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Thursday, January 29, 2009
How peanut butter might gum up a Perdue bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Capitol can be a highly insulated bubble, but reality occasionally imposes itself.
Two years ago, the massacre at Virginia Tech threw a wrench into legislation backed by the National Rifle Association to permit employees to keep guns in cars parked on company lots.
We may be witnessing something similar right now. Even if you live in a bubble, you know about that peanut-butter factory in Blakely:
A federal report released Wednesday on the salmonella outbreak fueled outrage and calls for a criminal probe into the South Georgia plant that officials said made the peanut butter that is linked to the food crisis. Georgia legislators vowed to sharpen laws regulating food-processing plants as federal officials announced an expanded product recall.
The report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detailed how the Blakely peanut butter plant failed to control contamination and retested tainted products before shipping them to market.
Two weeks ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced he would introduce legislation that would protect drug companies and medical device manufacturers in Georgia from lawsuits over products approved by the FDA.
Said Perdue:
“As we continue to attract new investment in biotechnology, we can secure our position as a leader in this industry by enacting laws that respect the role of the federal Food and Drug Administration as the regulator of the safety of drugs and medical devices.”
The governor’s legislation hasn’t manifested itself yet. But litigators who oppose the measure are practicing their lines, and the Blakely peanut-butter factory has quickly become a major part of the script.
“If the Food and Drug Administration can’t protect citizens and consumers from peanut butter, do we really want them to be the only line of defense for drugs and medical devices?” asked Bill Clark, director of political affairs for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.
We asked Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle this morning if the Blakely incident might sour the mood of the Capitol toward the governor’s bill.
Too soon to tell, Cagle said. He’d like to see the legislation.
But a spokesman for the governor said Perdue’s bill is to peanut butter what apples are to oranges.
“The ‘F’ in FDA is much different than the ‘D’ in FDA. Our legislation is specifically targeted at drugs and medical devices that go through a rigorous approval process, which is totally unrelated to the FDA’s food regulation process,” said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley.
Further, Brantley said, the governor’s measure would protect companies from complaints against design defects of drugs and medical devices, not manufacturing defects. “If a drug manufacturer had salmonella in their factory and people got that from the taking the drug, this bill would not protect them,” he said.
Photo of the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga., by the Associated Press
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Georgia GOP leader backs African-American as national chair
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta isn’t Washington, so a head-count isn’t in the cards.
But there’s anecdotal evidence building that former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele is making a strong case to become the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Sue Everhart, chairman of the Georgia GOP, just called to say she would vote for Steele tomorrow.
She said she sent out several thousand e-mails to the state’s Republican activists. Three-quarters of the responses, she estimated, endorsed Steele. Many told her that under no circumstances should she vote to give Michael Duncan, the current RNC chairman, another term.
“I think Steele is a good man, and I’m going to have to vote for him,” Everhart said. She’ll be checking this post to gauge Republican reaction in Georgia, so post a comment if you’ve got an opionion.
Everhart assumes that Duncan, appointed by President Bush, knows her mind. “He was very cool to me this morning. But he’s never done anything for me,” Everhart said. Georgia’s two other voting members on the RNC, Alec Poitevint and Linda Herren, are keeping their decisions closer to the vest.
(Remember that episode from last month: Duncan was on the stage at Saxby Chambliss’ victory celebration, while Everhart was not.)
Also note that Randy Evans, legal counsel and confidant of former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich, has endorsed Steele.
This will be a tough vote. Those who finish third and below aren’t required to drop out, so the balloting goes on and on and on until a majority of the 160-odd members coalesce behind a single candidate.
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Isakson gives Coleman $10k for his legal fight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t look for it to show up on Federal Election Commission reports for a while, but there’s word that U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson has forked over $10,000 from his 21st Majority Fund toward Norm Coleman’s legal battle to keep his Minnesota seat.
Isakson spokeswoman Joan Kirchner confirmed the gift from Isakson’s political action committee. “He just wanted to show support for Senator Coleman. There are still some pretty valuable issues to be addressed,” she said.
As we understand it, Georgia’s other senator, Saxby Chambliss, has not donated to Coleman’s defense fund — and won’t. Because of his position on the Senate Rules Committee, Chambliss could find himself helping to decide who becomes Minnesota’s junior senator — sometime this century.
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Gingrich confidant picks Steele in RNC chairmanship race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Republican National Committee is scheduled to tear itself apart Friday over the vote for a new chairman.
Chris Cillizza of The Fix at the Washington Post had this overlooked tidbit:
Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s candidacy got a nice burst of momentum yesterday when Randy Evans, a top lieutenant to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, released a letter in support of his candidacy, praising Steele as “the combination of voice, values and vision necessary to lead us to a better party.” (The former House speaker will not endorse anyone in the RNC contest, his spokesman said Wednesday.)
However, where Evans goes, Gingrich can’t be far behind.
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Saxby Chambliss as a sign of things to come
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball today cites Georgia’s Senate runoff as an important harbinger of the 2010 midterm elections.
Writes Rhodes Cook:
Not only did the GOP incumbent [Saxby Chambliss] expand a 3 percentage point lead over Democrat Jim Martin in the November general election balloting into a 15-point blowout in the early December runoff, but he did so with what was a midterm election-sized turnout.
While nearly 4 million Georgians cast ballots in the presidential voting, only 2,137,956 participated in the Senate runoff. That is nearly identical to the number who cast ballots in the state’s 2006 gubernatorial election (2,122,258)—a race that was won handily by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue. Voter turnout in 2010 will undoubtedly be much closer to these lower numbers than the higher presidential turnout figure.
By not dipping into the Georgia race, President Barack Obama has kept everyone guessing about his impact as an incumbent on downballot races, says Cook:
The basic question now is what role Obama will choose to play in the 2010 midterm election. He has quickly assumed the part of commander in chief. Left unanswered is how he will wear his party hat, or more specifically his role as “Democrat in chief.”
It may not fit naturally with his bipartisan instincts. And to be sure, how well the Democrats fare in 2010 will in part be determined by how successful Obama and his Democratic congressional colleagues fare at the work of governance.
