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Thursday, September 4, 2008
Jesse Jackson down with food poisoning — after a trip into Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia might have made Jesse Jackson sick. He’s not sure.
This week, while conducting voter registration drives in Ohio and Georgia, the 66-year-old civil rights leader was stricken with food poisoning. He’s now at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he was diagnosed with viral gastroenteritis and severe dehydration.
But Jackson was resting comfortably enough to engage in a telephone interview with my AJC colleague Susan Abramson, where he said his doctors expect a full recovery.
From his bedside, Jackson said he has not been able to pin down where he became ill.
He was in Ohio over the weekend, and in Athens on Labor Day. On Wednesday, he was signing up voters in Atlanta. “Two days ago I began to feel stomach anxiety and pain and by yesterday it was very intense,” he said.
Jackson said he was in Georgia, in part, because he is concerned about the “growing impact of poverty.”
“We need a plan to end the war and to end poverty at home,” he said.
Barack and Michelle Obama are ‘uppity,’ says Lynn Westmoreland
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who was born and raised in the South, said Thursday that he’s never heard the word “uppity” used in a racially loaded fashion — and meant nothing more than “elitist” when he applied it to Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
“If anyone read more into it, no undercurrent was intended,” Westmoreland spokesman Brian Robinson said this evening.
In a Washington D.C. conversation with reporters, the two-term Sharpsburg congressman was discussing the speech of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin when he was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.
“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said, according to The Hill, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill.
When asked to clarify, Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”
The Hill immediately posted the incident on-line, where it zipped around the Internet, causing Westmoreland’s office phones to ring off the hook.
The incident underlines the cultural minefields that come with a presidential campaign that features the first African-American to win the nomination of a major political party. Republicans say they’re merely trying to portray Obama as out of touch with working Americans, but some Democrats say the GOP is speaking in cultural code.
For decades in the segregated South, “uppity” was a word applied to African-Americans who attempted to rise above servile positions.
“It was only a matter of time before Republican officials shifted from oblique racially-charged language to brazen racially-charged language,” wrote Steve Benen, author of a blog for Washington Monthly magazine.
Though raised by a struggling, single mother, Obama studied at both Columbia University in New York and Harvard University. Michelle Obama was raised on Chicago’s rough south side, the daughter of a city pump operator — but she attended both Princeton and Harvard universities.
This spring, Obama apologized for his “poor word choices” at a California fund-raiser in which he described small-town Americans as “bitter” over the souring economy and clinging to religion and guns in response.
Citing that gaffe, Hillary Clinton sought to apply the “elitist” label to Obama in the Democratic primary. Republicans have tried to do so during their national convention in Minnesota.
“In small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening,” Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP nominee for vice president, said Wednesday in her debut speech.
A spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in Georgia declined comment.
In the article published by The Hill, the national Obama campaign did not note any racial context in the Georgia congressman’s remarks. “Sounds like Rep. Westmoreland should be careful throwing stones from his candidate’s eight glass houses,” said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Robinson, Westmoreland’s spokesman, said the Obama response proved that no offense was intended. “They saw it as the way he meant it,” Robinson said.
Westmoreland, who is contemplating a 2010 run for governor, released the following statement:
“I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense. It is important to note that the dictionary definition of ‘uppity’ is ‘affecting an air of inflated self-esteem — snobbish.’
“That’s what we meant by uppity when we used it in the mill village where I grew up,” Westmoreland said.
Considered one of the most conservative members of Congress, Westmoreland represents the 3rd District, which covers much of central and western Georgia, from Henry County to Muscogee County. He was first elected to Congress in 2004, after beating Republican primary rival Dylan Glenn, an African-American.
Glenn was supported by several high-ranking Republicans, including former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich, who argued that the state GOP needed more diversity. That prompted DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, a Democrat who is also African-American, to jump into the campaign on Westmoreland’s behalf.
Both Jones and Westmoreland were first elected to the state House in 1992. Westmoreland later became the House minority leader.
Preview of 2010 gubernatorial race?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Aaron Gould Sheinin asheinin@ajc.com
Minneapolis — The line-up of speakers at this morning’s Georgia delegation breakfast could have been a preview of the upcoming 2010 gubernatorial race.
One announced candidate, one expected candidate and several other possible challengers all addressed a crowd of more than 100 Georgia Republican delegates and activists.
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine is the only announced GOP candidate for governor, but Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is expected to run. Secretary of State Karen Handel is a potential challenger, House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) is considered a long-shot to run and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson earlier said he was not going to be a candidate for governor.
But all spoke at breakfast this morning.
A common theme among most was how terrific vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin did in her speech to the convention last night.
But there were elements of potential stump speeches as well.
Cagle, in particular, seemed to have prepared his gubernatorial talking points down pat.
“Raising taxes is not an option but making government more efficient is,” he said to big applause.
He vowed to work, as leader of the Senate for now, to address Georgia’s issues, including education and transportation.
Oxendine’s remarks were shorter, and focused more on the race for president (as well as a pitch for Atlanta to make a bid for the 2012 Republican convention, which, if he’s elected governor, would make him the convention host). But Oxendine also sponsored a reception on Wednesday for state party chairwoman Sue Everhart.
Handel, who fired up the crowd with energetic praise for Palin and McCain, said that as Secretary of State she’ll be on the watch for voter fraud in November. But Handel also said her office’s research shows that rumors of a huge surge in voter registration for Democrat Barack Obama is wishful thinking for Democrats.
“It’s a myth y’all,” she said. “It’s a flat out myth.”
Handel said voter registration increases from 2000 to 2004 and from 2004 to 2008 are not vastly different, which could indicate an absence of a renewed surge.
(U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), incidentally, told the same crowd on Tuesday that since he was first elected in 2002, there are 1 million new voters in the state.)
Isakson, too, focused mostly on the race for president and said that Palin has had a remarkable effect on McCain.
“The John McCain before last Friday (when Palin was announced as his VP choice) and the after last Friday is remarkable,” Isakson said. “He’s 10 years younger.”
Richardson had, perhaps, the most personally compelling comments. Focused almost entirely on Georgia issues, Richardson also said the past few years have been difficult for him personally, something he said he shares with Palin, who has seen details of her family’s life play out in the media.
“I awoke one day and I realized I had learned a lot in four years of being speaker,” Richardson said. “Unfortunately. there’s no book on how to be speaker. I watched Sarah Palin. I have a special place for her, I just wish I could spend five minutes with her and tell her I understand what she’s going through. The arrows come.”
Richardson has gone through a high-profile divorce and had very public disputes with Gov. Sonny Perdue and Cagle.
Richardson said Thursday that he won’t change who he is: “I will not play along just to get along.”
But he said he will work to remember something his mother said, and to live it, too.
“I am going to do my best, to follow this one phrase that my mother told me years ago, ‘Glenn, just because you think it doesn’t mean you have to say it.”
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Oxendine eyes 2012 convention in ATL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Aaron Gould Sheinin asheinin@ajc.com
Minneapolis — Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine wants to explore the possibility of an Atlanta bid for the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Speaking to Georgia delegates to the current convention, Oxendine said between Phillips Arena, the Georgia Dome and the World Congress Center, Atlanta has more than enough facilities. The city has also the hotel capacity to avoid what delegates here face, which is a 30- to 45-minute bus ride to the convention in St. Paul.
“Let’s see if we can go ahead and put a bid together and let’s take a serious look and weigh the options,” Oxendine said. “We can do a better one in Atlanta. Why don’t we take a look at doing that?”
Atlanta last hosted a national party convention in 1988 when Democrats gathered in the city.
The response from delegates at this morning’s breakfast was not effusive, but it came more than an hour into a marathon session.
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A televised rebuttal to Cox’s ‘Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader’ appearance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Once Republicans close shop in Minnesota tonight, the next political drama available to tube-captive Georgians will be the Friday night appearance by state School Superintendent Kathy Cox on Fox’s “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
State Rep. Rob Teilhet, a Democrat from Smyrna, calls the Republican school superintendent’s appearance “ill-conceived, at best.” And he announced Thursday that he’s purchased a 30-second raised eyebrow that will be aired on WAGA-TV sometime during the broadcast.
To watch Teilhet’s spot, click on the box below.
Here’s the script:
“Tonight, Georgia State School Superintendent Kathy Cox will try to prove that she’s smarter than a fifth grader. But even a fifth grader would have to wonder what she’s doing on a game show in Hollywood, while students are struggling here in Georgia.
I’m Representative Rob Teilhet. I believe it’s time to stop playing Hollywood games, and reduce our class sizes, expand pre-kindergarten, and support the parents and the teachers who are working so hard to improve our public schools.”
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T. Boone Pickens sells plan to hungry Georgians
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Aaron Gould Sheinin asheinin@ajc.com
Minneapolis — Famed oil man T. Boone Pickens spoke to the Georgia delegation to the Repbublican National Convention on Thursday morning to tout his plan for American energy independence.
It was a hungry crowd. A breakfast buffet was set up, but was not being served, until after Pickens’ address. A few people are starting to edge toward the food.
Still, delegates seem equally hungry for details on his plan, which would encourage creation of massive wind farms across the Great Plains to produce electricity and would push domestically produced natural gas to fuel automobiles.
Pickens has spent more than 50 million on national television advertising campaigns to tout his plan, and spoke last week to Democrats gathering for their convention in Denver.
The 80-year-old Pickens said he has also presented his plan to both Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Republican hopeful John McCain.
“You can’t drill your way out of the problem,” Pickens told delegates, many of whom have chanted “drill, baby, drill,” at the nightly sessions of the convention here. But, Pickens said, drilling can help and he supports it.
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In which Newt Gingrich comes darn close to endorsing Sarah Palin for president
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich stopped by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” last night to defend Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska.
Click below to watch.
Here’s a compressed transcript:
Stewart: You wanted Governor Palin three months ago. What is it about her that appealed to you?
Gingrich: I always thought that either [Louisiana] Governor [Bobby] Jindal or Governor Palin, who were young, aggressive reformers, just brought a whole new breath of fresh air and life to the Republican party. We’re at the end of a cycle where people were fed up with congressional Republicans, basically fired them in 2006. If this campaign is about politics as usual, then the fact is that Obama and Biden are going to win.
Stewart: Have they made mistakes in the way they rolled her out? Have they given her a chance to succeed?
Gingrich: Look, I think some people thought, Introduce her, say, with a moose hunt. Or some other uniquely Alaskan thing that she can do that probably Biden couldn’t do. You know, that would have set a different standard. But I think that was going too far.
Stewart: Vote Palin — she’ll bring your insulin over the Northwest Passage to Grandma.
Gingrich: There you go. But I concede that, in this day and age, that’s a bit much.
Stewart: So McCain makes his campaign that Barack Obama is dangerously inexperienced. Then he chooses Governor Palin who — is it because she’s intriguingly inexperienced?
Gingrich: I think he picked Governor Palin because when he starts to talk about her inexperience, running an $11.5 billion state with 15,000 employees compared to a $4.5 million Senate office with 69 employees, you begin to realize —
Stewart: Although he’s run the presidential campaign as long as she’s been governor. Is it —
Gingrich: He’s actually run the presidential campaign seven years longer than she’s been governor.
Stewart: It seems that experience was made the centerpiece of a campaign, and it seems to undercut it…..
Gingrich: Democrats now have to argue that her lack of knowledge and experience for the vice presidency is a real threat in case something happens to McCain. But we’re going to put Obama, who has a similar lack of knowledge and experience in the presidency….You can’t find a single executive decision that either Obama or Biden has made in their entire career.
Stewart: Or that McCain, by that definition.
Gingrich: That’s exactly right.
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Kingston wants Bush to join Democratic drill-down with a veto
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With cries of “Drill, baby, drill” still echoing through the convention hall in St. Paul, don’t think for a moment that Republicans will stop hammering Democrats on the issue of off-shore searches for oil.
In fact, Investor’s Business Daily is reporting this:
Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., is circulating a letter among House members that strongly urges President Bush “to veto any spending bills that would continue the moratorium on [Outer Continental Shelf] drilling.”
So far, the letter has 100 GOP signers, not enough to sustain a veto. A veto risks a government shutdown, which Kingston concedes “is dicey. Most people up here are sensitive to a possible shutdown.”
Republicans don’t want to get blamed for cutting off aid to the poor and elderly. But voters also could focus their anger on Democrats for being willing to shut down the government to maintain an unpopular drilling ban.
