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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Details from the fund-raising side of the Bush visit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As stated below, reporters were barred from the $1,000-a-head fund-raiser for Rick Goddard, the retired Air Force major general, that featured President Bush.
But Goddard spokesman Tim Baker said attendees, in addition to Gov. Sonny Perdue, included Secretary of State Karen Handel, former congressman Mac Collins, state Public Service Commissioner Angela Spier, state GOP party chairman Sue Everhart, and Alec Poitevint, who heads up the presidential campaign of John McCain in Georgia.
Close to 200 purchased tickets for the fund-raiser, held at the Buckhead home of Harrison Merrill, a local developer. Baker said Bush spoke for 40 minutes, praising Goddard, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss — who is up for re-election but did not attend — and McCain.
But after shaking hands for only 10 minutes, Bush left the event 40 minutes ahead of schedule, as a line of heavy thunderstorms approached Dobbins Air Reserve Base, where Air Force One was parked.
Bush’s early exit forced the shutdown of northbound I-75 at 5:30 p.m., during the height of rush-hour traffic leaving downtown Atlanta. All told, the president spent just over 100 minutes on the ground.
Goddard, of course, is running against U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon. And Marshall’s spokesman, Douglas Moore, indicated the Democrat is likely to use the cost of the Bush visit — which Moore pegged a “hundreds of thousands of dollars” — as a campaign issue.
Baker said the Goddard campaign would write a $40,000 check to cover the cost of the Bush visit, a price that he said was grounded in federal law.
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President Bush leaves Atlanta early
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Faced with a line of heavy thundershowers bearing down from Alabama, the advance team for President Bush just gave the orders for an early return to Dobbins Air Reserve Base for his trip home.
The press entourage has been piled into their vans, air-conditioners running.
By 5:55 p.m. Air Force One had lifted off.
Here’s the story so far:
President Bush arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base at 3:47 p.m., stepped off at 3:56 p.m.
As greeting committees for presidents go, this was relatively low grade. Top official was Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren. Next in line was Lou Brissie of South Carolina, a former pro pitcher from the 1940s and early ‘50s. Bush spent several minutes with him.
Bush also posed with Sherri Goggin of Athens, who founded the volunteer group Bundles of Joy, which distributes gift packages to premature babies.
A 15-car parade left the base at precisely 4 p.m., taking Delk Road to I-75, which was a ghost of its usual self, even south bound. Then to West Paces Ferry Road to the residence of Harrison Merrill, a developer who specializes in restoring landmark buildings.
Bush went to the Dumbarton Road residence of Merrill for the fund-raiser intended to benefit Republican Rick Goddard, a retired Air Force major general who is challenging U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, a Democrat.
Efforts to contact Goddard’s spokesman on Tuesday have failed to meet with any success.
Reporters were sequestered in a nearby house and saw nothing of the event itself, nor the people who attended. A spokesman for the governor confirmed that Sonny Perdue did attend.
The journalistic benefit of this experience has thus far been limited to the thrill of a rush-hour drive down an empty I-75.
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The hands Bush will shake this afternoon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It has become a tradition, whenever any president comes to town, to allow the occupant of the White House to shake the best hands a community has to offer, in hopes that a little outside-the-Beltway virtue might rub off on the great man.
When he touches down this afternoon, President Bush will greet volunteer Sherri Goggin of Athens, who founded Bundles of Joy, which gives gift bags to children born prematurely.
Bush will also shake hands with 84-year-old Lou Brissie of North Augusta, S.C., for his work with Alpharetta-based Second Wind Dreams, a group dedicated to fulfilling the long-deferred wishes of the elderly — whether going to a first ball game or meeting a celebrity.
Interesting story about Brissie, who’s on his way to Atlanta even as this is being written.
In the early 1940s, Brissie was a rising minor-league lefty who had attracted the attention of Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics. But there was school to finish, and then a war.
Brissie joined the U.S. Army in 1942. He and the 88th Infantry found themselves in Italy, two years later, where Brissie had five inches of his left leg shattered by an artillery shell. That was the end of war for Brissie, who spent the next three years recuperating.
Brissie rehabilitated himself, and three years later began a career in the majors that stretched to 1953 — first with the A’s and then with the Cleveland Indians.
On opening day in 1948, in the sixth inning against the Red Sox, Ted Williams drove a pitch into the protective plate that Brissie wore over his war wound, sending the lefty to the hospital. Legend has it that, while on the ground, Brissie said, “Dammit, Ted, pull the ball!”
“I did say that,” Brissie said over his cell phone. “But there was more.”
In July, Brissie faced Williams again. This time, Williams sent a pitch into the bleachers and began his trot around the bases. The pitcher turned his back to home plate and hollered to Williams, “I didn’t mean for you to pull it that far.”
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Keen: Richardson is a lock to keep speaker’s job
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Travis Fain at the Macon Telegraph has a piece today in which House Majority Leader Jerry Keen expresses high confidence that Speaker Glenn Richardson will survive a challenge to his leadership later this fall.
Wrote Fain:
“I will vote for Glenn Richardson again as speaker, and I’ll tell you why,” Keen told the lunch-time crowd. “Public relations notwithstanding, he’s done an outstanding job. … Most, if not all, of the major legislation we’ve passed up there in the last four years since he’s been speaker would not have been possible (without him).
State Rep. David Ralston, a Republican committee chairman from Blue Ridge, announced his bid for the speaker’s chair last week.
Ralston hasn’t said much since then, but there is something to ponder about his candidacy. Given the tension between Richardson and members of the now-disbanded 216 Group, over a constitutional amendment to declare that life begins at conception, one expected opposition to rise from the most conservative wing of the party.
But Ralston comes from the middle of the Republican pack, and had nothing to do with the 216 group.
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‘Sorry, not this time,’ Chambliss told Cheney on Medicare
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss was all over TV, as part of a bipartisan “Gang of Ten” effort to attack the high cost of gasoline.
Before that, Chambliss (like his Georgia colleague Johnny Isakson) switched his vote to give a veto-proof majority to legislation that killed a 10.6 percent pay cut for doctors treating Medicare patients.
What’s going on? Turns out even a candidate with $4 million in the bank wants to play his November re-election in conservative fashion. (Click here to see this morning’s post on a new Rassmussen poll.)
This morning’s Politico.com has this:
Republican Senate leaders — terrified by the prospect of losing five or more seats in November — have freed their members to vote however they need to vote to get reelected, even if that means bucking the president or the party’s leadership….
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) openly discussed how Vice President Cheney had personally asked him about his Medicare vote. Chambliss said he told the vice president that he needed to back his local doctors and senior citizens.
“I said, ‘Dick, I’m beyond that,’” Chambliss said. Cheney’s “my good friend and my hunting buddy, but my mind was made up.” Asked whether Republican Senate leaders had whipped the Medicare vote, Chambliss said he hadn’t been pressured.
Photo credit: Jenni Girtman/AJC
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McKinney and Barr: Not an alliance, but a ‘mutual reaching’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While this is slightly dated, Newsweek has posted a sometimes-testy interview with Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney, who says she’s shooting for 5 percent of the popular vote in November.
The former Georgia congresswoman is at her most interesting when she addresses a former colleague:
Q: There are quite a few prominent third-party candidates running this year, including your former fellow Congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr, over at the Libertarian Party. Is he basically the conservative version of you?
McKinney: The only thing I would say about Bob is that it’s interesting that Georgia is so well-represented in the non-major party lineup. Of course, I worked in the Congress for a long time with Bob Barr and, in fact, members of the Libertarian Party have reached out to me on several occasions this year and I expect there will be more mutual reaching.
Q: So you might actually be working together on some issues? McKinney: I didn’t say that.
What does mutual reaching mean, then?
It means that where there is the possibility of having discussions, then I wouldn’t turn down discussions. There’s nothing afoot, if that’s what you mean. I would take it issue by issue, and see what the future brings.
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Rassmussen: When it comes to women voters, Martin holds an ever-so-slight lead over Chambliss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rassmussen Reports has a poll out indicating that, even in run-off mode, the U.S. Senate race in Georgia is a relatively static affair:
Senator Saxby Chambliss leads Democratic challengers Vernon Jones 59% to 29% and Jim Martin 51% to 40% in the Peach State.
Last month, the incumbent led Jones 57% to 30%, while topping Martin 52% to 39%.
But Rassmussen does provide grist for Martin’s argument that he’d give the Republican incumbent a better run for the $4 million that Chambliss is ready to spend. Martin, it appears, leads — just barely — among Georgia women:
Against Jones, Chambliss is supported by 96% of Republicans in Georgia and 19% of Democrats.
When put against Martin, he earns support from 90% of Republicans and just 9% of Democrats. Chambliss tops Jones 66% to 18% among unaffiliated voters.
Against Martin, he leads 56% to 33%. While the incumbent leads Jones by double-digits among both men and women, he trails Martin 45% to 43% among women. He leads Martin 62% to 32% among men.
