejecting the changes.
“The Senate disagreed with the floor amendments that the House passed. It sends a confusing message to the public when we say you can’t smoke in a restaurant but you can carry a concealed weapon,” Johnson said.
Also, the Republican leader said he was troubled by the provisions that allowed those with concealed weapons permits to bring their weapons to church and other public places.
“Those amendments did not go through a committee process. They did not really go through a good floor debate, because the House had just been dealing with charter schools for a long time,” he said.
The Senate leader said that when the chamber goes back into session on Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle will name three senators to a House-Senate conference committee to determine the bill’s future: Don Balfour of Snellville, Ronnie Chance of Tyrone, and Joseph Carter of Tifton.
Balfour, the Senate Rules chairman, has sided with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce every step of the way in the group’s opposition to the bill. Chance and Carter are floor leaders for Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Chip Rogers of Woodstock was the original sponsor of the guns-in-parking-lots bill, and it’s customary for the originating lawmaker to be part of a conference committee.
“I think you all know the significance of those appointments,” Johnson told reporters.
Two GOP polls, an evangelical push for Huckabee, and thinking about the next vote — in 2012
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Insider Advantage has a poll today that shows Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with a statistically insignificant lead over John McCain in Georgia.
The IA survey puts Romney at 30 percent; McCain at 29 percent, and Mike Huckabee at 28 percent. Margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.
But a second firm, Public Policy Polling of North Carolina, also issued some survey results this afternoon that showed McCain at 31 percent; Romney at 29 percent; and Huckabee at 27 percent.
And we’ve talked to two evangelical leaders, separately and in the space of 30 minutes, who predict that when the dust settles on Tuesday, the ranking will be McCain, Huckabee and Romney.
We’re told of an e-mail that’s being passed among religious conservative voters, urging them to line up behind Huckabee — not with victory in mind, but to give the former Arkansas governor a strong showing so that he might serve as a watchdog when the topic of abortion comes up before the platform committee of the Republican National Convention this summer.
We’ll try to get you a copy of it.
Meanwhile, despite the fact that the top three Republican presidential candidates have shown up in Georgia in the past three days, Senate president pro tem Eric Johnson says he’s disappointed by the lack of attention the state has received by moving up its presidential primary to Feb. 5.
Perhaps, he said, Georgia ought to look at delaying its 2012 vote by a week.
“We might be better off as a single stand instead of a group of states,” he said.
McCain working the phones as Romney comes to town
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to arrive at Georgia Tech at noon. Meanwhile, John McCain is making the most use of robo-calls to establish his presence, at least in one section of Cobb County.
McCain put up this one on Saturday. U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss recorded one for him that was sent out to Republican voters on Sunday. Unfortunately, we don’t have a recording of it. And Monday morning, McCain’s wife Cindy was the featured speaker on this robo-call.
That’s three McCain calls to one issued by Mitt Romney over the weekend. Couldn’t locate any sound on it, though.
Fallout from the DOT race: A grave matter with two meanings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Because the vote on members of the state transportation board occurred so late on Friday, reverberations are only hitting the state Capitol today.
Most people know that state Rep. Tom Grave (R-Ranger) was stripped of his leadership positions and evicted from his state Capitol office for his refusal to support House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s failed attempt to oust Mike Evans from his spot as DOT board chairman.
But only now are they coming to realize that Graves had been running the House Ways and Means subcommittee in which Richardson’s GREAT plan now resides. And the bill to eliminate school property taxes hasn’t generated a great deal of traction.
Also, the Gainesville Times is reporting this morning that state Rep. Doug Collins (R-Gainesville) has been stripped of his Health and Human Services subcommittee chairmanship for the same reason.
“This is something I knew could possibly happen if I voted for Mike Evans,” Collins told the Times. “It’s very frustrating, but I felt the need to vote my conscience and my constituency. I made those decision based on what I felt was best for this community.”
Suppose elections had a corporate sponsor. Oh, wait. They do.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tomorrow’s Georgia presidential primary has been brought to you by the law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge.
Not literally. But nearly so.
Late last week, perhaps a hundred or so of metro Atlanta’s most influential suits — judges, corporate officers, a few politicians — stepped into an elevator that took them to the law firm’s 53rd floor of the SunTrust building on Peachtree Street.
For the visitors, it was a chance catch a spectacular view of a darkening city and its rivers of fleeing headlights. And to get an inside-skinny briefing on a pair of presidential contests bearing down on Georgia like a red bull overdosed on Red Bull. Wine and hors d’oeuvres to follow.
For McKenna Long, the evening was a chance to show off its stable of attorneys. Panelists included Gordon Giffin, the primary Georgia contact for Democrat Hillary Clinton; Eric Tanenblatt, Republican Mitt Romney’s top man in the state; and Randy Evans, who, if Newt Gingrich had run for president, would have been his top advisor.
Scattered in the audience were other attorneys for the firm, sporting other, sometimes out-moded, presidential specialties: Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, even Michael Bloomberg. Buddy Darden, the former congressman, served as Democrat Bill Richardson’s Georgia contact.
Zell Miller, another resident of McKenna Long, was absent. But Keith Mason, who served as chief of staff to the former governor, was present. Another Clinton ally. Perhaps your place of business discourages political debate. At McKenna Long, it’s required.
As a result, the firm has become a large part of how politics works in Georgia. Republicans and Democrats grapple in ideological scrums on the ground, while some of their best people work side-by-side above Peachtree Street.
As a law firm, McKenna Long doesn’t have a monopoly on the phenomenon. Obama has several attorney operatives working for him in several Atlanta firms. On Saturday, John McCain was accompanied to Cobb County by one of his earliest Georgia supporters, former attorney general Mike Bowers of the Balch & Bingham law firm.
Nor is this new. In 1960, Atlanta attorney Griffin Bell was the fellow who squired Democratic presidential candidate John Kennedy, an oddity because of his Catholicism, on his one trip to the state.
But in Georgia, it is McKenna Long that has most successfully developed politics into both a marketing tool and a loss leader.
The Chinese have an old word for this. Guanxi. Or literally, connections. When it comes to success, you’ve either got guanxi, or you don’t.
McKenna Long chairman Jeffrey Haidet said the firm embarked on its political strategy in the late ‘80s. The key was a long-term, non-ideological approach that acknowledged political shifts and divided power.
Participation in political campaigns on the front end, regardless of party, became a key to access after the ballots have been cast.
“Our clients don’t have one-dimensional problems,” Haidet said.
Suppose, for instance, a client — and a long list of some are on the firm’s web site — has a problem with a law. Sometimes the solution, the firm chairman said, is to change the law. And to do that, one never knows whether the returned phone call needs to come from a Republican or Democrat.
“Solutions can be as simple as arranging a meeting with a key official,” says the McKenna Long web site.
The largest examples of McKenna Long’s guanxi will be forever out of sight. Count on it. But small flashes have been present throughout this presidential campaign.
This summer, it was Tanenblatt, the Romney supporter and former chief of staff for Gov. Sonny Perdue, who had the connections to deliver a phone call from one-time pop star Donny Osmond to a fan, Secretary of State Karen Handel.
In September, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani stopped to shake hands at a Buckhead restaurant. While distracted reporters were inside with the candidate, McKenna Long partner Doug Chalmers, a Giuliani campaigner, snuck his client into Giuliani’s dark SUV.
That’s how Sadie Fields, leader of the Georgia Christian Alliance, came by her private conversation with Giuliani.
We won’t bother you with what was said at McKenna Long’s evening gathering last week. The information is already out-dated.
Suffice it to say that, during the presentation, the cell phone belonging to Giffin, the McKenna Long partner coordinating the Clinton campaign, gave an embarrassing ring.
Bill Clinton would be in town the next day, and needed a place to speak.
The robo-calls have started.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican presidential candidate John McCain put out this automated phone message on Saturday. It’s meant to reassure skeptical hardcores in the party.
We understand that GOP rival Mitt Romney has his own robo-call out, but we haven’t captured it. Send us a sound clip if you have one — from Romney or any other candidate.
McClatchy-MSNBC poll: Obama, McCain both up by 6 in Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This was in Saturday’s Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:
Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Barack Obama of Illinois hold identical 6 percentage point leads in Georgia over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll.
The poll, by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, found that McCain has a 33 percent to 27 percent edge over Romney in the Republican contest, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee drawing 18 percent. In the Democratic race, the poll found Obama leading Clinton, 47 percent to 41 percent.
So far as we know, this is the freshest polling on hand.
Yard signs, Chuck Norris, and using McCain’s big stick against him
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Odd notes from the weekend:
— Got a call from a Democratic operative over the weekend who lives in Atlanta, and wanted a Barack Obama yard sign. So he went to the Obama headquarters, and was told a yard sign would cost $8.
Never before, he said, had he heard of a campaign charging for that kind of advertising. Usually, the campaign is willing to pay homeowners.
Even then, the Democrat didn’t get his sign. They were sold out.
— After attending Gov. Sonny Perdue’s church today, Republican Mike Huckabee heads to Macon for an afternoon rally. Chuck Norris will be there.
If Huckabee really wants to make an impression, he’ll ask Norris to scoop up that new water reservoir that Macon has, and bring it back to metro Atlanta.
— Republican Mitt Romney has scheduled his final pre-Super Tuesday appearance in Georgia for noon Monday, at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center.
On Saturday, in a telephone conference call supporting the candidate, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey tossed out a line about John McCain — which you just might hear Romney repeat.
McCain’s emphasis on national security, he said, could work against him.
“It’s highly important that we remember what Theodore Roosevelt said - speak softly but carry a big stick. I think Mr. McCain will carry a big stick, but I’m not sure he can speak softly,” Gingrey said.
The Marietta congressman also referred to McCain as “a bit of a gadfly in the Republican party.” Harsh.
McCain as the watchdog over federal spending, and whether it includes the F-22.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As we said, the topic of earmarks was big at the John McCain rally in Cobb County tonight. Former U.S. senator Phil Gramm, who is McCain’s national campaign co-chair, declared that the world wouldn’t know of the Alaskan bridge to nowhere (requested by a GOP senator) had it not been for McCain.
Saxby Chambliss, too, characterized McCain as the guard dog of the federal treasury. Every senator and congressman in Washington had tangled with McCain at one point or another about spending.
Which brings up the topic of Lockheed and the F-22, made in Marietta. The entire Georgia delegation, House members and senators, have fought McCain’s efforts to trim the program substantially.
We asked Chambliss if he thought that would hurt McCain in metro Atlanta. He said no. After that particular battle, the Georgia senator said, “He moved on and we moved on.”
McCain’s here.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican presidential candidate John McCain is here, and in a good mood. Many jokes.
Here’s the most interesting thing he said: Republicans lost the 2006 not because of the war in Iraq, he said, but because of overspending by a Republican contest. Getting rid of earmarks is a theme that every speaker has touched on so far.
From Phil Gramm on, everyone — including the candidate himself — is crediting McCain with uncovering “the bridge to nowhere in Alaska.” It’s an implicit criticism of President Bush, no doubt.
McCain rally starts.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re at the Cobb performance center, in a ballroom that’s packed — certainly the largest GOP rally involving a presidential candidate.
State Sen. Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga is the emcee. Former Georgia attorney general Mike Bowers is here, as well as his lobbyist son Bruce. Both were onboard with McCain early.
“He’s a man of courage, and that cannot be disputed,” Mike Bowers said. Bowers is West Point. McCain is Annapolis. So some compromise of principle was necessary.
Obviously, it’s not necessary to mention that Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss are somewhere in the region.
McCain’s on the ground. We’re waiting.
Isakson, Chambliss endorse McCain; ‘Disappointment’ reigns at Christian Alliance meeting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tension over the Republican race for president bubbled into the open on Saturday, as Georgia’s two U.S. senators endorsed John McCain — to the outrage and disappointment of many of the activists who form the party’s base.
Talk about the move by Saxby Chambliss, who is up for re-election this year, and Johnny Isakson filled the hallways at the annual winter meeting of the Georgia Christian Alliance, a gathering of religious conservatives that attracts many Republican activists.
Both senators are to appear at a 5:30 p.m. McCain rally at the Cobb Galleria.
Isakson attended the GCA meeting this morning.
“The war in Iraq — the war on terror — is to me the most important issue we face,” Isakson said afterwards, explaining why he had cast his personal vote for McCain the day before.
Isakson also mentioned McCain’s opposition to the growth of the federal budget, and uncontrolled spending through “earmarks.”
“He was strong on that before it was cool.”
Said Chambliss, in a telephone interview:
“We’re a strong military state and we need a strong commander in chief,” the senior senator said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to rally around the fellow that can win.”
Former U.S. senator Phil Gramm of Texas, the national co-chairman of the McCain campaign, appeared before the religious group to argue that McCain’s emergence as the Republican party’s nominee on Tuesday was inevitable.
“I hope we can close ranks,” he said.
D.A. King, an illegal immigration activist and Romney supporter, walked out on Gramm when the former Texas senator defended McCain’s record on immigration.
Pat Tippett, a South Georgia activist who supports Mike Huckabee, had the harshest criticism for Isakson and Chambliss. She said they “have undermined the conservative principles of our party by embracing Senator McCain.”
Said Sadie Fields, chairman of the Georgia Christian Alliance:
“We honor both our senators and hold them in high esteem, but this is disappointing.”
Fields predicted that the impact would be felt at the grassroots level. “It just takes the winds out of their sails.”
Four Georgia congressmen who support Romney held a conference call on Saturday, in which they dismissed the endorsement of McCain by Isakson and Chambliss as an example of Senate “clubiness.”
“The Senate’s a universe of 100 people. They almost seem to be removed from their constituents. I don’t know if they sprinkle them with some sort of dust or whatever,” said U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Coweta County.
For Hillary Clinton, this could be the most important Super Bowl of her life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former President Bill Clinton at Kennesaw State University, apologizing for his hoarse voice. He’d spent the day campaigning in his home state of Arkansas.
On Saturday, it’s Alabama and Missouri.
And on Sunday, a campaign spokesman said the former president will watch the Super Bowl in New Mexico with Gov. Bill Richardson — who dropped out of the presidential race last month.
But Richardson, who is Hispanic, remains an important conduit to that community, especially in California and other Western states. The Hispanic vote is extremely important to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, and could give her the edge she needs to emerge as the front-runner in the Democratic race.
A daughter for Clinton, and a son for Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re here at Kennesaw State University, waiting for President Bill Clinton — who’s to speak here in an hour or so at a rally for his wife’s Democratic presidential campaign.
Things are a bit disorganized. The crowd, in some freezing whether, was wrapped around the block, and began filtering in about 6:30 p.m.
But we’ve come across an interesting tidbit. Allison Barnes Salter, the lawyer-daughter of Gov. Roy Barnes, will be introducing the former president.
It gets more interesting. Harlan Barnes, the former governor’s son, this afternoon endorsed Barack Obama.
No wonder the dad — who was a John Edwards man — was so skittish this week when we asked him whether he’d side with either of the two survivors.
Plane crash in North Carolina
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re told that a plane crash in North Carolina has resulted in the deaths of several prominent residents of Paulding County, including close friends of House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
See here for details.
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A real whodunnit: The Senate may have just killed the guns-in-parking-lots bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the blink of an eye, and with no fingerprints, the state Senate may have just deep-sixed H.B. 89, the tortured guns-in-parking-lots bill.
We say “may” because deniability is such an important part of the conspiracy.
Just to review:
You’ll recall that the Senate passed the bill out early this session, to get rid of the legislation that had provoked the state’s business community.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle had promised the National Rifle Association, which backed the measure, a roll call vote. The gun group threatened to make the vote a scorecard issue come the next election.
The NRA got its vote, but not much more. As gutted by the Senate, the bill only slightly broadened an employee’s right to keep a gun in a car parked on a company lot.
The legislation then went to the House, which on Thursday added provisions to expand the places where those with concealed weapons permits can carry their pieces. Churches, parks and such.
The House changes required approval by the Senate, which might have been why the NRA supported them. The amendments gave the gun group yet another chance to get its way in the Senate.
But this morning, seconds after the preacher of the day had finished his sermon, Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour moved that the Senate reject all the changes to the gun bill added by the House.
There wasn’t even a voice vote, and certainly not any roll call documentation shows any Republican in the chamber voting against the bill. There simply was no objection to Balfour’s motion. No fingerprints.
All it took was 17 seconds. Here’s what it sounded like. (You’ll notice that Balfour’s mike was acting up.)
The Senate then shipped its demand to the House. Which insisted on its permission. A conference committee has been formed. Three House members, and three senators.
And gosh, if those lawmakers can’t come to an agreement, the bill stays in limbo until hell freezes over.
Which, we’re told, it will.
Here’s the line that Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson of Savannah posted on his blog: “The first order of business was to disagree to the House’s amendment to the ‘guns in parking lots’ bill. They allowed guns to be concealed and carried in churches. The Senate wanted to run that one by God first. It looks like this delightful little bill will be around for a while.”
House speaker re-aligns, endorses McCain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shortly after losing two votes to place his candidates on the state board of transportation this afternoon, House Speaker Glenn Richardson was able to change the topic.
Richardson, formerly a backer of Rudy Giuliani in the Republican presidential contests, endorsed John McCain.
We’re hearing that future punishment for rebellious House members, who didn’t vote with their leadership on the DOT seats, will not include any committee chairman. Possibly some subcommittee chairs and hawks.
“There has been retribution and that’s very troubling,” Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said Friday at his weekly press conference.
As for Richardson himself, the lieutenant governor said, “You win some and you lose some…. and I don’t know that he’s won anything yet.”
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen of St. Simons defended his leader. “The House is more concerned with policy than internal politics, and Georgia wins on those issues,” he said.
Because Delta isn’t always ready when they are
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Political columnist Bill Shipp says today’s he’s found an interesting $18 million set aside in the new state budget for the purchase of a new state airplane and helicopter.
This as S.B.290, calling for a smaller state air force, sits in the House.
Just yesterday, the Macon Telegraphed published an excellent piece on who uses state airplanes. It began thusly:
Shortly after the end of last year’s contentious legislative session, Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson, Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle all headed to St. Simons Island for a meeting.
They used state airplanes to fly from Atlanta to the coast for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors meeting. They all left on the same day, within two hours of each other. They took three separate planes.
The Telegraph found:
Other than a DOT photographer, Perdue logged the most flights of any state official….
Perdue, his wife or a member of his senior staff took 20 airplane flights during the six months examined. Perdue’s helicopter flights from January through the end of November added up to 41 and included a trip to Bibb County to help cut the ribbon on a new bank and a trip to Twiggs County for a distribution center ground-breaking ceremony.
Cagle and his staff ranked second, taking 11 airplane flights and 31 helicopter flights. On March 18, he and his family flew to Dublin, where Cagle delivered a speech, according to his office, which provided an itinerary to go with the basic flight records. Then they headed to to Savannah to appear in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.
On March 30, a helicopter left from a state patrol hangar in Kennesaw, landed close to the lieutenant governor’s home in Gainesville then took him and two others to the state Capitol. Cagle took a helicopter home that night, first stopping in Augusta to attend a retirement event for the school board superintendent there. The cost of the flights that day was about $535, according to state patrol records.
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Speaker rebuffed: Mike Evans keeps his DOT seat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At 11:30 a.m., at least seven House members thumbed their nose at Speaker Glenn Richardson, by re-electing Mike Evans to his spot as chairman of the state transportation board.
The vote was 13 to 10, with one lawmaker absent. Three armed guards were in the Senate chamber as the vote was taken, just one indication of how hot the discussion has been. Former House member Stacey Reece was finally brought out as the opposition candidate backed by Richardson.
Seventeen House members are part of the 9th Congressional District, and seven senators. Presuming that senators voted as a bloc for Evans, who was also backed by Gov. Sonny Perdue, that means 10 House members stuck by their leader.
We’re told that Richardson conducted a nose count of his members yesterday, and came up with a 12-11 vote in Evans’ favor. Which means one House member was playing fast and loose.
But the vote was secret, so we may never know which one.
Said Evans to the lawmakers afterwards: “It’s been a tough two months, a tough two days for all of you.”
On the last weekend before a primary, you don’t go where you’re most loved
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So here’s the final-days dynamic on the Democratic side: Barack Obama is anxious about his performance in California, and comfortable with his lead in Georgia, so we won’t see him before Tuesday.
The Hillary Clinton campaign is comfortable enough with her lead in California to cut loose one of her prime assets, husband Bill, for two appearances today in Georgia — where she’s running behind, most especially among Georgia.
Bill Clinton’s at Kennesaw State University at 6:30 p.m., then speaks to a Baptist group at 8 p.m. In addition, the Clinton has brought in Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who is African-American and who, the campaign likes to point out, went to law school with Barack Obama. Brown has engagements in Atlanta and Athens today, on Hillary Clinton’s behalf.
Last night, Gordon Giffin, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada and Hillary Clinton’s man in Georgia, said that — of the 10 states with the largest delegates up for grabs on Tuesday — Clinton is ahead in eight. Obama’s ahead in two — Illinois and Georgia.
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