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January 2009
Republican: Georgia rivals China as ‘source of contaminated food;’ Irvin should step aside
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Randy Evans, a prominent Republican and Newt Gingrich ally, writes a weekly column that appears in some Georgia newspapers.
He’s penned a tough one that takes state Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin to task for the peanut butter debacle down in Blakely — suggesting that it may be time for the nine-term commissioner to step aside.
Contrary to one line below, Irvin has in fact declared that he will not stand for election again.
But at minimum, consider Evans’ column a declaration that Republicans will spread the peanut butter scandal pretty thick in a 2010 effort to claim an office they’ve never been able to snatch from Democrats.
Here’s a large chunk of the Evans piece:
Unfortunately, it is not as if the Blakely peanut plant is the first sign of a problem with food originating in Georgia.
Instead, there has been a consistent pattern of problems over the past few years that now enable Georgia to rival China as a source of contaminated food.
This is not good for the safety of consumers anywhere. It is not good for Georgia businesses. And, it is not good for Georgia.
In 2010, Georgian’s will elect the Commissioner of Agriculture. There is no word yet on whether Commissioner Irvin will seek his eleventh term as the Commissioner of Agriculture.
Commissioner Irvin was first elected to office in 1956 as a member of the Habersham Board of Elections. Forty two years later a portion of Highway 365 was named after him (the “Tommy Irvin” Parkway). He has been inducted into the Georgia Agrirama Hall of Fame, the Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame, the Georgia Seed Association Hall of Fame, the Habersham County Hall of Fame, and the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Hall of Fame and, according to the Democratic Party of Georgia website, “Commissioner Irvin is recognized nationally for his service as an agriculture leader.”
Well, thanks to the Peanut Corporation of America, he is now recognized nationally for something else, and Georgia is not the better because of it. It is time for Commissioner Tommy Irvin to take his awards and step aside - for sake of the health of Georgians and Americans everywhere.
Change came to Washington, D. C. in 2008. It may be time for change to come to the peanut capital of the world — Georgia.
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Republicans elect first African-American as national chairman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia GOP chairman Sue Everhart just called to say that Michael Steele, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, was just elected chairman by the Republican National Committee with 91 votes.
Steele is the first African-American to hold the job, which will be to counter the policies of Barack Obama, the first black president.
On the sixth round of voting, Steele defeated Katon Dawson, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. Incumbent RNC chairman Mike Duncan withdrew after the third ballot.
“As a little boy growing up in this town, this is awesome,” said Steele, the most moderate candidate in the field and considered an outsider because he’s not a committee member.
In a brief acceptance speech, the new GOP chairman struck a tone of inclusiveness.
“We’re going to say to friend and foe alike: We want you to be a part of us, we want you to with be with us, and for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over,” Steele said, according to the Associated Press.
Everhart was somewhat relieved. She announced Thursday that she would back Steele over Duncan, who was the favorite of many in the GOP establishment.
“I’m very excited that myself and the grassroots backed the winner,” Everhart said. In essence, she had asked Georgia GOP activists permission to back Steele in an e-mail. Three quarters of respondents told the party chairman to proceed.
The Georgia chairman said Steele has already committed to appearing at the party’s state convention in Savannah in May. “But I’ll get him here sooner,” Everhart said.
Expect to see a lot of the new chairman here come the 2010 elections, when Steele’s presence is likely to be used to dampen Democratic attempts to tap African-American enthusiasm for Obama in the race for governor.
Steele was in Georgia two weeks ago, for a state Capitol ceremony honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Steele was also aided by Randy Evans, an Atlanta attorney and confidant of Newt Gingrich.
Rufus Montgomery, a member of the state GOP executive committee and an African-American, was also up in D.C. for the election. He said Steele’s election represented an opening up of the party to new ideas — and new people.
Montgomery said the early withdrawal of Duncan surprised many, but that once the third remaining candidate — Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan GOP — withdrew, the race was over. “The folks that voted for him voted for change,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery credited Everhart, the Georgia chairman, who took a chance on Steele. “Sue was right. She delivered some votes for him, working the floor,” Montgomery said.
Photo by Kimberly Smith/AJC: Christine King Farris, left, sister of Martin Luther King, Jr., talks with Michael Steele, following a January ceremony at the state Capitol.
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Blue jean war escalates to include formal wear
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, you’ll recall that state Sen. Dan Moody (R-Roswell) had a public confrontation over colleague John Bulloch (R-Ochlocknee) over the latter’s Friday wardrobe.
At the state Capitol, Bulloch likes to wear pressed blue jeans on Getting-Out-of-Atlanta Day.
Apparently, the disagreement has shifted away from words and into the realm of sartorial sarcasm.
Moody showed up today in a tuxedo. And Bulloch had his blue jeans. Again.
My AJC colleague Mary Lou Pickel talked with both:
“As you know, in the South it’s customary to dress up for special occasions,” Moody said. “We only serve 40 days out of 365. I consider each of those to be special days,” he said. A black tux is his way of showing respect for the people of Georgia, he said.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle noticed Moody’s outfit. “The senator looks extremely dapper,” Cagle said.
Last session, Moody and Bulloch exchanged words over their different views of “proper attire.”
Sen. Bulloch defended his choice of trouser Friday.
“I represent cotton farmers,” Bulloch said. He wore jeans, a Brooks Brothers tweedy jacket and yellow silk tie decorated with dragonflies. He also wore a handmade diamondback rattlesnake belt and ostrich skin cowboy boots.
“I think that a clean, neat pair of jeans with a sports coat and a tie is just as appropriate as anything else,” Bulloch said. “When we’re not in session, I wear ‘em everyday.”
Photos by Kimberly Smith/AJC: Top, Sen. Dan Moody of Roswell, in his tuxedo, confers with Sen. Mitch Seabaugh of Sharpsburg; Bottom, Sen. John Bullooch of Ochlocknee talks with Sen. Nan Orrock of Atlanta.
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John Sherman has issues with property tax freeze, and the House GOP pulls back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House on Friday passed H.B. 143, which means we’ll soon have campaign literature with a duality that would puzzle Nietzsche.
“I voted to cut taxes.”*
*(I voted for H.B. 143.)
“I voted to raise taxes.”*
*(I voted for H.B. 143.)
However, House Republican leaders pulled H.R. 1, their centerpiece legislation aimed at capping property taxes. They didn’t have the 120 votes for the mandatory two-thirds approval.
One reason for falling short: Republicans lost John Sherman, president of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation.
Here’s the note from him that was placed on the desk of lawmakers. In short, Sherman said, homeowners would “bear the brunt of higher millage.”
If you’re Republican and you’ve lost Sherman on a property tax issue, you’ve lost your base.
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Incumbent RNC chairman Mike Duncan withdraws re-election bid
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Updated at 3:30 p.m.: After a fifth round of voting, it’s Steele, 79; Dawson, 69; Anuzis, 20. Eighty-five votes are needed to win. Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan GOP, just withdrew without making any endorsement.
Updated at 2:45 p.m.: Incumbent RNC chairman Mike Duncan has just withdrawn. On the fourth ballot, it’s Dawson, 62, Steele, 60; Anuzis, 31; and Blackwell, 15.
Up in Washington, the Republican National Committee has conducted two rounds of voting in the chairmanship race.
Incumbent RNC chairman Michael Duncan dropped by four votes on the second ballot, while former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele picked up two, putting both gentlemen at 48 votes.
You can watch it live on C-Span, but the session has just broken for lunch.
First round: Duncan, 52; Steele, 46; Katon Dawson, 28; Saul Anuzis, 22; and Ken Blackwell, 20.
Second round: Duncan, 48; Steele, 48; Dawson, 29; Saul Anuzis, 24; and Ken Blackwell, 19.
Updated: Round Three: Steele, 51; Duncan, 44; Dawson, 34; Anuzis, 24; and Blackwell, 15.
By the way, Secretary of State Karen Handel, who is not tied down by legislative duties, is also in D.C. attending a meeting of the Republican State Legislative Committee. She’s also been spotted at various social events by RNC attendees, no doubt working her 2010 race for governor.
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Much of stimulus might take detour around state government
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House today takes up a property tax relief program that is in danger of disappear, at a cost to homeowners of perhaps $200 to $300 a year.
That’s the primary topic of this three-minute interview with House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin), from GPB’s “The Lawmakers” that aired last night.
But toward the end, Porter drops a very large hint — that many of the billions and billions of dollars flowing from a federal economic stimulus package will be bypassing Georgia’s Republican-controlled state government, and going directly to local governments.
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You can’t write a bill to force lawyers to be lawyers and not make Leno
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hat tip to Blog for Democracy on this: A bill by State Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) to bar actors from playing lawyers in all ambulance-chasing ads is now stirring dust in Hollywood.
Below is NBC’s Jay Leno from Wednesday night. The measure of which he speaks is S.B. 41, which — among other things — would require that “the face and voice appearing in the advertisement shall be of a duly licensed attorney.”
Robert Vaughn would have to get by on his very thin “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” residuals. Or go to law school.
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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.
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In the House transportation bill, watch which agency is picked to handle the cash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was no surprise, but the Senate Transportation Committee passed a transportation funding bill on Wednesday that’s headed toward a (relatively) speedy vote on the chamber floor.
The proposed constitutional amendment and enabling legislation — S.R. 44 and S.B. 39 — is sponsored by committee chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga).
It passed on a unanimous voice vote, according to my AJC colleague Ariel Hart.
The Senate legislation allows counties that border each other to band together as regions and levy themselves a penny tax to fund local transportation projects.
Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs) was one of the few to raise any concerns — over a provision allowing counties to opt out of a 10-county metro Atlanta tax district.
In the other chamber, House Transportation Committee Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) cautioned that rival legislation he’s shaping is changing daily, according to Hart.
Smith is pitching a statewide, one-cent sales tax.
Hart has picked up word that, as currently shaped, the measure will offer to fund a list of projects that would make metro Atlanta mass transit backers blush. That includes the Beltline, the Atlanta multi-modal station, and commuter rail lines including along parts of Cobb County, the northern I-285 area, and Gwinnett County.
Road projects, of course, are also the table — including massive new interchanges on the Atlanta interstates.
But when the House bill is finally unveiled, look for what agency is designated as the proposed recipient of the cash. If it’s not the state Department of Transportation, that will constitute a very large tip-off as to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s reorganization plans.
Come to think of it, that may be another reason why we haven’t yet seen Smith’s bill.
Georgia’s business community has demanded passage this year of a proposed constitutional amendment for a sales tax — of any stripe. Even though it couldn’t be put up for referendum until November 2010. Sort of a good faith demonstration.
Given that, business types should be worried about this confluence of the sales tax and Perdue’s requirement of better “governance” through reorganization.
Shifting authority over policy away from the state Department of Transportation could cut Democrats out of the process. Right now, they control six of 13 Georgia congressional districts, and so six of 13 seats on the DOT board.
But if Democrats are shut out of transportation policy-making, don’t look for them be part of any coalition — two-thirds of each chamber is necessary — supporting a sales tax, whether statewide or regional. And nothing will pass without them.
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Phil Gingrey to Rush Limbaugh: ‘I regret those stupid comments’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oops.
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey spent today apologizing to the loudest voices of the Republican right — to radio talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and to former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich.
Gingrey’s crime? He declared that they earned a very good living by stirring up dust among conservatives, without having to struggle with the consequences.
This afternoon, on the nationally broadcast “Rush Limbaugh Show,” Gingrey said:
“I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments, and I just wanted to tell you, Rush — and all our conservative giants, who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it to get back this majority — that I regret those stupid comments.”
Gingrey began his day of mea culpas with a call to Neal Boortz on WSB Radio in Atlanta. Then Limbaugh at 12:30 p.m. A session with Hannity will be part of his 5 p.m. program — broadcast locally on WSB.
Gingrey called Gingrich as well, said Gingrey spokesman Chris Jackson. “It was a whoops-mouth situation,” Jackson said. The congressman also published an extended statement of regret on his congressional web site:
“I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives—that was not my intent. I am also sorry to see that my comments in defense of our Republican Leadership read much harsher than they actually were intended, but I recognize it is my responsibility to clarify my own comments….
“Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience. Everyday, millions and millions of Americans—myself included—turn on their radios and televisions to listen to what they have to say, and we are inspired by their words and by their determination.”
Translation: Please, God, make these dittoheads stop calling my office. “I’ve heard from a lot of them since my foot-and-mouth disease yesterday,” Gingrich told Limbaugh.
The liberal group Think Progress has posted a YouTube clip of Limbaugh’s interview with Gingrey.
A quick backgrounder:
— Last week, President Barack Obama reportedly advised congressional Republicans not to view Rush Limbaugh as a path to constructive dialogue.
— Limbaugh declared Monday that Obama was more afraid of him than of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
— A Politico.com reporter on Tuesday asked Gingrey what he thought of Limbaugh’s remarks. Said Gingrey:
“It’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders.”
So. Here’s a partial transcript of Gingrey’s encounter with Limbaugh:
Gingrey: Rush, thank you so much. I thank you for the opportunity, of course this is not exactly the way to I wanted to come on, but I appreciate you giving me the opportunity.
Mainly, I want to express to you and all your listeners my very sincere regret for those comments I made yesterday to Politico. Basically the intent of my words to them was to discuss the unique position of congressional Republicans and our leadership — particularly John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.
I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments, and I just wanted to tell you, Rush — and all our conservative giants, who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it to get back this majority — that I regret those stupid comments.
Limbaugh: Well, look, I appreciate that. I have quite a bit of experience with people in the media, and they loved the little storm that they were able to create yesterday, and I thought this was one of the goals.
….But it is what it is, and I’m glad that you called. And I read your explanation on the web site. We all want to be on the same team here, congressman. Our numbers are dwindling in Congress and we want to reverse that.
Gingrey: As you say, Rush, we’re down to 178 in the House, and our House membership is looking more and more conservative.
And we’re going to work our tails off across the country trying to recruit additional Republicans that understand - as you have so well said — that this economic bailout-rescue-stimulus package is nothing but growing the government…
And again, I was trying to defend John Boehner, who is providing very good leadership on this issue. I can assure you, Rush, that on the House side there will be very, very few Republicans….
Limbaugh: I understand why you guys might be upset with me. I don’t have thin skin, and when I make the statement that it appears the president’s more concerned with me than he is with Mitch McConnell or John Boehner, I can understand it might offend some people….
There are Republicans who think Gingrey was right the first time. U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, fresh from re-election, was at the state Capitol on Wednesday. Chambliss took issue with Limbaugh, who last week said he wishes failure upon Obama.
“I’m not one of those in the Rush Limbaugh camp who wants to see him fail,” Chambliss told about 140 members of the National Federation of Independent Business. ” His failure will be your failure and his success will hopefully be your business success.”
Chambliss later added: “Whether you voted for President Obama or not, we all have to get behind him.”
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The untimely meeting of an e-mail and a Democratic push for ethics reform
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Campaign finance is the topic of the hour, involving two separate but ironically joined events.
First, we’ve secured a Jan. 15 e-mail sent out by the campaign of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, addressed to high-end financial supporters:
Good afternoon.
By pledging to give or raise $20,000.00 by June 30th you have secured a place in Lt. Governor Cagle’s Founders Circle. We are having the first Circle event on Thursday, January 29th from 5:00-6:30 p.m. at Morton’s the Steakhouse downtown. We’ve reserved a private room for cocktails and light fare and hope you will join the Lt. Governor. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience.
Cagle is a 2010 Republican candidate for governor. Georgia law forbids state elected officials from fund-raising for state campaigns while the Legislature is in session. The idea of cash swapping hands while bills are moving is deemed unsavory.
The Cagle campaign says the e-mail refers to communications with supporters prior to the beginning of the legislative session.
Said spokeswoman Rebecca Cummiskey:
“The Cagle campaign is aware of and fully complies with Georgia law that prohibits requesting or receiving either pledges of contributions or contributions during the legislative session. The email you reference does not request pledges or contributions during the session, and the campaign does not accept either. The email is simply about a purely social get-together with the Lieutenant Governor and a key group of his advisors.”
But clearly some heavy-duty promises have been made.
By coincidence — and it truly was that — state Sen. George Hooks, a Democrat from Americus, took the well this morning to announce he was pursuing ethics legislation to make corporate giving more transparent.
His legislation, yet to be submitted, would require corporate bigwigs whose firms do business with the state to report campaign contributions within 48 hours.
“We need to take care of our own business and correct some loopholes we found in our own system,” Hooks said — as Cagle looked on from above.
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A transportation theme party: If you’re not on the bus, you’re under it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s secret plan to reorganize the state’s many transportation agencies is up to 150 pages and growing — or so it is said.
But the stampede of alternatives has already begun.
State Rep. Steve Davis (R-McDonough) has dropped H.R. 140, which would remove all mention of the board that oversees the Department of Transportation from the state Constitution, and let the General Assembly (perhaps with some slight input from the governor) decide its composition.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs) has introduced a proposed constitutional amendment that would levy a statewide transportation tax of one cent on the dollar — and in exchange would give constitutional protection to those homeowner relief grants that are now in jeopardy. They represent between $200 and $300 to the average homeowner.
Neither of the above measures have much chance of passage. Davis hasn’t the seniority to compete with an issue now the topic of negotiation among the governor, the House speaker and the lieutenant governor.
And Thompson is a Democrat who would need two-thirds of the Republican-controlled chamber to pass S.R.90.
That said, Thompson’s statewide sales tax is of interest. The second signer is Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna), who has also signed onto Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Mullis’ regional sales tax package. Looks like he’s open to negotiation.
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Gingrey — not that other M.D. — defends House GOP leadership. Against Rush. And Newt.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Reps. Tom Price of Roswell and Phil Gingrey of Marietta have much in common. Both are physicians. Both are from suburban Atlanta. Both recently lost their moustaches.
The similarities are so uncanny that, this afternoon, Politico.com threw Price into Rush Limbaugh’s line of fire. Instead of Gingrey.
You know that, last week, President Barack Obama warned congressional Republicans that bipartisan cooperation didn’t included constant repetition of Limbaugh’s talking points.
The syndicated radio talk show host had his say yesterday. Obama, Limbaugh said, is “obviously more frightened of me than he is [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell. He’s more frightened of me, than he is of, say, [House Minority Leader] John Boehner, which doesn’t say much about our party.”
This afternoon, Obama made a trip to Capitol Hill to press congressional Republicans for his economic stimulus package. Gingrey told our own Bob Keefe that he didn’t agree with Obama, but was still personally impressed by the man.
Somewhere in the Capitol Hill scrum, a Politico reporter also spoke to Gingrey, and asked him about Limbaugh’s characterization of Republican leaders in Congress. Gingrey took umbrage. But the reporter confused him with Price. An apology and retraction followed.
The following quotes are now attributed by Politico to Gingrey the Obstetrician rather than Price the Surgeon:
“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.”
The article continues:
Asked to respond to Gingrey, Limbaugh, in an email to Politico, wrote: “I’m sure he is doing his best but it does not appear to be good enough. He may not have noticed that the number of Republican colleagues he has in the House has dwindled….
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Gingrey on Obama: Impressive, and no teleprompter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Phil Gingrey was among those House Republicans who on Tuesday received President Barack Obama’s Capitol Hill pitch on an economic stimulus package.
According to my AJC colleague Bob Keefe, our new Washington reporter, Gingrey said he had a brief exchange with the president as they were exiting, specifically about the Marietta congressman’s concerns about the second round of TARP funding, and whether any of the billions would go toward community banks — who are hurting, but don’t have the clout of a Bank of America.
Obama indicated that he’s on it. “He looked me right in the eye and he said, ‘We are working on that,’” the congressman said.
This was Gingrey’s first encounter with the new president. The congressman said he might not agree with Obama, but he was still impressed.
“I used to think he could not speak without a teleprompter, but I have to take that back now,” Gingrey said. “The president was very good. He knew he’d have some tough questions … and it was a very [respectful] dialogue.”
Associated Press photo: President Barack Obama and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, center, arrive for meetings with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, escorted by House Sergeant of Arms Bill Livingood.
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House GOP tries to box Democrats on property tax hike
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Republican leadership are trying to put Democrats in a box with some admirably cagey legislation that could end the homeowner’s grant next year and result in increased property taxes across the state.
According to my AJC colleague James Salzer, H.B. 143 would requiring the funding of the grants this fiscal year, which would save homeowners between $200 and $300.
Next year, the grants might be continued — and but they probably wouldn’t. It would depend on revenue, and it likely wouldn’t be funded until early 2010 even — if the money is available, which is unlikely. Without the grants, counties say they will have to pass the $428 million in lost revenue on to homeowners.
Many Republicans, Sonny Perdue among them, have long condemned the tax breaks, begun by Gov. Roy Barnes, as poor policy. But with every attempt to kill it, Democrats have cried tax hike. And have broadcast their intention to do so again during the 2010 elections.
The key to this legislation is the fact that the grant debate has always been confined to the budget. With this separate piece of legislation, sponsored by Larry O’Neal of Bonaire, chairman of House Ways and Means, Republicans intend to turn the tables on Democrats.
Should Democrats vote against it, the GOP would be able to accuse them of killing a tax break. Vote for it, and Democrats have endorsed the tax hike that Republicans are all but admitting will take place next year.
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Austin Scott confirms he’ll join 2010 race for governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At a meeting of the House Republican caucus this morning, state Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton confirmed that he is indeed jumping into the 2010 race for governor.
The south Georgia lawmaker’s entrance is something of a surprise, though word had leaked out over the last few days as the legislator had shopped for advice and a staff.
He becomes the fourth Republican in the contest, and increases the likelihood of a costly runoff. Estimates are already floating around that a candidate will be required to raise between $3 million and $5 million to stay competitive.
Scott, 39, has charted his own course in the Legislature. He was one of the first to come to the defense of Glenn Richardson last year when the House speaker was challenged by David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge).
But you’ll remember that Scott was also the lone Republican in the small circle constructed by Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, to orchestrate the hauling down of the ’56 state flag and its Confederate battle emblem.
Scott won a seventh term just last November, beating Democrat John Tibbetts by 53.5 to 46.5 percent.
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From elsewhere: The DOT puts the skids on Atlanta’s Beltline, and Franklin is — well, upset
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thomas Wheatley at Creative Loafing reports that the Georgia Department of Transportation and AMTRAK have, at least for now, derailed the city of Atlanta’s 22-mile Beltline:
Late last year, the city asked Norfolk-Southern, the rail and shipping company who had still had control of the rail line, to formally abandon the property. The process was supposed to be complete on Jan. 22.
But according to a source with close knowledge of the abandonment process and a helluva letter Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote to U.S. Congressman John Lewis seeking his assistance, GDOT filed an out-of-the-blue motion with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to halt the abandonment process.
According to the mayor’s letter, GDOT “enlisted the help of AMTRAK, which on January 21st took the brazen action of using its federal status to initiate condemnation proceedings on the corridor.”
In other words, GDOT and AMTRAK have put the brakes on a vital piece of the Beltline — and for the time being, put the project’s future in limbo.
The Loaf includes this angry letter from Franklin to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, reporting on GDOT’s alleged perfidy:
“For a state agency to now flip-flop and at the last minute attempt to derail a well thought out and partially implemented plan is truly appalling. Sadly, from what I have witnessed over the years, GDOT’s actions are consistent with its past behavior, and it is this behavior that has caused Georgia and Atlanta to lose out on millions in federal funding.”
Here’s a stray thought: Kasim Reed, who wants to be the next mayor of Atlanta and is Shirley Franklin’s good friend, sits on the Senate Transportation Committee that could decide whether DOT will become the dried husk of a bureaucracy that certain top Republicans would like to see.
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An update from House and Senate budget writers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You have to wade through seven minutes of other stuff to get there, but GPB’s “The Lawmakers” last night had an interview with Ben Harbin (R-Evans) and Jack Hill (R-Reidsville), chairmen of the House and Senate appropriation committees, respectively.
Both dropped some hints about their budget strategies.
Topics include property tax breaks and funding a statewide trauma service. Hill says Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed hospital tax could jeopardize the survival of some hospitals.
Harbin notes that the $10 car fee proposed by House Speaker Glenn Richardson last year to fund a trauma network “is still being looked at.”
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Rush Limbaugh to Barack Obama: ‘Back at you’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Boston Herald posted this a few minutes ago:
Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh took aim today at President Barack Obama’s warning to top Republicans that they need to quit listening to the conservative talker if they want to get along.
“Now this is the great unifier,” Limbaugh told listeners just after noon today. “This is the man who’s going to unify everybody and usher in a new era of bi-partisanship and love.”
“I think Obama wants me to fail,” Limbaugh said. “President Obama, by telling you and the elected Republicans in Washington to not listen to me because I am not how things get done in Washington, he has said that he wants me to fail.”
Last Friday, the New York Post reported that Obama — during a meeting over the economic stimulus bill — advised top GOP leaders to pay less heed to party ideologues.
“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,” Obama reportedly said.
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Rumor-killing in the 2010 U.S. Senate race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earlier this month, National Journal columnist Charlie Cook wrote a column, now posted on his web site, bemoaning the national GOP’s apparent rightward swing in the face of defeat.
Cook began with these two paragraphs:
A fellow who oversees lobbying in all 50 states for a major corporation recently told me about a certain Republican U.S. senator up for re-election in 2010, someone generally regarded as fairly conservative who might face a serious challenge from a very conservative fellow Republican. The incumbent has not been tainted by scandal, has never embarrassed himself by making a major mistake, is highly regarded in Washington, and is considered a very effective senator.
I was dumbfounded. Although it isn’t hard to see why a moderate Republican such as Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter could face a conservative primary challenge, it is difficult to understand why a conservative Republican would be challenged from the right. This is a party in danger of cannibalizing itself.
Cook never named him, and so the vignette set off a great deal of Internet speculation surrounding the Republican senator’s identity — locally and nationally, among Republicans and Democrats.
Many political sites listed U.S. Rep. Johnny Isakson of Georgia as a possibility — along with Bob Bennett of Utah, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, and John Thune of South Dakota.
When it came to Isakson, a discussion at Swing State Project mentioned U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland as a possible challenger.
And Westmoreland does have a hard-right, grassroots appeal that has served him well so far. But he’s not about to challenge Isakson.
“Lynn’s 110 percent behind Isakson, and will be helping him every step of the way,” Chip Lake, Westmoreland’s chief of staff, said today.
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The end of an NYT marriage made in purgatory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It doesn’t look like the marriage between neo-con Bill Kristol and the New York Times is working out.
Here’s Kristol’s lead paragraph for today’s op-ed column:
All good things must come to an end. Jan. 20, 2009, marked the end of a conservative era.
Here’s the non-Kristol note at the end:
This is William Kristol’s last column.
No word on whether the couple will engage in counseling, or whether another Grey Lady of journalism has acquired his affections.
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Listening in on the DOT board: Just ‘cause you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The board that governs the Georgia Department of Transportation convened itself over the phone late Friday afternoon.
And there was no mistaking, even without the help of body language, that this is an agency that feels itself under siege.
You know that a deal is brewing among Gov. Sonny Perdue, House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to reorganize the myriad of state transportation agencies.
It’s the price the governor has set for his support of increased funding to address the state’s failure to address traffic congestion in metro Atlanta and elsewhere.
Details have yet to surface, but signs point to the designation of a supreme umbrella agency that would not be the semi-independent (and largely dysfunctional) GDOT — which currently receives the bulk of state and federal funding.
Through this new system, the Capitol triumvirate would assert control of transportation policy, and its billions of dollars, by diverting authority and cash away from GDOT. That could be done slowly or in one fell swoop.
Friday’s conference call focused on two pieces of Senate legislation — each involving an erosion of DOT clout.
The first was the TSPLOST proposal put forth by Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), which would permit groups of counties — metro Atlanta in particular — to band together to levy a one-cent sales tax to address traffic needs. (The House is working on an approach employing a statewide sales tax, to be unveiled Wednesday.)
DOT Commissioner Gena Evans informed her board that S.B. 39 and its companion measure, S.R. 44, would permit these transportation districts to choose which state agency holds their money: GDOT, the State Road and Tollway Authority, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority — whatever.
So, little by little, GDOT could be cut out of all construction and planning. She continued:
Evans: One thing that worries me a little bit. Let’s say we have 10 of these [transportation districts]. We would set up 10 different trust funds for 10 regional programs.
That’s going to be a tremendous operational issue for us to try and work through, because needless to they’re going to be standing at our doorstep saying, here’s our local money, it’s in your trust fund, we want our projects to procede immediately.
Board member David Doss: You’re going to have GDOT, SRTA, GRTA— and anyone else, I guess — competing with one another to get that money. Let’s say there’s 10 of them around the state like you just said. GDOT’s running three of them and SRTA’s running four of them and GRTA’s running three of them. How are you going to deliver a statewide transportation system with a hodge-podge of projects and a hodge-podge of agencies, all with their finger in the pie?
Evans: That’s a good question.
Doss suggested the DOT board jump into the fray. Two other board members, Dana Lemon and Steve Farrow, warned that it would be unwise to step between the Senate and the House.
Replied a frustrated Doss: “I think if you want to stand on the sideline you ought to stay home. This sitting on our hands and saying — ‘Hey, guys, y’all do whatever you want to us, and we’ll be happy, we’ll just take whatever you give us’ — I don’t think that shows much leadership.”
Said Lemon: “That’s a bigger fight than we’re able to take on at this time, simply because of the nature of the board. At this time, I’m not sure we’’d be able to come up with a consensus on what approach would be best.”
Discussion moved on to S.B. 40, a bill sponsored Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons). Williams has said the bill is intended to address private-public initiatives only.
Chris Tomlinson, the DOT’s general counsel, announced to the board that the measure “is designed to reduce the powers of the department, specificlally the board and chief engineer.”
The measure would allow the State Road and Tollway Authority to take control of “any project SRTA wanted to approve,” the DOT attorney said.
Much of the language is devoted to the conduct of public-private partnerships, he said. But the language of the bill “makes it broader than just those projects,” Tomlinson said.
Lemon, who chairs the DOT board’s legislative committee, indicated there would be no neutrality on this measure.
“I believe we’re going to have to come out with a public position on this bill, and we’re going to have to do it sooner rather than later,” she said.
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Johnny Isakson and ‘CSI: Wall Street’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many of you thrill to the rubber-gloved glamour of “CSI.” Enough that we also have the gore-spattered clone “CSI: Miami” — and even “CSI: NY.”
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson wants one more forensic spin-off. Let’s call it “CSI: Wall Street,” a can’t-miss crime-scene drama with a riveting story arc: Who done in the corpse that is now your 401(k)? Who left fingerprints on your now-empty piggy bank?
And who, when you’re a brittle 78 and shuffling off to that job at Wal-Mart — your retirement reduced to a cushioned rubber mat at the store entrance, will deserve your muttered curse for bringing on the Crash of ‘08?
The Georgia Republican has paired with a Democrat, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, to demand an investigation into the near-collapse of the nation’s banking system and the evaporation of trillions of dollars.
They would style it after the bipartisan and independent 9/11 Commission, with subpoena powers and instructions to pass on to prosecutors any evidence of wrongdoing. Like its 9/11 brother, the Financial Markets Commission would have 12 months to do its job.
The idea alone is a sign of a new day in Washington. Many Republicans opposed the formation of the 9/11 Commission, fretting that it would be used to hammer the Bush Administration.
But there is no Bush Administration left to protect. “This is not a fishing expedition. This is an expedition to find out where the blame lies and let the chips fall where they may,” Isakson said in an interview. “We did not limit how far back the commission could go, because I think some of the decisions may have been made as far back as the ‘80s.”
And remember, the senator said, the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission turned out to be quite useful — and popular, too.
Just as refreshing is the possibility of renewed Washington faith in the concept of action based on actual fact. Steaming tureens of legislation are about to be thrown against the wall, just to see what sticks, Isakson said. It might just be worthwhile if Congress were to discover the problem before launching the solution.
“As you peel the onion back, you start learning an awful lot of things,” he said. For instance, we know that mortgages were handed out to many who couldn’t afford them. And that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac encouraged this “to create liquidity so we could raise the number of homeowners,” Isakson said.
But what led Moody’s Investors Service, one of the great referees of Wall Street, to rate these bundled-together husks as worthy of investment? What was Moody’s interest and where is the accountability? the senator asked.
Last summer, in the lead-up to the collapse, commodity futures became another bubble that compounded the damage — a place to recover losses in a declining market. Remember $5-a-gallon gasoline?
“If you peel back the onion, it was driven because people like the Princeton [University] endownment fund and the Harvard [University] endowment fund were induced to take their money and invest it in a speculative market,” Isakson said. “Why would a Princeton endowment fund buy pork bellies?”
Then there were the hedge funds that were allowed to bet in favor of a decline in the stock market, reinforcing the drop. And the financial instruments that were created and traded in the dark for years. The list goes on and on.
An investigating commission is justified because, though the current financial collapse lacks the bloodshed of 9/11, the economic impact is just as devastating, Isakson said.
But there is a subtle, political difference between then and now. When the concept of a 9/11 Commission was pitched, everyone involved knew that — while this government agency or that one might be faulted — ultimate responsibility lay with a set of monsters that death had put out of reach.
This economic catastrophe is self-inflicted, and its authors wander among us, with both money and lobbyists. And Washington hasn’t changed that much.
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Reminder: Checks above $10,062,010.98 will require two forms of photo ID
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you live in Cobb County, you’re on the hook for exactly $10,062,010.99, according to the people who run Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta.
That’s the figure on the bill that the Grady Health System sent to Cobb County earlier this month for “clinical services to 5,718 patients who have presented evidence of residency in your county.”
We’re presuming that other local governments surrounding Fulton and DeKalb counties have received similar letters.
Cobb County is asked to “please make the payment for your residents to Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation.”
We’re sure the check is in the mail, and will be for a very, very long time.
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House Democrats declare themselves protectors of school nurses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In politics, winning is all about identifying and wooing coalitions.
House Democrats on Friday declared school nurses to be potential members of their team.
In his proposed budget, Gov. Sonny Perdue trimmed $30 million for the authorized distributors of Advil in the classroom.
Democrats paint the scariest picture possible. It included lawyers.
Said state Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus), chairman of the Democratic caucus:
“The governor should be asking, who will administer this care… the teachers? The liability on untrained school employees administering health care could easily become an issue. Teachers in Georgia schools now are not allowed to administer medications. Nurses in our schools give out over 5 million doses per year.”
Said House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin):
“In Dublin, we have one nurse for four elementary schools. Numerous daily school-age related illnesses aside, our nurse manages diabetic children who must undergo daily blood sugar testing; she takes care of a child on a feeding tube, and has a student going through Stage Four cancer. The management of these health issues takes a trained professional.
“In one of the four schools alone there are 38 students on asthma inhalers, students who at times have had to be rushed to the hospital with acute asthma attacks. We should not balance the state’s budget by cutting health care to sick children or making our teachers become health care providers.”
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Barr: GOP wrong, closing Guantanamo doesn’t pose a danger to U.S.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The national Libertarian Party has posted a statement from former presidential candidate Bob Barr, praising President Barack Obama’s executive orders to close Guantanamo, halt waterboarding and other torture, and end military tribunals of detainees.
Barr also took issue with Republican claims that the closing of the detention facility at Guantanamo would endanger the United States:
“Any detainees against whom the government has evidence of terrorist acts, can try them or detain them in maximum security prisons, in military brigs, or in US military facilities overseas if necessary.” Moreover, Barr said, “the government has more than sufficient intelligence, military and law enforcement tools that are consistent with constitutional guarantees in the Bill of Rights, to provide robust and essential security for our country.”
Barr said he hopes Obama will do more:
“I hope President Obama will seek legislation curtailing the dramatic expansion of federal wiretapping power signed into law last July when former President Bush signed legislation expanding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that now makes every international phone call or e-mail by or to any person in the United States subject to warrantless surveillance.”
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African-Americans cast 30 percent of Georgia’s Nov. 4 ballots
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s official.
African-Americans driven by their enthusiasm for Democrat Barack Obama cast 30 percent of all Georgia ballots in the Nov. 4 general election.
White voter turnout in the election was 64 percent.
The data, reliant on separate reports from 159 counties, was posted today on Secretary of State Karen Handel’s web site.
In previous contests, African-American turnout had been about 25 percent, sometimes less, meaning Obama’s candidacy increased black turnout by at least one-fifth.
At the outset of Georgia’s first experience with early voting, which began 45 days before Nov. 4, black voters were casting up to 35 percent of all ballots.
Another measure of enthusiasm among African-Americans: 76 percent of all black voters registered actually voted. Among white voters, 77 percent of those registered actually cast a ballot.
That the two figures are nearly equal is considered good news by Democrats. African-American participation generally runs several points behind.
Broken down by race and gender, African-American men had the poorest performance, with 70 percent of those registered casting a ballot. Eighty percent of registered black women participated in the election.
Among whites, 78 percent of registered women voted. Among white men, the figure was 76 percent.
Racial and gender breakdowns for the Dec. 2 runoff aren’t yet available. Clearly the trend didn’t hold.
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Isakson leaning against Geithner for Treasury
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just got off the phone with U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, who doesn’t sound like he’s ready to vote for Timothy Geithner, President Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of the treasury.
A vote is scheduled for Monday evening.
This week, Geithner apologized to the Senate Finance Committee Geithner for what he called “careless mistakes” in failing to pay $34,000 in taxes earlier in the decade when he worked at the International Monetary Fund.
Said Isakson:
“I just have a very hard time with somebody who neglected something this important and who will be in charge of the Internal Revenue Service,” Isakson said.
“Tragedy” was the word the Georgia Republican used to describe the possibility that “somebody that bright” might have jeopardized his ability to serve in Obama’s cabinet.
Isakson said the fellow hasn’t contacted him yet, and may still do so. So he hasn’t committed to voting against him. Rather, Isakson mentioned an e-mail he’d received from former GOP senator Mack Mattingly, who later served as the U.S. ambassador to NATO.
Mattingly was kind enough to send a copy of his communication with Isakson to the Insider:
A former New York Federal Reserve Board leader, former IMF official, now being considered to be our country’s treasury secretary, who no doubt had a CPA, is now being excused for some “minor” errors on his tax returns.
He may be brilliant and might be a good secretary, but if we step back for a moment and ask — what would happen to me, you or other current and former entrepreneurs if they did the same?
Probably not be considered for a political appointment and if so, the FBI would turn thumbs down on the person. Twenty-two years ago at NATO, an international organization, I asked myself, what example would I set, as I was not required to pay federal or Georgia state taxes on my “international income.” But I did.
[Geithner] does not deserve a yes vote. Maybe an abstain vote.
If Isakson is sour on Geithner, chances are that U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss has similar qualms.
Geithner is still likely to be approved by Senate — but there have been demands from rank-and-file Republicans that the GOP oppose the appointment. Newt Gingrich suggested it earlier this week.
And the conservative web stie Redstate.com has been conduct a phone-your-senator campaign among its followers.
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Perdue to demand that DeKalb, Clayton school boards shrink by two
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue is about to unveil legislation that would force DeKalb and Clayton County to reduce the size of their boards of education.
The legislation would limit school boards to no more than seven seats. Boards in Clayton and DeKalb each have nine.
Eleven other school districts, including Bibb County, would be affected, according to the Macon Telegraph:
Formal legislation calling for the change likely will be ready next week, according to the governor’s office. The size restriction was recommended by a state education commission that made several recommendations to change the way school boards operate after a meltdown in the Clayton County school system led to its loss of accreditation.
Among the other recommendations included in Perdue’s proposal: a new code of ethics, new minimum standards to serve on a school board and a new state power to throw members off of school boards when things go awry, replacing them with other school district residents.
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Cagle: Price of property tax break could be state job furloughs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tim Bryant, the talk show host for WGAU (1340AM) in Athens, had Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle on the air this morning.
In a discussion about the state’s dismal economic situation, Cagle forecast deeper cuts at the University of Georgia — and elsewhere — if state lawmakers are to preserve that $428 million property tax break that Gov. Sonny Perdue has recommended eliminating.
Click here to listen to the entire five-minute interview. But this is the gist:
Cagle: We made a commitment to the homeowners. County commissioners along with city council members have actually sent those bills out. People are expecting to receive those $200 to $300 rebates, or reduction in property taxes. It’s a commitment we’ve made. We need to honor that commitment….Having said that, it’s going to require a $428 million additional cut to the supplemental budget, and that’s going to be very difficult to do, but we’re dealing diligently to get there.
Bryant: The governor says its fiscally impossible to find [that] $428 million.
Cagle: I have great respect for the governor. But I can tell you he and I don’t always see eye to eye, and this is one of those issues that we have a disagreement on. We can cut the budget.
Bryant: Any idea where? The front page story on the [Athens] Banner-Herald today: “Job cuts at the University of Georgia possible in 2010.” Would that be where you find some of the savings?
Cagle: You would certainly be identifying additional furloughs across the board. And that would create significant savings, naturally. Along with that, there [are] the state health benefit reserves that the governor has not accounted for. And there are other pots of one-time money that could be made available.
Photo credit: John Spink/AJC
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Isakson: We need a ‘9/11’ commission to investigate financial collapse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is about to pair with Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota to back legislation that would creat a 9/11-style commission to investigate what led to the nation’s financial collapse.
The commission would have subpoena powers, and would be authorized to turn over evidence of wrong doing to the Justice Department, Security Exchange Commission, etc.
In the bill, seven appointments to the commission would be divided thusly: Two by President Obama, one by the U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi, one by the House minority leader, one by Senate majority leader, one by the Senate minority leader.
So it’s conceivable that Isakson, who made his fortune in real estate, could find himself on the forensic commission. Note the difference in GOP attitude on this one. In the days following 9/11, the Bush administration egged on Republican opposition in Congress to an investigatory committee.
Not this time.
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The GOP considers its own Obama moment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Politico has this take on the contest for chairman of the Republican National Committee, which comes to a head this week:
…And with race permeating the electoral landscape, all six contenders are competing to present themselves as the most minority-friendly candidate, the one most able to open up the party to new voting groups.
“I have heard all the candidates talk about it,” said Illinois Committeeman Pat Brady. “That’s where we got killed in the presidential.”
Though Republicans captured just 4 percent of the African-American vote in the last presidential race, two black candidates are vying to lead the GOP: former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.
Steele and Blackwell have not framed their bids in racial terms, and members of the committee say they won’t cast their votes based on a candidate’s race. But to some GOP leaders, the moment looks ripe for a black chairman — especially given the challenges of countering Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president.
“If the nation can celebrate the first African-American president, I would think the Republican Party would celebrate if we had the opportunity to celebrate an African-American national chairman,” said Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, who supports Steele.
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The three-way deal on transportation that’s cooking: It’s a 50 percent thing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson are closing in on a final deal to reshape and reorganize the agencies that control the way Georgians move around.
Very likely, in the process, they’ll also attempt to destroy the decades-old grip that the state Department of Transportation and its ruling board have on policy — and millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars.
The trio is expected to ink a deal within the next two days. Details are being held close to the vest, but a few hints have been dropped, some important committee assignments have been made, and at least one highly interesting bill has been filed.
We’re not talking about the one-cent sales tax for roads, whether statewide or by confederacies of counties. This is about “governance,” and Perdue’s renewed demand of proof that the state bureaucracy can handle the increased transportation funding that the business community has demanded.
The legislation that’s about to be unveiled is highly, highly likely to concentrate a great deal of power over transportation policy in the hands of three men.
The key to the deal can be found in the Georgia Constitution. Most state lawmakers assume that the annual fortune generated by the state motor fuel tax must go to the DOT. That’s incorrect.
All the Constitution requires is that the cash go toward “providing and maintaining an adequate system of public roads and bridges in this state, as authorized by laws enacted by the General Assembly of Georgia.” No agency is specified.
This is important because the triumvirate is demanding that the reorganization of the state’s alphabet soup of transportation agencies be accomplished without a constitutional amendment. For that would require that Democrats in both the Hosue and the Senate be brought into the bargain.
You’ll remember a mention of a proposal backed by House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) to change the way the state DOT board is structured. Right now, rank-and-file members of the Legislature elect each board member, based on lawmaker residency in the state’s 13 congressional districts.
Keen would have the governor name one-third of the board, the speaker appoint another third, and the lieutenant governor the final third. The governor would appoint the DOT commissioner, the agency’s executive director.
The current, decentralized system has allowed the DOT board to operate in semi-independent fashion, playing the demands of both governors and the Legislature against one another. The only hitch: The dysfunctional agency has made billions of dollars of promises it can’t fulfill. And traffic in metro Atlanta is choking the rest of Georgia.
But — and here’s the point - changing the structure of the DOT board would require a change in the state Constitution, which would require a two-thirds vote of both chambers in the General Assembly. And a deal with Democrats.
But why would Democrats agree to such a thing? They currently control four of 13 seats on the DOT board, by virtue of their control of four congressional districts. Adopting Keen’s proposal would mean giving up all Democratic influence. Not likely.
So if the GOP triumvirate is to get its way, all must be done with a 50 percent vote of the House and Senate. Which brings us back to that constitutional clause mandating that the revenue stream generated by the state’s motor fuel tax — the heart and soul of the DOT — go toward “public roads and bridges.” Redirect that river of cash — or most of it, or a significant portion — to another agency, and DOT becomes a subservient (and perhaps irrelevant) pothole department.
A bill has been proposed in the last few days by Tommie Williams, the Senate president pro tem — the ranking member of the chamber.
S.B. 40 is not the governor’s legislation. And Williams says his measure is intended only to strip the DOT’s authority over public-private initiatives and hand it to the State Road and Tollway Authority.
“I did not intend to broaden [SRTA] power beyond that,” the Senate leader said.
Despite Williams’ intentions, a careful reading of the legislation shows no limits on the ability of the Legislature to shift transportation duties away from the DOT. The measure also greatly expands the governor’s power “to commence the study of any given [transportation] project or projects and to provide for their construction.”
S.B.40 doesn’t contain any hint of the power-sharing that’s likely at the heart of the three-legged deal. But the bill does demonstrate the language that might be used to strip the state DOT board of influence. Consider that the measure could very well be the precursor of legislation to come.
S.B. 40 has a set of influential sponsors, in addition to Williams: Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee; Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) and Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna).
Stoner, the Democrat, told us on Wednesday evening that he signed onto the legislation with the anticipation that it would only affect PPIs — but acknowledged that the language is curiously open-ended. If the measure is intended for something other than PPIs, Stoner said, he would withdraw his support.
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Gingrich: Senate Republicans should draw line at Geithner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich is advising Senate Republicans to pick their first fight with President Barack Obama — over the nomination of Timothy Geithner for secretary of the treasury.
Geithner today apologized for his failure to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes earlier this decade.
This from an interview in today’s Washington Times:
Mr. Gingrich said Mr. Geithner’s failure to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 should automatically disqualify him, and that if Mr. Obama doesn’t withdraw the nomination Republicans should make a stand.
“Senate Republicans should make it clear that they will not permit a tax evader to become the secretary of the Treasury,” the Georgia Republican [said]. “Even after he was explicitly sent material telling him he had to pay them he did not do so.”
Photo credit: Associated Press
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Speaking of ex-presidents: Welcome center in Plains falls to budget cuts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Americus Times-Recorder today mourns the loss of the state welcome center that directs visitors around former President Jimmy Carter’s hometown:
Penny Smith is a little bit sad. The Plains Welcome Center manager said she was notified last week that the Plains Welcome Center, one of 11 state Visitor Information Centers located throughout Georgia, is scheduled to close. This is as a result of the budget cuts by Governor Sonny Perdue’s recent attempt to resurrect the economy of the state.
According to Smith and others in the community, the closing of this Welcome Center would be “devastating.”
Smith said, “This is a community where our 39th President lives, and people come to this Center for that reason. Most of our visitors are destination visitors.”
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House Republicans may be laying groundwork for state takeover of MARTA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s more evidence of a very large shake-up in Georgia’s network — some would say maze — of transportation agencies.
We’ve reported that Gov. Sonny Perdue is very hot on the idea, and has named it as a price for his support of a statewide sales tax to address congestion.
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen has suggested blowing up the state transportation board as we know it. Similar ideas have popped up in the Senate. Check out S.B. 40 proposed by President pro tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) and Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna).
It would allow the Legislature to decide what projects are too important to be handled by the state Department of Transportation.
But wait. There’s more.
In the list of House committee assignments that came out late last week, two small changes went largely unnoticed.
State Rep. Larry O’Neal (R-Bonaire), confidante of Gov. Sonny Perdue, was returned to the joint MARTA oversight committee known as MARTOC. House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), a close friend of Speaker Glen Richardson, was assigned to the same committee for the first time.
Asked what the appointment of two heavy-hitters signifies, MARTOC chairman Jill Chambers (R-Atlanta) replied, “Leadership support of my initiatives.”
Any initiative in particular? “Consolidation of the state-created transportation agencies under a single umbrella,” Chambers said. For instance, the absorption of MARTA into the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority — or some other state acronym.
MARTA, technically a creation of the Legislature, has pleaded for more state funding. The transit system, which covers DeKalb and Fulton counties, was $43 million in the red as of last summer.
“In order to get state funding, the state has to have more control,” the chairman said. Or in this case, total control. Other regional transportation authorities — bus systems in Clayton and Cobb, for instance — could be wrapped into this single system as well.
How quickly? Not this calendar year, Chambers said. Maybe next.
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A non-encounter of the ex-presidential kind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ABC News says it has video of an ex-presidential snubbing just before the swearing-in ceremony:
Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter appeared to greet former Republican President George H.W. Bush and his wife warmly, kissing Barbara Bush on the cheek. But as Carter passed fellow Democrats Bill and Hillary Clinton, the two men did not appear to acknowledge each other’s presence at all.
President Carter disputes there was any snub and says any suggestion there was is “erroneous.” Through a spokesperson at the Carter Center in Atlanta, the former President told ABC News that he had earlier spent a half hour talking to the Clintons and therefore wanted to use the opportunity to say hello to the Bushes while he could. According to the spokesperson, cameras only caught the later encounter.
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Watching the inauguration in an empty state Capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Capitol is virtually on holiday today. The halls are empty save for the occasional office-worker or classroom tour group.
The inauguration in D.C. is being shown on two big screens in the state Senate, where a mix of 36 staffers and such — white, black, young, old — sit in the chairs of lawmakers, watching history.
But this is a Republican-controlled Legislature. So the channel is Fox News, of course.
At 11:45 a.m.: Scattered applause here as Barack Obama stepped into the frame.
One of those in the back is Rusty Henderson, a Dublin fellow — nice guy — who participated in the fight to restore the Confederate battle emblem to the state flag. He now sits on the Georgia Civil War Commission.
The state Capitol is virtually on holiday today. The halls are empty save for the occasional office-worker or classroom tour group.
The inauguration in D.C. is being shown on two big screens in the state Senate, where a mix of 36 staffers and such — white, black, young, old — sit in the chairs of lawmakers, watching history.
But this is a Republican-controlled Legislature. So the channel is Fox News, of course.
At 12:05 p.m.: A dozen here stood as Obama took his oath of office, but all applauded after he’d finished.
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Updated: Home of Obama celebrant reduced to ashes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Forsyth County woman who went to Washington D.C. to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama will come home to find her house burned.
Authorities have declared the fire in Cumming to be suspicious and spoke of “terroristic threats and acts.” There’s no sign that anyone has talked to the homeowner, Pamela Graf, so the story remains incomplete.
Jon Flack, a Democratic activist who lives in Forsyth County and operates the blog Tondee’s Tavern, said Graf is on her way home. Flack said she had been active with Democratic women in the county.
This was posted late last night by the Gainesville Times:
No one was home when the house on Lanier Drive in northeastern Forsyth County burned to the ground about 4:30 a.m. Sunday. Someone spray-painted graffiti that included the phrase “your black boy will die” on a fence along the property….
Attempts to reach Graf for comment Monday were not successful. But her father, William Morrow, said he thinks she was targeted because of her political views.
Morrow said Graf had two Obama campaign signs in her yard before the fire. He wasn’t sure what happened to one sign, but said he asked her to remove the other after she received a negative letter about a week before the fire.
Morrow said the letter addressed her political views, though he couldn’t remember any specifics from it that his daughter had shared with him. He said she had taken the sign out of her yard before she left Friday.
Anderson said if fire investigators determine that the graffiti is a possible threat against Obama, they will involve the Secret Service. The department’s Atlanta field office was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
“Once I sit down and talk with her and we can discuss this a little bit more in depth, if we feel that’s what it is we’ll call them and give them the information and see what they want to do,” he said.
Last night, Marie Anderson, chairman of the Forsyth County Democratic Party, put out this statement:
”In response to the recent house fire which occurred in Forsyth County and is suspected to have been racially motivated, the Forsyth County Democratic Party condemns hate crimes of any nature.
“Should the allegations prove to be true, we as residents of Forsyth County, whether Republican or Democrat, Obama supporter or not, should be shocked and appalled that this type of incident would happen here in our County.”
Updated: This morning, as inauguration ceremonies in D.C. got underway, the Southeastern office of the Anti-Defamation League condemned the fire as “a terrible reminder that even on this day of history, racism remains a virulent threat in America.”
Said Bill Nigut, ADL director:
“We’ve talked to the authorities in Forsyth and they assure us they are pursing this as a terroristic threat against Ms. Graf. One of the messages seemed to imply a threat against President-elect Obama, and authorities are pursing this with the appropriate federal agencies.”
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BBC video of MLK: Perhaps a ‘Negro president’ by 1988 or so
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In 1964, the BBC asked Martin Luther King Jr. about a comment by Bobby Kennedy — that the United States might elect an African-American as president within, say, 40 years.
See the video here
Both RFK and MLK were a tad off. Said King, ever the optimist:
“I think we may be able to get a Negro president in less than 40 years. I would think that this could come in 25 years or less.”
Then again, there was Jesse Jackson’s ’84 campaign for president.
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Republican rumors: ‘Polishing Bush’s legacy’ and other disinformation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over at redstate.com, Erick Erickson passes on the latest rumor in the race for chairman of the Republican National Committee.
This one involves Michael Duncan, the current chairman — who wants to be re-elected when the RNC assembles this week.
Writes Erickson:
This weekend individuals who will be involved in the election process for the next RNC Chairman told me of being cornered by two Senior Administration Officials trying to push votes toward Duncan. According to my sources, the White House guys said Duncan is their choice because he’s committed to the RNC leading a role in polishing the Bush legacy.
Even in a hardcore Republican context, this is disinformation intended to harm Duncan’s chances:
I emailed Anne Hathaway at the RNC about this. She said she was, “not sure where this is coming from and I’m not sure what this is about. Given all the charges and counter-charges in the last few days I am suspicious as to the credibility of this suggestion. I am not surprised that Mike’s opponents would try and tie him to the White House.”
In the meantime, Politico has this:
Sean Hannity has written a supportive letter to RNC members about Michael Steele, who is currently in the running for the chairman post. Hannity calls Steele, the former Lt. Governor of Marlyand, “the best kind of conservative.” (Steele has been a substitute host on “Hannity & Colmes”).
On the same topic, Congressional Quarterly reported today, via Twitter, that NBC’s “Tonight Show” was on the Mall in Washington, hosting a shoe-throwing competition in President Bush’s honor.
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Rick Warren at Ebenezer: ‘Can we not all just get along?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Protestors jumped up as the Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church began his MLK Day address at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Atlanta.
The two women were quickly escorted out.
It took nearly three hours for Monday’s ceremony to get to Warren, the featured speaker of the program, who also will give the invocation at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Protestors, who object to Warren’s stand against same-sex marriage and abortion, also stood outside and shouted.
Here’s one line from Warren that sounded like a theme for tomorrow: “Justice is a journey, and we’re getting further and further along.”
Warren’s strongest reference to the hoopla surrounding his participation in the Obama inauguration came at the very end of a 50-minute address:
“I am a white, overweight, southern California mega-church pastor. I love you. And I reach out my hand to you and I say to you and to anyone of good will — to quote that great theologian Rodney King — ‘Can we not all just get along?’
“You don’t have to agree on everything. You don’t have to agree to be agreeable. You can disagree without being disagreeable. You can walk hand-in-hand with out seeing eye-to-eye.
“You know what I love about America? It’s diversity. I don’t know if you’ve figure this out, but God likes variety.’’
Otherwise, Warren’s remarks were largely King-oriented and inspirational.
Perhaps the most interesting was the rousing defense of Warren offered by Isaac Farris, CEO of the King Center, from the pulpit:
“When Pastor Warren was selected to deliver the invocation at the inauguration tomorrow, it sparked a bit of controversy because of his views on same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
“”But you know, Pastor Warren is not so easy to pigeon-hole as your average conservative on the political spectrum. Because he holds views on issues like poverty, compassion help for people with AIDS, global warming — what some people might characterize as liberal or progressive…
“Here at the King Center we would just call it the social gospel. There are those who feel that because of his conservative views on some issues, Pastor Warren shouldn’t be a speaker at this service.
“”I submit to you that these are people who, quite frankly, don’t understand the beloved community of Martin Luther King Jr. In the beloved community, you will find both conservative and liberal Christians, people of Jewish, Islamic and Hindu faiths. People of all races — gays, lesbians.
“”I would urge his critics to rise to the challenge of Martin Luther King Jr., who said — if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
“”And let us remember that followers of Martin Luther King Jr. hold diverse opinions on topics like abortion and same-sex marriage. All of the great freedom movements in America are based on free speech.”
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Is Kia plant about to become a GOP icon in the stimulus debate?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a Q&A with former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich, today’s editorial section of the Washington Times has an interesting mention of the deal that brought the Kia auto plant to Georgia.
By the phrasing, you have to wonder if the Kia deal — a package of incentives not at all different from those offered by other states — is about to become the Republican ideal.
Here’s the section in question:
Times: The Obama team and congressional Democrats can’t wait to push through an infrastructure plan, one they say will turn around the economy. Can America afford such a plan? Or would public-private partnerships like the one between Kia Motors and West Point, Ga., where the state government opened a new I-85 access for the company’s auto plant, be preferable?
Gingrich: Of course we should look for public-private partnerships where we can. However, I am comfortable with direct federal spending on infrastructure - so long as it is on projects that will set the stage for long-term economic growth, not pet projects like the list that mayors have asked be included in the Obama stimulus package.
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SNL’s Coulter: ‘I think torture is good and Christiany”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No longer obsessed with Sarah Palin, NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” takes on conservative anorexic Ann Coulter in this web-only video below.
The skit is a send-up of Coulter’s appearance earlier this month on NBC’s “Today.”
Says Coulter, a.k.a. Michaela Watkins:” ”I think torture is good and Christiany, and history will bear that out.”
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If Obama lifts restrictions on stem cell research, look for a Georgia attempt to replace them
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama is expected to lift the 7-year-old federal restriction on embryonic stem cell research.
When that happens, certain state lawmakers will attempt to recreate a state version of the blockade in Georgia, sparking yet another Capitol fight over the thorny issue of science, religion and moral boundaries.
The battle will draw close attention from the state’s university system — not to mention a budding biotech industry. Tens of millions of dollars in research grants are at stake.
Beyond African-Americans, scientists are perhaps the demographic group most delighted by the end of the George W. Bush administration. Too often, many of them argued, the White House placed ideology above researched fact.
One of the deepest wells of scientific resentment can be found in the field of embryonic stem cell research. For more than 10 years, scientists have drooled over stem cells as a source of replacement tissue damaged or destroyed by a range of diseases and injuries.
Diabetes, spinal cord injuries, deafness, blindness, you name it.
While stem cells have been discovered in many forms of adult tissue, researchers say the most potent lines are developed from newly formed embryos — clumps of a handful of cells — discarded by fertility clinics.
But because the discarded embryos are destroyed in the process, many Christian conservatives — though not all — equate the practice with abortion.
In the early months of his first term, President Bush limited federal funding to research involving embryonic stem cell lines already in use. He barred the use of federal dollars for any research that involved the creation of more.
Many scientists argue that the decision crippled one of the most promising initiatives of a generation. Some states, Georgia not among them, began funding research on their own.
For three years, University of Georgia researcher Steve Stice has worked with Republicans to broker a compromise on the issue.
He’s eager to see Obama lift the ban. “I’m all for it,” he said. “The larger question, and what everybody hopes for, is that there’ll be some federal funding that will follow as well.”
One UGA biochemist recently landed a $9.2 million grant for stem cell research. Stice himself recently landed a share of a Department of Defense grant — “north of $4 million.”
The Pentagon has been a major backer of stem cell research, Stice said. “We’re trying to find a way to replace bone that has been damaged, to get soldiers — and then civilians — walking on injured limbs.”
So far, the Department of Defense has demanded that research be restricted to the use of adult stem cells. That could change if Obama reverses the Bush order, Stice said.
But should the new president do so, you can expect Republicans in Georgia to respond with an attempt to forbid any federally funded research involving embryonic stem cells at state universities labs. The use of state funds was prohibited in 2006.
“I would assume there will be an effort to restrict embryonic stem cell research. Georgia would stake out its ground as being pro-life,” said state Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah).
Johnson is now running for lieutenant governor, but until recently was the ranking member of the Senate. (Johnson also headed up a special committee that examined whether a limit could be placed on the number of embryos created by fertility clinics.)
Stice hopes a state ban won’t happen. “If Georgia’s going to do this on stem cells, what kind of environment is it for all kinds of biotechnology?” he asked.
Business interests blunted efforts to restrict stem cell research two years ago. And an international biotech conference in Atlanta — a prime recruiting opportunity for the state’s economic development arm — is set for May. So the GOP’s pro-life forces may be forced to hold fire during this session of the Legislature.
Nor are Republicans unanimous in their opinions about embryonic stem cell research. State Rep. Bob Smith (R-Athens), 55, lost 80 percent of his hearing when he was a child. It’s never returned.
But Smith recently asked Stice to help him recruit a team of researchers to the state to work toward a cure for all kinds of deafness. If embryonic stem cell research is part of that, Smith said, so be it.
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Jim Wooten retires
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Wooten, the AJC’s long-time voice of conservatism, is retiring. He leaves the editorial board on June 30. The Cobb County resident will continue to write a weekly column, and do a little blogging.
But it is entirely fair to call him a short-timer.
If you think you’re up to replacing the man, click here.
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Watch CNN video of Flight 1549 splashing into the Hudson River
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Amazing shots from NYC surveillance cameras:
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Now, if Obama ordered up a Camouflage Ball, Westmoreland would think about it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some people just aren’t meant to foxtrot.
While it seems that half the toes in the nation will try to squeeze into the Size 2 shoe that is the District of Columbia on Tuesday, certain people are determined to stay away.
McClatchy News Service is reporting that our own U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican from Coweta County (who used an unfortunate word to describe the First Couple during the 2008 campaign), has declared himself out-of-town until Wednesday:
“He’s a Republican and this is a Democratic — with a lowercase ‘p’ — party function,” said Brian Robinson, Westmoreland’s spokesman. “Plus it’s going to be 10 degrees and crowded. (Westmoreland) is not a huge pomp and circumstance kind of guy anyway. Put him in a field with a gun at a turkey shoot and he’ll be good to go. If Obama had a turkey shoot, Lynn would be there.”
In the same article, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss exudes all the grace of a fellow who has survived a close call, and is ready to wish good health to all the world — regardless of creed or party:
“The inauguration of President Obama will be one of the most significant moments in our nation’s history,” Chambliss said. “Importantly, it will be wonderful to witness the number of people from around the nation who have engaged in the political process.”
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Hillary Clinton in Atlanta on Saturday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is shedding some light on the schedule of Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. senator and future secretary of state, who will be in Atlanta on Saturday to attend a dinner in her honor — one part of the Martin Luther King Holiday ceremonies.
Clinton is to receive the King Center’s “Salute To Greatness” award in downtown Atlanta, as will Chick-fil-A founder and CEO Truett Cathy.
The SCLC now says that dinner will be preceded by an afternoon reception for Clinton at SCLC headquarters on Auburn Avenue.
No word on whether husband Bill will accompany her.
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Georgia Power lets big businesses off the hook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A two-page bill to permit Georgia Power to immediately pass to ratepayers the cost of financing the construction of two new nuclear reactors was making its way around the state Capitol on Friday afternoon.
The bill is bound to stir controversy — Georgia Power is usually required to shoulder such costs, then charge ratepayers afterwards.
On Monday, we posted an item that identified opposition to the Georgia Power bill among large industrial users. That was important, because big companies are capable of hiring big lobbyist to sink the bill.
But as unveiled, the Georgia Power bill sponsored by Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour has this line: “These financing costs shall be recovered from each customer through a separate rate tariff and allocated on an equal percentage basis to standard base tariffs which are designed to collect embedded capacity costs.”
Translated into English, this means: “Large industrial and commercial plants — whether a Kia auto plant or a big box Wal-Mart — shall not be charged - much — for this adventure. Not in advance. Instead, the burden will fall on small businesses and homeowners who are much likely to shell out money for trouble-making lobbyists.”
Problem solved. We understand that many interested parties, such as Georgia’s textile industry, have already moved from hostile to officially neutral. Because suddenly, the Georgia Power bill has naught to do with them.
Updated: Georgia Power spokeswoman Christy Heiser just sent a statement over. The bill does not exempt industrial and commercial customers, she said. And perhaps that’s true. They would pay some. But the language of the legislation does mean that the extra cost Georgia Power wants to levy wouldn’t be applied to the largest portion of the kilowatt hours these big customers use.
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A word on ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There have been mixed signals from his transition squad over how quickly the next president intends to act on the issue of open service for gays in the U.S. military.
So it’s no surprise that this 11-second YouTube clip is zipping around gay and lesbian sites, parsed from a longer video posted last week by Barack Obama’s change.gov.
In it, incoming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs offers a single word of reassurance when asked if Obama intends to end “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
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No standing ‘O’ for the Big ‘O,’ says the Post
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Washington Post’s media critic, Howard Kurtz, defends his employer from accusations that Barack Obama received a standing ovation in the newsroom when the president-elect arrived for an interview on Thursday:
He worked the room. The whole room. The whole room of grizzled journalistic veterans, most of whom stood and, well, stared.
Note to media-bashers: There was no standing ovation. Although one clerical employee was heard to shriek that he had shaken her hand.
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Michael Thurmond and the recession
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No doubt you saw that 128,625 workers filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits in December. That’s a 174 percent increase from the same month a year ago.
State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond called the numbers both “stunning and sobering.”
But Thurmond is passing around other news as well — an award from the American Institute for Full Employment, which points to U.S. Department of Labor statistics that say Thurmond’s department “helped laid-off workers get new jobs in an average of 11.6 weeks, one of the shortest benefit duration periods in the nation and nearly four weeks faster than the national average.”
Thurmond, as anyone in Democratic political circles knows, is seeking a 2010 promotion. He intends to run for governor or lieutenant governor.
But as the man in charge of Georgia’s unemployment support structure, Thurmond is also the state official most clearly on the front lines of the deepest recession since World War II.
Politically, it is a precarious position. But if Thurmond charts the proper course it, the experience could give him an advantage over many other Democrats.
With each plant that closes, each mill that shuts down, Thurmond makes the trek to north or south Georgia to advise auditoriums full of frightened people on what they’ll need to do to survive.
The situation is somewhat similar to the one faced last year by Secretary of State Karen Handel, the Republican in charge bringing order to early balloting and a crush of Barack Obama-driven voters. Like Handel, Thurmond is an independent actor, elected on his own. But when it comes to cash for his department, he must make do with whatever a Republican governor and Legislature give him.
Thurmond’s dilemma, of course, is more dangerous than Handel’s. Voting is one thing. Keeping a roof over the heads of one’s family is another.
As an African-American, Thurmond has a distinct advantage in a Democratic primary. He’s a good speaker, and is often brought in to rouse partisan crowds.
But don’t expect him to pick his contest anytime soon. With the exception of House Minority Leader DuBose Porter and retired adjutant general David Poythress, most Democrats eyeing 2010 are waiting on one particular domino to fall first.
With a string of addresses that resemble a stump speech, former Gov. Roy Barnes has persuaded many that he is seriously considering a re-entry into politics.
Thurmond, like many others, will let Barnes have his say before the labor commissioner decides to run for the No. 1 spot, or the No. 2.
Another Democrat in the wings is state Sen. Tim Golden of Valdosta, a Sam Nunn-like Dem. He’s contemplating a run for statewide office, but is waiting to name is target. Golden, you’ll remember, almost left the Democratic party after doing battle with then-Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker is another Democrat thought to be in the mix, though we haven’t heard much about his 2010 plans.
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The fourth GOP candidate for governor: Ray McBerry
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Uh, it looks like we now have four Republican candidates in the 2010 race for governor.
On his campaign web site, Ray McBerry, a “state’s rights” candidate who challenged Gov. Sonny Perdue in the 2006 primary, has announced he’ll try again.
Berry won nearly 12 percent of the GOP primary vote by tapping the leftover frustration from the 2001 removal of the Confederate battle emblem from the Georgia state flag — and Perdue’s promise of a referendum that might restore it.
On his web site, Georgia First, McBerry is described as a “Christian statesman” who believes a governor ought to “interpose” himself between the people and their enemies — such as “the federal leviathan.”
McBerry thinks graduated income taxes are Marxist, and — in language far too familiar for Southerners of a certain age — says this most recent wave of illegal immigrants is “creating counterproductive divisions and dangers to our historic way of life.”
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Chambliss, Isakson vote (unsuccessfully) to block more bailout money
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson joined in today’s unsuccessful Republican-led attempt to block the release of $350 billion from the financial bailout package.
The Associated Press reports that, despite bipartisan anger over the Bush administration’s handling of the program to date, Democratic allies of the incoming president prevailed on a vote of 52-42 that will permit the release of funds within days of Obama’s inauguration.
Both houses debated Obama’s call to release the cash, originally approved last October, but the vote that mattered most was in the Senate.
In explaining themselves, both Georgia senators heaped criticism on the outgoing Republican administration. Said Chambliss:
“When this legislation to stabilize the economy was presented to us in October, we were told that the initial funds would be released to buy toxic loans from banks around the country. But that did not happen.
“Most of it has gone to the big banks and has not filtered down to community banks where most local business is conducted, and I’m very disappointed in that. Over the past few months, I have expressed my disappointment to the Treasury Secretary as well as other members of the administration.”
Said Isakson:
“I supported the first round of the Troubled Asset Relief Program because it is critical to our economy to unfreeze the credit markets,” Isakson said. “However, the administration has used the money in different ways than what was planned originally, and the credit markets are still frozen. As a result, I cannot justify supporting the release of the remaining funds.”
Isakson specifically cited the use of cash from the first $350 billion to purchase direct investments in banks, and to help a struggling auto industry.
See the Wall Street Journal take here.
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For Rick Warren, mum’s the word
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rick Warren, the California megachurch pastor, has a busy two days next week. On Monday in Atlanta, he’ll deliver the keynote speech for the annual observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
And, of course, on Tuesday he’ll give the opening prayer in Washington D.C. at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.
Warren, as Obama’s choice, has been the center of much discussion lately. He is a conservative whose opposition to gay marriage has provoked much angst in Democratic ranks. To be fair, Warren has also been a critic of the Religious Right for its failure to include the environment, AIDS and the poor in its agenda.
But whether he’s in D.C. or in Atlanta, don’t expect any extemporaneous participation in public conversation from Warren. This from The Caucus, a New York Times political blog:
Mr. Warren has decided not to grant any interviews before the inauguration next Tuesday, though he has received more than 100 requests for interviews, including strong appeals from competing celebrity television reporters, according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross (who has also served for years as spokesman for the Rev. Billy Graham).
Mr. Ross’s firm released a statement saying, “Dr. Warren has determined there is no way he could fairly accommodate any interviews at the expense of others, but instead will let his prayer speak for itself.”
Mr. Ross said that Mr. Warren came to the decision on his own, without any pressure or guidance from the Obama inaugural planners. And for any journalists attempting a clever end run, Mr. Warren is also declining interview requests about the address he will give the day before the inauguration, on Martin Luther King Day, at historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King was once the pastor, in Atlanta.
Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images
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The price for challenging a House speaker
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It appears the price for unsuccessfully challenging the Man is the heavy burden of the word “vice.”
As in vice-chairman.
My AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin reports that state Rep. David Ralston, (R-Blue Ridge) who made the failed bid to unseat House Speaker Glenn Richardson, has been demoted.
Formerly the chairman of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, he is now vice-chairman of its sister panel, the Judiciary Committee.
The House’s Committee on Assignments officially decides committee membership and leaders, and that committee released its final report this morning. But there are few who would argue that Richardson’s hand is unseen in its result.
Replacing Ralston as head of JNC is Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna) — who had been serving as a floor leader for Gov. Sonny Perdue. So there’s another slot to be filled.
Of the other major House committees, two noteworthy changes: The new Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee chairman is Penny Houston (R-Nashville), who takes over for Richard Royal, who retired. Don Parsons (R-Marietta) takes over the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications chairmanship from Jeff Lewis (R-White). So Parsons will be the point man on the upcoming Georgia Power bill.
Also, Bobby Franklin of northeast Cobb County has been replaced as chairman of the House Reapportionment Committee — which will become a very powerful position after the 2010 census. The new chairman is Roger Lane (R-Darien).
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The plan to expand federal control over banking, etc.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now, here’s something to chew on. This just appeared on the Washington Post web site:
A top economic adviser to the incoming Obama administration unveiled a plan today to radically rethink the global financial system, including a host of measures that would dramatically expand government control over banking and investment in the United States.
The plan — which recommends limiting the size of banks, setting guidelines for executive pay and regulating hedge funds — offers the first hint of the kind of changes to the financial system President-elect Barack Obama might push for in the coming weeks and months. Obama has pledged to present a comprehensive series of changes to prevent a repeat of the current financial crisis before world leaders gather in London for a major economic summit in April.
The report today was issued by the Group of 30, an organization of international economists and policy makers. But the recommendations were immediately seen by observers as a building block to an Obama plan because the lead author is Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve during the Carter and Reagan administrations who will serve as a special Obama White House adviser. Part of Volcker’s role is to help mastermind what could ultimately be the biggest overhaul of the U.S. financial system in decades.
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Perdue to propose sweeping re-org of state transportation agencies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More details on the biggest deal now cooking in the state Capitol:
Gov. Sonny Perdue is preparing a vast reorganization of the state’s transportation agencies that would centralize decision-making and could give him more control over the state Department of Transportation.
You know that, in his state-of-the-state address on Wednesday, Perdue named his price for supporting a statewide sales tax for transportation:
”Once I feel certain that we can deliver transportation value to Georgia citizens, I will support responsible measures to raise additional revenues.”
Hours later, House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) said that “governance” was the critical issue in getting any measure passed.
“It’s certainly something that’s huge — very important — to the general scheme of things. Don’t disregard it. It’s very important,” the committee chairman told a roomful of lobbyists and business leaders. Smith said negotiations were ongoing among the governor, House Speaker Glenn Richardson, and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
This morning, House Majority Leader Jerry Keen of Brunswick appeared before a meeting of newspaper publishers sponsored by the Georgia Press Association.
Keen has had a bill in his pocket that would take the power to choose member of the state transportation board out of the hands of ordinary lawmakers and hand that authority to a triumvirate: the governor, the House speaker, and the lieutenant governor.
The governor would be given the authority to appoint the agency’s top executive — the state transportation commissioner. That duty now falls to the transportation board.
But Keen said he’s backed off his initiative after conversations with Perdue, who likes the idea and intends to incorporate in a sweeping overhaul of the state’s transportation system that will be presented to the Legislature this session.
Keen said Tommie Williams of Lyons, the new Senate president pro tem, supports the new approach for electing transportation board members. But we have not yet been able to get hold of Williams to confirm this.
Keen said that management of DOT has been a concern for some time. “And it was confirmed this past year with a lot of the activity coming out of DOT,” he said. “I’m not sure if we had $5 billion in cash — I have to be honest, I’m not sure we have the administration in place at the department of transportation to properly administer the money.”
The state currently has multiple transportation agencies — GRTA, CRTA, etc. “They were all created by past governors because they couldn’t get DOT to do what they wanted them to do. I’ve had two past governors both confirm that for me. You can never really get anything out of there,” Keen said.
“There is an ongoing, larger discussion now. That’s why I’ve backed off. I think what your seeing now is the governor knows that the Legislature has the appetite. So I have purposely yielded it,” Keen said. “I want to give the governor an opportunity to weigh in. And he’s doing that. And maybe we’ll see some type of omnibus bill.”
In order to pass, the measure faces two hurdles with rank-and-file lawmakers.
First, the Keen approach would require low-ranking state lawmakers to give up one of the few powers that they have. State transportation board members are currently elected by the lawmakers contained within each of the state’s 13 congressional districts.
But Keen says the current system lets the state transportation board operate with little accountability.
“We vote for these guys [and] that’s the last time I ever hear from them. I have never gotten a call from a person who represents me on the dot board asking me how I feel about a particular issue, about a particular project in my area. Never, not once,” Keen said. “The majority of legislators have the same relationship. One they get elected, they think they’re part of the executive branch. And they forget who sent them.”
The measure would also include a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to decide whether to levy a one-cent sales tax on themselves for transportation fixes. The House favors a statewide tax, which the governor has said nice things about. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is currently supporting a regional approach that would allow groups of counties to band together.
Either way, the key phrase is tax increase.
But Keen said Republicans have done “significant” polling on the issue, and there is widespread support — throughout the state. “What’s interesting is the way it polls outside of metro Atlanta,” he said.
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The House makes its transportation pitch
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a hastily called, late Wednesday meeting with lobbyists and business leaders, House Transportation Committee Vance Smith unveiled his proposal for a one-cent, statewide sales tax for transportation.
Designed to generate as much appeal as possible from a GOP-controlled House that rejected something similar last year, Smith said the tax — subject to a 10-year sunset — would raise $25 billion over its lifetime.
The state’s largest 30 cities, plus the counties of Forsyth, Paulding and Coweta, would be allocated a share equivalent to $1,000 per resident.
Smith said his bill remains a concept. He has put nothing in writing. Moreover, the transportation chairman said he had no control over what could clearly become the most important part of his legislation.
Smith said the question of “governance” — what state authority would determine who got how much of the money — was a topic of ongoing negotiation among Gov. Sonny Perdue, House Speaker Glenn Richardson, and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
“It’s certainly something that’s huge — very important — to the general scheme of things. Don’t disregard it. It’s very important,” the committee chairman said.
Smith said he didn’t know whether “governance” includes a bill that House Majority Leader Jerry Keen is reportedly ready to drop, which would take appointments to the state transportation board out of the hands of low-level state lawmakers and give that power directly to a triumvirate of the governor, the lieutenant governor and the House speaker.
Here’s what Perdue said Wednesday in his state-of-the-state address:
”Once I feel certain that we can deliver transportation value to Georgia citizens, I will support responsible measures to raise additional revenues.”
House Speaker Glenn Richardson has endorsed Smith’s proposal — a constitutional amendment that would have to be approved by voters in 2010. He called it the “Citizens Transportation Funding Bill.”
But the House last year failed to bite on a similar proposal. Smith and his Senate counterpart, Jeff Mullis, arrived at a compromise that would allow groups of counties — especially metro Atlanta — to band together and levy the one-cent tax. The compromise passed the House, but failed in the Senate. Until December, negotiations continued to refine the concept — which was endorsed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Only in the last few weeks has the House peeled off, baffling Cagle, the Senate, and the business community.
At the impromptu and surprisingly open meeting of the House Transportation Committee, lobbyists and others wondered out loud whether Smith could win the support of House Republicans. “What we can’t control is your membership,” said Chuck Clay, a former GOP state senator who’s advising the pro-transportation coalition Get Georgia Moving.
Others advised Smith that they feared getting trapped in the three-way political calculus. Mike Kenn, president of Georgians for Better Transportation, an advocate for road-builders, told Smith that the business community intended to remain an “honest broker” in the process — and, while aiding Smith, would also back Cagle’s regional support.
“We’re going to help the Senate with what they’re going to propose,” Kenn said.
In pitching his bill, Smith gave a detailed laundry list of possible projects:
— Major interstate intersections, including the I-285/I-75/Windy Hill Road in Cobb, I-75 and I-16 in Macon, and I-285 and Ga. 400;
— The creation of freight truck “conduits” that would remove such traffic from the interstates;
— Economic development corridors;
— “Roads of regional significance,” which would include shifting Ga. 316 to limited access;
— Light suburban rail, “especially” on the north side, and “possibly” the Athens-Atlanta “brain train.”
Smith acknowledged that the list was long, and ambitions. “I don’t want to say I can’t do it until I try,” he said. “Think about this. Sleep on it. And come back with suggestions.”
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The Democratic response: Perdue is an absentee governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin just delivered a red-meat, Democratic response to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s state-of-the-state speech.
Consider it the first oration on that party’s side of the 2010 race for governor.
Though he hasn’t announced yet, Porter is a highly likely candidate for the state’s top job.
One often remarked-upon sign of an intention to run for high office is an obvious attempt to lose weight, for the sake of TV cameras to come. But another harbinger for certain candidates — witness Perdue in 2002 — is the loss of the combover.
Porter, also follicly challenged, has lost nearly all of his.
But seriously: It was significant that Porter served as the sole spokesman for Democrats this afternoon. Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon), a man of legendary silence, was content to perch himself against a wall and watch.
Porter sought to define Perdue as an absentee governor. Below are a few excerpts:
”We in the House came together to pass a transportation bill [last year] that would have moved forward on solving one of our state’s most crippling problems. The bill failed in the Senate and when we looked to the governor for leadership, he was in China.
“When gas prices spiraled out of control, we called on the governor to take bold, dramatic action. To step up to the plate and give Georgians relief by reducing the gas tax.
“Instead he went to Spain and our families were left here, to take the brunt of higher gas prices from which they still have not recovered.
“In September, after seeing August revenue figures, our Democratic House Caucus realized the extent of Georgia’s faltering economy and we called on the governor to bring us back into session - to give parties on both side of the aisle a chance to roll up our sleeves, fix the problem before it got worse, and do the job the people of this state elected us to do. That call went unheeded.”
Porter also assailed the governor’s priorities:
”In Georgia today, law enforcement is working overtime to keep us safe, and due to across-the-board cuts our law enforcement officers are stretched almost to the breaking point, but the majority party is building a multi-million dollar horse park in Houston County.
“In Perry we are building a fish pond while veterans, who were willing to give their very lives for that land were being evicted from their home. Evicted because in across the board cuts, they were not a priority.
“The priorities of this administration do not match the values that I know are the values of the Georgia I grew up in and the Georgia I know and love.”
The minority leader questioned Perdue’s relationship — or lack of one — with the incoming administration of Barack Obama:
”Georgians pay their share to run the federal government, and we must make certain that we get our fair share from our federal government in return.
“Currently talk is coming back that, Georgia and Texas are being referred to as the orphan states because our current administration is not playing well with others.”
Porter even conveniently included a tidbit of personal biography that some might have considered out of place:
”This is a time to work together to ensure that we create the Georgia we want our children and grandchildren to inherit. My family has lived in Georgia over 10 generations. I want the next 10 generations to have the same security and prosperity…”
Photo credit: Ben Gray/AJC
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Sonny Perdue: The Reader’s Digest version
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In parsing Gov. Sonny Perdue’s state-of-the-state speech, no other topic was as closely watched as transportation. The governor devoted all of two sentences to it:
”The Lieutenant Governor, Speaker and I share a mutual commitment to address our transportation needs, and we will continue reforming DOT with a goal of standing up a system that can take that funding and provide the value Georgians deserve. Once I feel certain that we can deliver transportation value to Georgia citizens, I will support responsible measures to raise additional revenues.”
Here’s a thought: It’s known that the governor likes a bill that would change the way that commissioners of the state transportation board are named. Right now, they are elected by state legislators within each of Georgia’s 13 congressional districts.
Under a measure soon to be proposed, members of the transportation board would be appointed — a third by the governor, a third by the House speaker, and a third by the lieutenant governor.
One wonders whether, in that pair of sentences above, whether Perdue just named his price for his support of the transportation funding bill.
On other topics:
Perdue said his proposed hospital tax was forced on the state by the federal government.
“Washington, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that if we assess a fee against our Care Management Organizations as we currently do, we must impose it on all commercial health plans.
“We had to choose: everyone or no one. If we said ‘no one,’ it would have cost Georgia $96 million in state Medicaid funds.
“While I’m recommending cuts to many agencies and programs above ten percent, even a five percent cut to the state Medicaid budget would mean an additional $112 million reduction.
“So my budget will reflect, and an accompanying bill will propose, a 1.6 percent fee on hospitals and health insurance plans to fill the hole in Medicaid, and to do what the health care community has asked of us for so long: one, to significantly raise reimbursement rates for providers, particularly for hospitals; and two, in conjunction with SuperSpeeder legislation, provide $60 million to sustain and expand the state’s trauma network.
“Like most things we address here at the Capitol, this plan will not be universally acclaimed, but I have arrived at this solution after thoughtful, careful deliberation. I implore you. Do not rush into a short-sighted cut that would have long-term consequences for Georgia’s most needy.
“Finally, for those that would wait for Washington. We have waited before. And while I am hopeful that we may receive additional federal funds, when I put the budget together, I did not have the option to budget for money that may never materialize.”
Both Democrats and Republicans were talking down the hospital fee. “I’m unequivocally opposed to that new tax,” state Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, told my AJC colleague, Aaron Gould Sheinin. “That’s not a tax on hospitals. It’s a tax on individual consumers.”
Said Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon): “I don’t think it’s a good idea to tax hospitals to fund trauma care.” Read more about this on Gold Dome Live.
More excerpts can be found on the jump.
Above: Lorenzo Wallace, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, waits to finish the escort duties that come with the governor’s State-of-the-State speech. Photo credit: Kimberly Smith/AJC
On the use of budget reserves: “I have recommended using the maximum amount available for appropriation from the reserves, appropriating $50 million this year and $408 million next year, as well as $187 million for the midyear education adjustment.
“We are using some one-time strategies to help balance this year’s budget that won’t be available next year. Therefore, I have recommended that the largest portion of available reserve funds be committed to next year’s budget, which stands at $20.2 billion.
On reorganizing the Department of Human Resources: “After a thorough review by the Health and Human Services Task Force, we have determined a course of action that will re-orient our approach to healthcare by shifting the focus from inputs to results.
“First, we are proposing the creation of a new Department of Behavioral Health which will include all mental health and addictive disease programs. This will improve our responsiveness to mental health needs and will make funding more transparent.
“We will continue to improve care by moving towards a community-based delivery system. I know some folks will be concerned with how this might affect jobs in their area, but when it comes to mental health, I believe we have an obligation to provide services to Georgians as close as possible to where they live.
“Second, the bill would establish a Department of Health - a combination of the public health and oversight programs in DHR and the current functions of DCH. This agency, which will be led by Dr. Rhonda Medows, will deliver workable solutions on the key healthcare issues we face…”
On learning from the Clayton County school board debacle:
“As I outlined yesterday, I am proposing legislation that will ensure that every student in Georgia has the benefit of responsible leadership at the school system level.
“Most local school board members in this state are in that position for all the right reasons and they do a great job for our students, but unfortunately, that isn’t universal. And we must take action, because when a school board is failing, every student that depends on them is cheated.
“This legislation will clearly define what citizens expect from school board members and it will give the state the ability to replace board members with responsible, local citizens when accreditation is threatened. Never again, do I intend for the state to be handcuffed by our current law and powerless to help students who are being failed by the adults in their community.
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State senator wants ACORN’s tax-exempt status yanked
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You generally don’t find north Georgia lawmakers going to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for favors. But state Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) is making a very formal request.
He’s filed legislation — a resolution — urging the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of ACORN, also known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Last year, the group hired more than 13,000 part-time workers to sign up voters in minority and poor neighborhoods in 21 states. Some of the 1.3 million registration cards submitted to local election officials, using the names of cartoon characters or pro football players, were obviously phony, spurring GOP charges of widespread misconduct.
“An organization that chooses to undermine the integrity of our nation’s election process should not be entitled to tax exemption benefits,” Mullis said.
During the final debate of the 2008 presidential campaign season, Republican John McCain said ACORN was possibly conducting “one of the greatest frauds of voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy in this country.”
Mullis was an important and early supporter of McCain in Georgia. So consider this effort a bit of undigested frustration left over from November.
Update: Thomas Wheatley over at Creative Loafing was able to obtain an e-mailed response from ACORN:
ACORN says there’s just one problem — it doesn’t have such a status. ACORN President Maude Hurd says Mullis “indicates his ignorance” with the resolution.
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Isakson to Clinton: What about preconditions for talking with bad eggs?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today’s examination of Hillary Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of state, by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a largely friendly affair — in keeping with the chamber’s clubby reputation.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) posed one of the few questions reminding the world that Clinton and Obama were bitter enemies only a few months ago. And that one of their chief disagreements was over the terms under which the U.S. should speak to its enemies.
Here’s the meat from a transcript:
Isakson: In the presidential debate, I watched both sides — ours and yours. There was a significant debate over foreign policy and over the issue of precondition. I really appreciated your responses throughout, and I think you added a great deal of strength to that debate.
And now that we’re looking at suggestions of talking to Hamas or maybe Hezbollah or maybe Iran, preconditions are absolutely essential, I think, to good, strong diplomacy. I hope you still feel that way.
Clinton: Well, I certainly do, as does the president-elect. I think that his commitment to vigorous and effective diplomacy is in context of his understanding that there are different ways for us to engage.
When it comes to non-state actors like Hamas, as I said at the very end of the morning session, there are conditions. Hamas must renounce violence. They must recognize Israel, and they must agree to abide by all previous agreements.
There are conditions that are usually part of the preliminary discussion that would lead to any kind of negotiation. The president- elect believes that he has the right to claim the opportunity to speak with anybody at any time if it’s in furtherance of our country’s national interests and security. But he fully appreciates the preliminary work that has to be done in order to tee up any such discussions.
So I think we’re in vigorous agreement, Senator, that we want to be smart about how we engage in diplomacy. We want to make sure that when the president of the United States or the secretary of state is engaged in any diplomatic effort that all of the necessary preliminary work, including conditions, if appropriate, have been met before doing so.
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WXIA political reporter Denis O’Hayer leaves for WABE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This from the AJC’s radio/TV blog:
WXIA-TV political reporter Denis O’Hayer has been hired to replace John Lemley as local host of “All Things Considered” on 90.1/WABE-FM from 4 to 6:30. He will also do local spots for “The World” at 3 p.m. and “Marketplace” at 6:30 p.m.
He starts on air Feb. 2 though he’ll be at the station starting Tuesday January 20. Lemley now handles classical duties from noon to 3 p.m. but will continue to do some news-related duties. He used to do classical music before he did news.
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A bill to require voters to prove citizenship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. James Mills (R-Chestnut Mountain) has dropped a bill to require those who register to vote to bring a birth certificate. Their own, preferably.
Watch this one, people. It’s got legs.
This from the Gainesville Times:
“This is to protect the integrity of the voting system,” Mills said. “If there were situations where people were being registered to vote erroneously, this would certainly help to deter that.”
Mills said the measure was patterned after an Arizona law, Proposition 200, a public initiative that was passed by voters in 2004. That law requires the presentation of documents related to citizenship, among them is a birth certificate.
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A Gingrich-Schwarzenegger alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CNN has this today, on California Gov. Arnold Scwharzenegger’s budget troubles :
….[The] governor’s senior aides recently turned to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for input on how to enact political reforms and make the government run more efficiently, Schwarzenegger communications director Matt David tells CNN.
David said the discussion between Gingrich and Schwarzenegger chief of staff Susan Kennedy did not focus on the current deadlock over the California state budget, but rather the governor’s goal of creating a more efficient state government that could include “consolidating some agencies and getting rid of overtime and sick time abuse.”
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Updated: The transportation teeter-totter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An odd dynamic is at work in the state Capitol, courtesy of a 2010 race for governor that’s already well underway.
Picture Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, only one of the leading GOP candidates, at one end of a teeter-totter.
This session, Cagle is under pressure to prove both his own effectiveness and his independence from Gov. Sonny Perdue. He also must match wits with his institutional opponent, House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
So put Richardson and Perdue at the other end of that seesaw.
But two other Republican candidates for governor are in the state Capitol complex. Secretary of State Karen Handel sits in a second floor office, catty-corner from Cagle. And state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine occupies an office across the street.
Over the next 39 days, both Handel and Oxendine will dip into the debate at times and places of their own choosing. But it’s becoming clear which end of the teeter-totter they prefer.
Take the all-important issue of transportation. There is general agreement that Georgia hasn’t been putting enough money into roads, bridges, and rail. The state’s business community — recognizing the opportunity that a gubernatorial election brings — has demanded a reality check.
Cagle backs an approach that would allow groups of counties — metro Atlanta, in particular — to band together for the sake of levying a one-cent sales tax that would go toward easing congestion or addressing whatever transportation needs a community has.
It would also put money, and thus power, in the hands of people not part of state government. Decision-making would be somewhat decentralized.
But in a Sunday op-ed piece in the AJC, the House speaker strongly hinted that he wanted to revive debate on another approach — a statewide sales tax that would generate much more money. And would be distributed in a more centralized fashion.
“Adding a lane along a busy interstate, extending a rail line by a couple of miles or simply allowing metro Atlanta to tax itself won’t solve our problems,” Richardson wrote.
On Monday afternoon, after the first day’s session, Oxendine was in the Capitol, having provided part of the background for a press conference on illegal immigration.
Afterwards, I asked the insurance commissioner what he thought about the transportation issue. Oxendine said he’s for whatever works.
However, Oxendine said he’s suspicious of a regional approach. It would be too easy for counties at two ends of a transportation corridor to approve the tax, while those between opt out. “There’s a potential for gaming the system,” he said.
Rural areas must be convinced that finding a solution to metro Atlanta’s traffic problems is a statewide problem. After all, it’s hard to persuade a widget business to build a plant in south Georgia if those widgets — once loaded in north-bound trucks — are paralyzed in big-city traffic.
We hear that Handel is prepared to say the same thing, or something close.
That’s a lot of weight at one end of the teeter-totter.
Update: The above dynamic became even more pronounced this morning at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs and Issues Breakfast. My AJC colleague James Salzer was there.
“It’s time we address transportation on a statewide basis. If we’re going to solve transportation for Atlanta, we have to solve transportation for Georgia. Simply drawing a circle around Atlanta and letting Atlanta tax itself to fix transportation in Atlanta, I don’t believe will help transportation in Atlanta,” House Speaker Glenn Richardson said.
The speaker said the problem requires a statewide tax that goes for everything from road projects and rail in Atlanta, to figuring out routes to steer traffic away from the city. Of the regional transportation idea, he said, “I believe that plan will not fix transportation.”
Afterwards, Gov. Sonny Perdue told reporters, “The speaker made some good points. Transportation is a statewide issue. I want a statewide solution to transportation as well.”
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said he couldn’t comment on Richardson’s proposal because the speaker’s comments were “general.” He added, “A statewide, one penny increase in the sales tax just for transportation would probably be difficult to pass in the Senate.”
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Updated: Keeping double books in the race for governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Updated: A staffer for the gubernatorial campaign of John Oxendine said Tuesday afternoon that the $19,000 recorded by the State Ethics Commission as going to his state insurance campaign fund was the result of a computer error. The entire amount should have been credited to Oxendine’s gubernatorial fund, said campaign manager Kathryn Ballou. Ballou said she was working with the ethics commission to correct the entry.
Original post: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine spent the fall raising money for their 2010 gubernatorial bids. But they were also collecting campaign checks for their current offices.
While reviewing disclosures filed last week, my AJC colleague James Salzer found Cagle’s lieutenant governor’s campaign account listed $61,000 raised during the second half of 2008. Some of the checks came in while he was also raising money to run for governor.
Oxendine has been raising money to run for governor since the spring of last year. Nonetheless his insurance commissioner’s campaign fund collected $19,000.
State law prohibits candidates from raising money for one office and then spending the money to run for another. So, technically, they can’t use the money they raised for their current offices in the Republican race for governor.
However, candidates find creative ways to get around that law. Candidates refund money they raised for one office and then ask donors to re-contribute the money for their new race. Both Oxendine and Cagle refunded some money they’ve raised for their current officers.
Candidates also can spend the leftover money in their old campaign funds to enhance their general name ID. For instance, Salzer found that Cagle spent more than $200,000 in leftover funds in his lieutenant governor’s account to promote his CutWaste.org.
Cagle ran TV ads promoting his web site.
Cagle ended 2008 with $41,822 left in his lieutenant governor’s account. Oxendine ended the year with $480,000 in his insurance commissioner’s account.
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Because Sarah Palin would look so darn cute in an Atlanta Braves cap
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 2012 Republican National Convention Bid Committee held a first meeting over the weekend — at the downtown law offices of McKenna, Long & Aldridge.
Chairman Maria Strollo Zack, a state Capitol lobbyist and GOP activist, said about 50 people showed — some party regulars, some from the business community. Coca Cola had a representative there, as did the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Selection of the site of the 2012 GOP convention is on a timeline of about 18 months. Much will depend on who is elected chairman of the Republican National Committee next week.
Two candidates for governor, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, have ponied up funds from their campaign treasuries to get the effort rolling, Zack said.
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The changing faces of the presidency, from Washington to Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Andrew Malcolm over at Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times political blog, points to a visually arresting YouTube clip made up of the morphing faces of 44 U.S. presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama.
Writes Malcolm:
It was, as you may have noticed in early vintage photographs, very unfashionable to smile, even for politicians. Everybody was supposed to look grim and ever so 19th century.
So it’s not until Jimmy Carter here in 1977 that we get that trademark cheesy grin. And from him on, they’ve all got smiles of one kind or another right up to the Change Maker himself, No. 44.
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Lines in the Georgia Power battle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Was chatting with David Shafer (R-Duluth) after the first session of the state Senate. Shafer is chairman of the regulated industries committee, which will handle the Georgia Power bill to allow it to charge ratepayers as they build two new nuclear plants.
As we talked, state Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) brushed passed. Shafer snagged him and asked if Democrats had taken a position on the bill.
Stoner said there was no caucus position, but he was personally leaning against it. The AARP opposes it, of course. But Lockheed, the largest private employer in Cobb County, is also “unhappy” with the measure. And so, said Stoner, is the Georgia Traditional Manufacturers Association, which represents what’s left of the state’s textile industry.
In other words, it appears we have some differences between Georgia Power and at least a few of its largest customers.
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In ‘09 race for Atlanta mayor, Norwood tops Reed in overall fund-raising — but not in ready cash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Surprise. It’s not state Sen. Kasim Reed who’s raised the most money for the 2009 race for mayor of Atlanta.
It’s Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who’s reporting a total $510,237 raised last year.
But Reed has the most cash on hand, with $328,129. Norwood reports $275,172.
Reed’s list of contributors, posted Saturday, can be found here. Norwood’s are here and here.
Norwood required two PDFs, because she lists everyone. There were 584 who gave $250 or less, 400 who gave $100 or less, 239 gave $50 or less, and 32 donations of $5.
Norwood appears ready to make campaign contributions an issue in the race, describing herself as “someone not playing the old city hall fund-raising game.”
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Did Sunday sales of beer and wine just get a green light?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doings in the first few minutes of the 2009 session of the Legislature:
— One of the bigger surprises of the day comes from the lobbying field. The GOP team of Clint Austin, Tony Simon and Sam Choate has been hired to help push through legislation to permit communities to hold referendums on Sunday sales of alcohol.
The Georgia Food Industry Association, which represents grocery stores, is footing the bill.
Both Simon and Choate are extremely close to House Speaker Glenn Richardson. Austin was essential to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in his defeat of Ralph Reed in 2006. The rules of lobbying are this:
Your support of a cause doesn’t necessarily constitute an endorsement by your close friends in the Legislature. But a smart lobbyist won’t take positions that would make his lawmaker friends angry.
One must assume that there’s a green light on the bill. Legislators are being guided to the signers of last year’s measure, which failed, to ask whether they paid for their brazenness at the polls in November. So far as is known, no one was harmed.
— House Democrats declined to offer a candidate to challenge Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), who was quickly elected by acclamation to a third term. House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) seconded the nomination.
“Just as our president elect is putting the country’s welfare ahead of partisan politics,” Porter said House Democrats would avoid unnecessary division.
Said Porter in a formal statement issued afterwards:
“This is not an endorsement of their candidate, rather, it is a recognition of the urgency and seriousness of this year’s session. We want to show the people of this state that, just as the incoming administration in Washington is putting the country’s welfare ahead of partisan politics, we also put the wellbeing of Georgia first.
“In the spirit of a true change from the partisan rancor that cripples our government, we’re ready to move away from partisanship and towards real solutions for Georgia’s fiscal problems.”
Likewise, Porter deferred on the election of the Speaker pro tem, clearing the way for Mark Burkhalter, the Republican from north Fulton County.
— Former state senator Brian Kemp, a Republican from Athens, was watching one of the lobby TVs in the Capitol. With Secretary of State Karen Handel’s confirmation that she’s running for governor, Kemp had time to confirm that he’ll be a candidate to replace her.
— We’re also picking up hints that at least one Republican is considering a primary challenge to state School Superintendent Kathy Cox, who — with her home-builder husband — filed for personal bankruptcy late last year.
— The state House adopted rules that included a ban on cell phone use on the floor. You can still text members. E-mail is allowed.
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Of Karen Handel and Republican women
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Secretary of State Karen Handel has been making phone calls to Republican activists around the state, assuring them that she is, indeed, running for governor.
A public announcement will come shortly, but the tea leaves have been there for the reading — and include the fact that Handel attended a pair of events last year associated with the Republican Governors Association, an organization in which Sonny Perdue still plays a significant role.
Handel has already sketched out a staff. The campaign is to be headed by Marty Ryall, who ran the unsuccessful re-election bid of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.).
The well-respected Whit Ayres will be in charge of polling. TV ad specialist Fred Davis of California, who was behind last summer’s “Barack Obama-as-celebrity” ad, will handle Handel’s video.
It is a talented yet expensive team that presumes Handel’s ability to raise a great deal of money. The first-term secretary of state has yet to collect a dime for the 2010 contest — while her two GOP rivals, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, have already raised more than $1 million each.
Handel’s entry into the race has two implications that could very well be connected. First, all three suburban candidates must presume that an 18-month slog will result in a run-off between two of them. The prospect will thrill Democrats.
A Handel campaign for governor also guarantees that, in Georgia, the GOP debate over gender and politics won’t end with Sarah Palin.
Breaking through has always been tough for female politicians in Georgia, regardless of party. With only a few exceptions, the General Assembly that convenes Monday in Atlanta remains the most exclusive and powerful men’s club in the state.
But Republican women readily acknowledge that the glass ceiling is thicker on their side. Possibly because Democratic women skew slightly younger, perhaps because many Christian conservatives with influence in the GOP discourage the idea of female leadership.
Millie Rogers, president of the Georgia Federation of Republican Women, thinks money is another reason. Republicans have no Win List, a group that provides seed cash to Democratic female candidates in Georgia. “Without money you don’t have a seat at the table,” Rogers said. Her group is exploring the idea of starting such a fund.
Rogers hasn’t taken a side in the Republican race for governor. But she said that Handel will be entering the contest at a time when GOP women are feeling particularly “resentful.”
Part of the resentment stems from the treatment Palin received during the 2008 presidential campaign, and what many Republican women see as the media’s failure to recognize the unorthodox career paths that they’re often forced to take.
But there was also a Georgia-specific incident last month that still has GOP women steamed.
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss had just won his run-off election, trouncing Democrat Jim Martin. But during the celebration, state GOP chairman Sue Everhart — the party’s first female leader — was barred from the stage where congratulations were being handed out. And Everhart had written the check for the stage.
The Chambliss campaign said the slight was unintentional and apologized profusely. But many Republican women saw the gaffe as just another example of their envelope-stuffing status.
Bettye Chambers, a long-time Gwinnett activist, wrote a blistering e-mail that traveled up and down the ranks of GOP volunteers, which trend heavily female, denouncing what she called the “blight” on Chambliss’ victory. “We are past the era of just sitting silently and not taking a stand,” she said afterwards.
It would be poor strategy on Handel’s part to peddle herself as the GOP’s female candidate. And both Cagle and Oxendine have solid records of attracting the support of women voters.
But a natural constituency can provide an invaluable edge in a three-way race. And if nothing else, Handel’s candidacy could give Republican women that seat at the table they’ve wanted — the one that’s often mistaken for a pedestal.
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Reed reports $431k raised for Atlanta mayoral campaign
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Sen. Kasim Reed announced Saturday that he raised $234,074 in the last six months of 2008 for this year’s Atlanta mayoral campaign.
Reed, an attorney with close connections to Mayor Shirley Franklin, has now raised a total of $431,479, and has $328,129 in cash on hand. We haven’t seen the reports of any other candidates, but assume that Reed’s treasury is the largest.
Reed pointed to the diversity of his contributors. A list can be found here. For anyone interested in Atlanta politics, consider it required reading.
Photo credit: Jean Shifrin/AJC
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Barr: Blagojevich impeachment ‘premature’ and ‘irresponsible’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Georgia congressman and presidential candidate Bob Barr is taking the side of Rod Blagojevich, calling the Illinois House’ decision to impeach the governor “premature and highly irresponsible.”
The following was posted on the Libertarian Party web site:
“To impeach a duly-elected governor against who there has been no formal charges whatsoever brought, much less a finding of guilt, is premature and highly irresponsible,” said Barr, a former federal prosecutor and a Clinton impeachment manager during his service as a member of the United States House of Representatives in 1998-1999.
“To jump to the conclusion that a governor is guilty of impeachable offenses based on nothing more than preliminary, government-developed evidence for which there has been no opportunity to rebut or refute, is to render meaningless any notion of due process, equal protection of the law, or presumption of innocence,” Barr concluded.
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On whether a college degree is necessary for a governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve got a three-person confrontation building on the Republican side of the 2010 race for governor: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Secretary of State Karen Handel, and state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine.
One of the most sensitive issues in the contest will be the issue of education. While Cagle and Handel have compelling life stories, neither has a college degree.
Jason Shepherd, a Republican activist and Oxendine supporter, raises the matter for the first time in this post on his blog, Shepherd’s Political Pie:
There are many jobs these days that do not require a college degree. Stories like this one from CareerBuilder.com say that the field of top jobs that do not require a degree are strong and growing. There are also plenty of stories about wildly successful people like Bill Gates who became extremely wealthy and built multi-billion dollar companies without a piece of sheep skin hanging on their wall.
While you may be able to get many jobs without a four year degree, should “Governor” be one of them? After all, you can’t run for Attorney General of Georgia unless you have a law degree. What’s more, you generally can’t teach in a public school without a four year degree, no matter how talented you are….
One of the issues constantly on the minds of Georgia voters is education. I have heard from more than one elected official that, while it wasn’t an issue for their vote for Lt. Governor or Sec. of State, it is an issue while they make up their minds for Governor.
The post also makes reference to a Political Insider column on the same topic, from June 2008.
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The late Griffin Bell speaks, one more time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, National Public Radio broadcast a fine interview with the late Griffin Bell, the late U.S. attorney general. The talk was recorded in August, not long after Bell learned of his cancer.
Most fascinating is Bell’s description of his early support of school desegregation, which he came to believe was necessary in the years after World War II.
Bell also talked about bringing transparency back to the U.S. Justice Department after the Watergate schedule.
Bell died Monday at age 90. He was buried Wednesday in Sumter County, but a memorial service in Atlanta was held Friday.
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U.S. Supreme Court to decide if Voting Rights racial protections still needed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eleven days before Barack Obama’s inauguration, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is still needed to protect black and other minority voters in Georgia and five other Southern states.
This from the New York Times:
The court’s decision in the case, expected by June, will help define the Roberts court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. opposed efforts to expand the voting rights law in 1982 as a young lawyer in the Reagan administration, and he has expressed skepticism on the court about racial classifications made by the government.
The decision will also have significant practical consequences for elections in 16 states.
“This could be the biggest election law case on the court’s docket since Bush v. Gore,” said Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
The case concerns the requirements in Section 5 of the law that certain state and local governments, mostly in the South, must obtain permission, or “preclearance,” from the Justice Department or a federal court before making any changes affecting voting.
The requirement applies to nine states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia — and scores of counties and townships in other states that Congress found had a history of discrimination at the polls.
The case under review comes out of Texas, and involves an Austin utility district.
My AJC colleague Bill Rankin just hung up the phone with Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project in Atlanta.
McDonald was not surprised the court agreed to hear the challenge to the key provision but predicted Section 5 will be upheld.
“The court has rejected every challenge that’s ever been brought to the constitutionality of Section 5,” he said.
Congress compiled a comprehensive record for the continuing need for reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act in 2006, McDonald said. It passed the Senate unanimously and cleared the House by a 390-33 vote.
“I think that under those circumstances it will be difficult for the court to find it unconstitutional,” he said.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, of course, is agin any change in the legal reach of the Voting Rights Act:
“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the most powerful and effective piece of legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in the last half of the 20th century to insure the rights of all people to participate in the democratic process.
“During the recent congressional reauthorization of certain sections of the act, the House and Senate were presented with undeniable evidence that voting rights discrimination still exists in many political subdivisions throughout America. All parts of the act are still needed today to help protect the voting rights of American citizens. ”
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Westmoreland gets a second crack at whip job
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland has been appointed to the Republican whip team up in Washington. Again.
As a deputy whip, his job will be to encourage rank-and-file members to stick to leadership positions.
Westmoreland’s appointment is significant because this is the second time he’s held the job. The first time, in 2006, the Coweta County congressman was fired after only 17 hours.
Republicans were in control of the U.S. House then, and the deficit-conscious Westmoreland committed the unpardonable sin of voting against a leadership-backed emergency spending bill.
Westmoreland never even got a chance to twist an arm. He found himself trapped in a Capitol elevator during the only vote covered by his brief tenure.
That Westmoreland has been offered a second tour of duty demonstrates the change in fiscal attitude among House Republicans — and their recognition that, when you’re the minority party, the hammer of absolute discipline isn’t always the best tool on your belt.
Photo credit: W.A. Bridges Jr./AJC
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Cagle, the governor’s race, and Sunday sales of beer and wine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the state Senate’s presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has been viewed as one of those standing in the way of legislation that would allow Sunday beer and wine sales at grocery and liquor stores.
Cagle denies any opposition to the measure, but he has tremendous influence over what the Senate considers, and the Sunday sales bill has never made it to the Senate floor for a vote. Proponents of Sunday sales say they’ll try again this year — and earlier this week, Cagle promised neutrality on the matter.
Now Cagle is running for governor. My AJC colleague James Salzer took a look at Cagle’s first campaign fund-raising report, through Dec. 31, and found that he has received plenty of money from the alcoholic beverage industry.
Beer-maker Anheuser-Busch, for instance, contributed $10,000. Various families and businesses in the booze/wine/liquor wholesale and distributing industry chipped in another $56,000. But in the fight over Sunday sales, wholesalers and distributors have been largely neutral.
However, Cagle has received $10,000 from Board of Regents member Richard Tucker. The Gwinnett County businessman owns the biggest liquor store in the state. Tucker is a close ally of Cagle and Senate Regulated Industries Chairman David Shafer (R-Duluth), who happens to be running for lieutenant governor to replace Cagle.
And Tucker opposes Sunday sales. He and some other liquor store owners say opening another day probably would cost them more in payroll and overhead than they would bring in at the cash register. Meanwhile, other retailers already open on Sundays would just rack up more revenue, they say.
Grocery and convenience stores are the driving force behind the Sunday sales push. The Georgia Association of Convenience Stores has given Cagle the grand sum of $500.
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CNN’s Sanjay Gupta vs. Michael Moore
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Speculation in Washington is building that Democratic opposition to President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of CNN’s Sanjay Gupta as U.S. surgeon general is rooted in Gupta’s clash with another media figure — liberal documentarian Michael Moore.
Earlier this week, The Hills, a D.C. newspaper and web site, reported that U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) had written a letter to House colleagues objecting to Gupta’s selection.
Today, the newspaper notes:
Conyers also cited a Jan. 6 blog item by Paul Krugman in The New York Times. Unlike Conyers, however, Krugman does not have a problem with Gupta’s qualifications.
Krugman pointed out that Gupta engaged in a televised argument with Moore in 2007 over his movie, “SiCKO.”
Conyers is friends with Moore, a Michigan native who is an ardent backer of the legislator’s universal healthcare bill. Moore’s film made the case for the U.S. to adopt a “single-payer” healthcare system like Canada’s.
On Thursday, Moore’s website prominently highlighted Krugman’s blog on Gupta.
Specifically, here’s what Krugman posted on his NYT blog:
I don’t have a problem with Gupta’s qualifications. But I do remember his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko. You don’t have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore “fudged his facts”, when the truth was that on every one of the allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right and CNN was wrong.
Moore’s web site now also gives prominent display to both Krugman’s remarks and Conyer’s letter of objection.
Below is a YouTube clip of the Moore-Gupta confrontation on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that seems to have caused several pairs of underwear to twist themselves into a wad:
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Cagle leads (barely) in 2010 cash race for governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Campaign disclosures for 2008 have hit the State Ethics Commission web site.
In the governor’s race:
— David Poythress, a Democrat and former adjutant general, reported raising $304,045 in 2008 for the campaign. But more than half of that amount, $185,000, is in the form of a personal loan. His balance on hand is $282,980. Read the his entire disclosure here.
— State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a Republican, reports $564,270 raised in the last six months for the governor’s race, for a total of $1,036,370. His cash on hand stands at $870,346. A list of contributors can be found here.
— Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, a Republican, raised $1,244,932 in the last six months, for a total of $1,255,543 fore the year. Cash on hand is $1,176,653. Here’s a list of contributors.
In the lieutenant governor’s race:
— State Sen. Eric Johnson, a Republican from Savannah and former Senate president pro tem, raised $465,546 in 2008 — and all of that balance remains available for spending. Check out his contributors here.
— State Sen. David Shafer, a Republican from Duluth, reported $82,626 raised in 2008 and available for spending. His entire report can be found here.
Among others:
— State School Superintendent Kathy Cox, who with her home-builder husband filed for bankruptcy last year, reported raising $9,250 in the last six months of 2008, for a total of $12,736 for the year. She currently has $5,221 on hand. See the entire report here.
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Paul Broun & Co. add a little oil to smooth Barack Obama’s way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Athens), who two months ago suggested that President-elect Barack Obama might have fascist tendencies or worse, on Wednesday participated in a three-man religious ceremony — anointing with oil the U.S. Capitol passageway through which Obama will walk to take the oath of office.
An account appeared on the web site of Charisma magazine:
Broun, a Baptist layman who was widely criticized during the election for calling Obama a Marxist and likening him to Adolf Hitler, said he hopes Obama is successful as president and that he will heed God’s direction.
“It’s important for us to pray for this place, but it’s also important for us to pray for the people who are involved so that God, as He stirs our hearts, that we can hear very clearly and that we can heed God’s directions and can follow those directions,” Broun said.
The quality isn’t particularly high, but below is a nine-minute YouTube video of the ceremony:
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Conyers leads opposition to CNN’s Gupta as surgeon general
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Hill newspaper reports that U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has taken the lead in an effort to block CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for U.S. surgeon general.
The newspaper writes that Conyers has contacted his House colleagues on the matter:
“It is not in the best interests of the nation to have someone like this who lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial healthcare assistance to some of the poorest and most underserved communities in America,” Conyers wrote in the letter asking for support in his effort to request that Gupta not be nominated.
Even though the surgeon general is not in control of implementing healthcare coverage policy, Conyers says that Gupta would represent the face of healthcare.
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The new Obama poster
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They’re selling it here, to help fund the inauguration.
The poster is an updated version of the popular red, white and blue campaign image by Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey — which is headed for the National Portrait Gallery, and expected to be on display by the Jan. 20 inauguration.
Fairey’s artwork became the central portrait of the Obama campaign. The bottom of the poster-like image features the campaign slogan “Hope,” which changed to “Change” and “Vote” in subsequent versions.
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Sarah Palin on the media: ‘Compare my treatment to Caroline Kennedy’s’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is wondering out loud — and on video — whether the media will give prospective New York senatorial designee Caroline Kennedy the same scrutiny that it gave her.
This from Politico.com:
“I’ve been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope,” Palin told conservative filmmaker John Ziegler during an interview Monday for his upcoming documentary film, “How Obama Got Elected.”
Excerpts from the interview were posted on YouTube Wednesday evening.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out and I think that as we watch that we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be.”
Here’s the YouTube video in question:
In the nine-minute clip, Palin also addresses media treatment of her unmarried daughter, who just gave birth.
Says Palin:
”This report that Bristol and Levi, they’re high school dropouts, and they’re just going to look for government handouts to raise their child and such — nothing could be further from the truth. And I’ve asked some in the media to correct that, and they haven’t corrected that, and that gets frustrating.”
Palin also questions the manner in which she was deployed by the McCain campaign, particularly her assignment to engage CBS’ Katie Couric:
”I knew it didn’t go well the first day, and then we gave her a couple of other segments after that.
“My question to the campaign was, after it didn’t go well the first day, why were we going to go back for more?
“Because of however it works in that upper echelon of power brokering, in the media and with spokespersons, it was told [to] me, yeah, we’re going to go back for more.
“And going back for more was not a wise decision, either.”
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Poll: 74 percent of Georgians want to vote on a penny sales tax for traffic fixes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Five days before the start of the 2009 session of the Legislature, a coalition aimed at boosting funds for transportation came out with a poll that it hopes will put the issue beyond politics.
An overwhelming 74 percent of Georgians want the right to decide whether to raise their sales taxes by a penny to solve transportation problems all around the state — but especially in metro Atlanta, according to the poll commissioned by Get Georgia Moving.
The survey, conducted last month by InsiderAdvantage is intended to provide statistical courage for lawmakers who might worry about being accused of supporting what some might describe as a tax increase.
The survey indicates that the issue has a slight gender gap — with women slightly more insistent that something be done. Not unusual, if you think of tens of thousands of moms trucking their kids hither and yon in afternoon, rush-hour traffic.
The survey was not entirely rosy. According to the poll, which has a 4.4 percent MOE, 66 percent of Republicans and 74 percent of Democrats believe that traffic congestion is so bad that the Legislature should “immediately” address the problem.
The partisan gap widens when one looks at those who think immediate action is “very important” — i.e., those who are most worked up about the issue.
Seventy-one percent of Democrats say transportation is an ASAP matter that is “very important.” Only 54 percent of Republicans say so.
Chuck Clay, a former Republican state senator and InsiderAdvantage executive, said the GOP support for the issue is still substantial.
“That’s not a slam-dunk, but that is a very, very, very strong starting position with the most conservative part of the electorate,” Clay said.
Some Republican leaders in the House have questioned whether immediate action is necessary, given that a regional sales tax for transportation would require a statewide, constitutional referendum, which couldn’t be placed on the ballot until November 2010.
But Bill Linginfelter, the Regions Bank executive and co-chairman said voters would brook no delay. “Voters want action, and they want it now,” he said.
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Obama: ‘Government the solution, not the problem’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark today as the formal end of the Ronald Reagan, “government-is-the-problem” era.
The following was posted this morning on The Hill, a D.C. newspaper and web site:
President-elect Obama on Thursday plans to highlight the need for a massive stimulus measure by saying that only the government has the power to jumpstart the ailing economy.
“If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four,” Obama will say during an address at George Mason University, according to prepared remarks released by his staff.
“It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe,” he plans to say.
“Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy - where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.”
Photo credit: New York Times
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Of Senate chairmanships, power bills, and guns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few notes on the upcoming session of the Legislature, which starts Monday:
— The office of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle unleashed its list of Senate chairmanships on Wednesday.
See a complete list of Senate chairmanships on the jump.
Only a few changes are worth remarking on: John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) takes over the special judiciary committee for Democrat Michael Meyer von Bremen of Albany, who did not seek re-election.
Ronnie Chance of Tyrone will head up the Finance Committee.
And Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), once the ranking member of the chamber, will chair the Senate Ethics Committee — which on two levels is not exactly the most delightful assignment.
First, no politician wants to be placed in the position of having to pass judgment on his colleagues.
Secondly, Johnson has begun his 2010 race for lieutenant governor. Many chairmanships provide leverage for campaign contributions, even if the cash is barred from arriving while the Legislature meets.
But the chairmanship of the Senate Ethics Committee is not one of those positions that prompt a deluge of checks.
By contrast, in the same chamber, David Shafer (R-Duluth) is also running for lieutenant governor. He remains chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee — and utilities, though times are tough, are much more likely to have some spare change.
— Speaking of utilities, we’re hearing that Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour (R-Snellville) next week will drop the bill to permit Georgia Power to charge ratepayers for construction of a new nuclear power plant as the facility is being built. Right now, the utility is allowed to bill only after the fact.
Passage would result in an almost immediate increase in your monthly bill, and would remove much of the risk from Georgia Power’s shoulders.
The measure’s expected to be one of the hottest potatoes of the session.
— State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a Republican candidate for governor, is making a bit of hay out of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s statement this week that he has “no appetite” for more legislation to expand the rights of those with concealed weapons permits.
Cagle, while he hasn’t formally announced for the 2010 governor’s race, has a fund-raiser this evening.
Said Oxendine:
“Casey Cagle may be content and want a respite in standing up for our Second Amendment rights, but I will never rest until we ensure that we have protected the Second Amendment and made every effort to ensure our constitutional right to keep and bear arms….
“It is of concern that people can legally carry guns in more places in states such as, California and Oregon.”
Senate chairmanships for the 2009 session
Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, Chairman John Bulloch
Appropriations, Chairman Jack Hill
Banking and Financial Institutions, Chairman Bill Hamrick
Economic Development, Chairman Chip Pearson
Education and Youth, Chairman Dan Weber
Ethics, Chairman Eric Johnson
Finance, Chairman Ronnie Chance
Government Oversight, Chairman Renee Unterman
Health and Human Services, Chairman Don Thomas
Higher Education, Chairman Seth Harp
Insurance and Labor, Chairman Ralph Hudgens
Interstate Cooperation, Chairman Ed Harbison
Judiciary, Chairman Preston Smith
Natural Resources and the Environment, Chairman Ross Tolleson
Public Safety, Chairman Jack Murphy
Reapportionment and Redistricting, Chairman Judson Hill
Regulated Industries and Utilities, Chairman David Shafer
Retirement, Chairman Bill Heath
Rules, Chairman Don Balfour
Science and Technology, Chairman Cecil Staton
Special Judiciary, Chairman John Wiles
State and Local Government Operations, Chairman Lee Hawkins
State Institutions and Property, Chairman Johnny Grant
Transportation, Chairman Jeff Mullis
Urban Affairs, Chairman David Adelman
Veterans, Military and Homeland Security, Chairman John Douglas
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Handel warns against shortening early voting period
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Secretary of State Karen Handel is quietly letting state lawmakers know that she would have serious concerns about any attempt to shorten the state’s 45-day early voting period.
Before and after the Nov. 4 election, some Republican legislators watching the Barack Obama-driven flood of African-American voters talked of curtailing — even eliminating it.
But Handel, who is expected to join the GOP race for governor later this year, is warning against any such move, for both political and legal reasons, we’re told.
First of all, early voting is clearly popular. Picking a fight with 2 million people — who cast 53 percent of the general election vote — may not be the height of wisdom.
Secondly, a U.S. Justice Department under Obama is unlikely to treat the measure kindly. (Georgia is a state covered by the Voting Rights Act, and any changes to election law are subject to federal review.)
Very probably — racial and gender breakdowns aren’t out yet — a record number of African-American voters cast ballots in the 2008 general election. Many, many of them chose to engage in early voting.
One of the key tests facing any change in election law is whether it results in a dilution of minority voting strength. Opponents will merely have to point to black turnout in 2008 to make their case.
Additionally, Republicans could very well hurt their own cause in trying to stem a tool that Democrats adapted as their own. According to state law, early voting is nothing but absentee voting — except that the ballot is delivered in person.
Trimming in-person voting would also affect absentee ballots delivered by mail, a traditional Republican strength. And it would be hard to shorten the period for one without touching the other.
Photo credit: Kimberly Smith/AJC
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Ann Coulter on NBC’s “Today Show”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When NBC’s “Today Show” dropped the conservative that liberals most like to hate from its line-up on Wednesday, the Drudge Report marked the event as an attempted boycott of the fiery Ann Coulter and her new book.
“Today” rescheduled Coulter for this morning, and below is the resulting interview with Matt Lauer.
“I am like Roland Burris. I have been turned away, but I’m back,” Coulter said. Topics include her use of B. Hussein Obama to describe the president-elect, and single motherhood as the source of “almost any” societal ill outside of Alaska.
The clip is nine minutes long, so settle in:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
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Senate Democrats agree to seat Roland Burris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
USA Today’s political blog has just filed an item saying that Democrats have agreed to accept Roland Burris for President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant seat in the U.S. Senate.
The Associated Press is cited as the source.
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Robb Pitts: Fill vacant houses with cops — for free
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts just put out a press release suggesting that the nation’s glut of abandoned and vacant houses be whittled down by offering the residences as free homes for police officers.
Salary subsidies, in other words.
Says Pitts:
“Since most jurisdictions cannot pay police officers what they deserve, providing free homes to them would be a substantial supplement to their salaries and a good tool for recruitment and retention.”
More details:
Under the program, police officers would have to pay a down payment of $2,500 and commit to 15 years of service with the department in order to receive a free home, and it would have to be their primary residence. At the end of 15 years they would be given the deed to the home.
Pitts says the program could be enacted by “cities and counties across the country.”
Photo credit: Jonathan Newton/AJC
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Price: GOP failure to address health care ‘perhaps the greatest missed opportunity’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In today’s Wall Street Journal, U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell says the GOP failure to address a broken health care system is “perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of the past eight years.”
Writes Price:
Access to quality health care has long been a professed priority, yet Republicans have been reluctant to tackle the issue.
As a physician, this is deeply disappointing to me because patient-centered health care is, at its core, conservative. Health care is fundamentally a personal relationship between patients and doctors. To honor this relationship — consistent with Republican ideals — our goal should be to provide a system that allows access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans, in a way that ensures medical decisions are made in doctors’ offices, not Washington.
Republican unwillingness to address the issue, however, has left us facing an emboldened Democratic Party well equipped to push a government-centered health-care agenda. While Democrats are still dangerously misguided in their policies, this time they are prepared to avoid the political mistakes of the Clinton administration.
But Price says the Democratic approach would wipe out private insurers.
The WSJ piece is significant as one of Price’s first policy statements as the new chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a kind of mini-think tank for the House minority party.
Photo credit: Rick McKay, Cox Washington Bureau
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Cynthia McKinney on her shortened Mediterranean cruise
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a first-person article in a Cyprus newspaper, former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney offers an account of her thwarted attempt to deliver medical supplies to the Gaza Strip last week.
Read the article in the Famagusta Gazette here.
McKinney, apparently in Lebanon now, publicly thanks the four reporters who were with her on the ship for drawing attention to its encounter with the Israeli navy. Three were from Al Jazeera, and one was from CNN.
Associated Press photo: Former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, center, is helped out of the vessel SS Dignity, from the group Free Gaza, as it arrives in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon. The boat, carrying international peace activists and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip, arrived after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, according to the organizers of the trip.
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Why Georgia State University needs a football team
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My AJC colleague James Salzer took a look at disclosure reports for the final five months of 2008, and one thing is clear: lobbyists at the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech didn’t have much trouble giving away free football tickets to state lawmakers last fall.
That could come in handy for the two institutions down the road.
Chris Cummiskey, who left House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s employ last year to become top Capitol lobbyist for UGA, reported spending about $20,000 on lawmakers during the final five months of 2008, mostly on football tickets and other football-related events.
Almost $12,000 of that was for a Legislative Appreciation Day that included more than $3,000 in football tickets.
Dene Sheheane, Cummisky’s counterpart at Tech, reported spending about $16,000 on lawmakers, mostly on football tickets. That’s double what he spent the year before.
Part of the reason: Tech’s Chick-fil-A Bowl appearance against LSU was very popular with the state powers that be.
Gov. Sonny Perdue, House Speaker Glenn Richardson, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and other lawmakers received tickets and a dinner. The cost for entertaining Perdue alone was put at more than $1,000.
All of this pigskin schmoozing could become useful during the 2009 legislative session that starts Monday, when UGA and Tech face the prospect of major budget cuts because of the national recession.
Legislators must cut about $2.2 billion this year. Lawmakers have already put K-12 schools and health care largely out-of-bounds for major cuts, Salzer notes. The next big budget on the chopping block: the University System of Georgia.
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Chambliss sworn in, Burris rejected, and Coleman urged to concede
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vice President Dick Cheney just administered the oath of office to Saxby Chambliss and other members of the U.S. Senate, new and old, who survived the 2008 election season.
Among the missing was Roland Burris of Illinois, the pick of embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Al Franken of Minnesota wasn’t there, either. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada warned Republican incumbent Norm Coleman that he ought to be thinking hard about a concession speech. With some haste.
Reid used the word “former” to describe Coleman’s Senate status. This from The Hill, a Washington newspaper and web site:
“This is a difficult time for former Sen. Coleman and his family, and he is entitled to the opportunity to concede this election graciously. But we cannot let this drag on forever,” Reid said. “I hope that former Sen. Coleman and all of our Republican colleagues will choose to respect the will of the people of Minnesota.”
Franken’s “term must begin, and will begin soon,” Reid said on the floor on Tuesday. “Even close elections have winners, and I can testify to that.” Reid won reelection against then-Rep. John Ensign (R-Nev.) in 1998 by just 428 votes after Ensign called for a recount.
Coleman is unlikely to cooperate. At a news conference today, he promised a lawsuit that would keep the fight for the Minnesota seat going several more weeks.
“Something greater than expediency is at stake here,” Coleman said. He added: “Democracy is not a machine. Sometimes it’s messy and inconvenient, and reaching the best conclusion is never quick because speed is not the first objective, fairness is.”
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Jeb Bush passes on a 2010 race for U.S. Senate in Florida
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic is reporting on his political blog that former Florida governor Jeb Bush has decided to pass on a 2010 race to fill the U.S. Senate seat of the retiring Mel Martinez.
Says the fellow who was always dubbed the smarter Bush brother:
“While the opportunity to serve my state and country during these turbulent and dynamic times is compelling, now is not the right time to return to elected office.
The former governor said he intends to focus on education reform.
Not good news for Republicans in that state.
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Winds of change: The ‘flatulence tax’ and you
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
RedState.com today goes after the alleged “flatulence” tax, a so-far theoretical measure that would slap fees on cows, pigs and the greenhouse gases they produce.
The Business and Media Institute has a fresh piece on the topic as well.
There’s little chance that the measure will pass muster with the Environmental Protection Agency, but farmers across the U.S. have been in a panic.
In November, the New York Farm Bureau issued a warning that such a tax would be costly:
The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog.
Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits. This would cover about 99 percent of dairy production, more than 90 percent of beef production, and more than 95 percent of all hog production in New York, according to USDA statistics.
So far as we know, the pork-and-beans industry — a notorious source of methane, as Mel Brooks proved in “Blazing Saddles” — has fended off all attempts to include its product in the discussion.
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Poythress says he’s raised $300k for governor’s race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
David Poythress, former state adjutant general and now a 2010 Democratic candidate for governor, sent out a note to supporters late Monday, saying he has raised $300,000 for the contest so far.
Among his details:
— “Our average contribution will exceed $800;
— “Nearly 90 percent of our contributions are from in-state;
— “More than $70,000 was raised in December (post U.S. Senate run-off election);
— “Contributions came from a wide cross-section of Georgia, including Republicans, Democrats, unaffiliated voters, north/south/central Georgia, National Guard family members, trial lawyers, labor, teachers and small business owners.”
Poythress’ $300k is small change in a race that is expected to cost several million. But it’s a start.
The retired general, a former state labor commissioner, also let it be known that he’s met with Brian Schweitzer of Montana, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, and that he’s named campaign veteran Wendy Davis as his campaign manager.
House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin, a newspaper publisher, is also expected to seek the Democratic nomination, but probably won’t announce until after the session.
The name of former Gov. Roy Barnes is also hanging out there. We talked to one Democrat who described the possibility of a Barnes candidacy this way:
Last year, he replied, “Hell, no!” whenever asked about a return to the Governor’s Mansion. This year, the answer is “Probably no.” And he’s on a diet.
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Building an argument against tax cuts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta was among the first congressional Republicans to sound off against the $300 billion in middle-class tax cuts proposed as part of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic recovery.
This from Politico:
“Some reports put the tax cut at 40% of the overall package — leaving 60% to come from increased federal spending,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.). “After the latest round of bailouts, many members of Congress, as well as most Americans, have concerns about the federal government spending hundreds of billions that it doesn’t have.”
“Republicans believe tax relief is a great way to get money to people immediately and strengthen our economy,” said RNC spokesman Alex Conant. “But cutting taxing does not justify a blank check for irresponsible spending. Attaching tax cuts to massive new spending that permanently increases the size of the government is not necessarily in taxpayers’ best interest.”
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Ron Paul: ‘Palestinians are in a concentration camp’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forget Cynthia McKinney on her skiff. This video on Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip by Ron Paul, the former Republican presidential candidate, is likely to stir up a deal of dust:
The six-minute clip was first posted on Campaign for Liberty, a Libertarian web site. Here’s the most incendiary quote:
“There is no benefit for us to be involved in this fight over there. This thing is an entire mess.
“The Palestinians are in like a concentration camp. They have a few small missiles, but it’s so minor compared to the firepower of Israel, who has nuclear weapons. And they can turn off all the food and all the water….And yet we are going to have to accept some of the moral responsibility for this.”
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GPB to rebroadcast Griffin Bell documentary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Public Broadcasting just announced that it would re-broadcast at 7 p.m. Wednesday a 30-minute documentary on the late Griffin Bell that first aired in 2006.
If you can’t wait, click here to watch it.
Bell, who served as attorney general for his South Georgia neighbor Jimmy Carter, died Monday morning. He was 90.
His specialty lay in conducting internal, page-turning investigations for big companies in trouble: E.F. Hutton, after its financial scandal; Exxon, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska; Dow Corning, after silicone breast implants were linked to health risks. Pro bono, he obtained the release from Nicaragua of Eugene Hasenfus, a mercenary captured after his Contra supply plane was shot down.
“That’s the fun of being a lawyer, to take something that’s really complicated and decide what to do with it, how to resolve it,” Bell said in a 2006 interview.
Bell’s political involvement spanned a wide arc, from his stint as an unpaid adviser to Georgia Gov. Ernest Vandiver in 1959, to his role as friend and sometimes lawyer to both Presidents Bush. Working with Vandiver in 1960, he came up with the idea for the Sibley Commission, which is credited with defusing racial tensions and enabling Georgia to peacefully desegregate its public schools.
The New York Times adds this observation of Bell’s place in history:
Mr. Bell’s political star ascended farther when he co-managed John F. Kennedy’s campaign in Georgia and delivered a bigger majority even than Massachusetts did. Kennedy rewarded him in 1961 with a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which in those days covered the whole Southeast.
Civil rights cases figured heavily on the court’s docket in the 1960s, and Judge Bell was handed a momentous one after just two months on the bench. In it, a panel that he led ruled that Georgia’s longstanding “county unit system” of primary voting unconstitutionally denied fair representation to the state’s growing cities, with their large concentrations of black voters. The decision broke the grip of white rural party barons on the state’s politics.
Associated Press photo: Bell tips his hat to reporters shortly after his nomination as attorney general in 1977, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Holster that gun bill, says Cagle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just got out of a meeting that Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle held with the state Capitol press corps.
The lieutenant governor was emphatic about one issue in particular. A bill to expand the public areas in which a permitted, concealed weapon can be carried will be going nowhere.
State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) has been working on the measure to revamp the state code so as to permit concealed weapons licensees to pack heat in churches and on university campuses.
“Let me be very clear. I have no appetite for it,” Cagle said.
Last year, the Legislature finally passed a watered-down bill that permitted employees to keep guns in cars parked on company lots, pushed by the National Rifle Association. But two years of battle have taken their toll.
Cagle wants a respite. “We dealt with this issue last year. I think people should be content with where we are,” he said.
The lieutenant governor became a bit flustered when Shannon McCaffrey, the Associated Press reporter, asked Cagle whether he supported an effort by state Rep. Jack Murphy (R-Cumming) to help close the state’s budget deficit by taxing strip club patrons.
Murphy would like to funnel the money to child abuse programs and other services for young people who are caught up in child prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation.
Cagle stammered, then wondered out loud — in jest, possibly — what people actually do at these establishments.
Bible study, reporters assured him.
Ultimately, Cagle said he’d oppose a strip club tax, on the grounds that he’s not in favor of any tax increases — anywhere.
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The rod-and-reel view from Wall Street
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Wall Street Journal puts a skeptical eye on Gov. Sonny Perdue’s “Go Fish” program today, noting cuts to education and the elimination of a state-operated home for veterans.
Read the entire piece here, but these are a few choice paragraphs:
It’s also unclear just how much fishing tournaments can boost the Georgia economy. The American Sportfishing Association concedes that most of the annual economic impact on the state comes from purchases of normal boats and other everyday fishing that doesn’t require the big new ramps under construction.
Some fishermen worry that falling water levels are exposing sunken terrain and obstructions that may make the state’s lakes too dangerous for visiting anglers. “There’s a lot of things you could hit if you don’t know where you’re going,” said Bill Vanderford, who runs the oldest freshwater fishing-guide service in the state and is an inductee of the national Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.
Mr. Perdue, a veterinarian by training, is impatient with all the criticism of Go Fish. The funds were allocated before the current crisis began and the proceeds of the bonds already sold can’t legally be redirected to other purposes, he said. The construction activity also will generate jobs.
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Barr on federal marriage law: It’s time for a divorce
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As a Georgia congressman from Marietta, Bob Barr considered the Defense of Marriage Act, which he sponsored, to be one of the highlights of his career.
But explaining the measure before crowds as a Libertarian candidate for president has caused Barr to reconsider. This is what he writes today in an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times:
In effect, DOMA’s language reflects one-way federalism: It protects only those states that don’t want to accept a same-sex marriage granted by another state. Moreover, the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws - including, immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran’s benefits - has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions.
Even more so now than in 1996, I believe we need to reduce federal power over the lives of the citizenry and over the prerogatives of the states. It truly is time to get the federal government out of the marriage business. In law and policy, such decisions should be left to the people themselves.
In 2006, when then-Sen. Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, he said, “Decisions about marriage should be left to the states.” He was right then; and as I have come to realize, he is right now in concluding that DOMA has to go. If one truly believes in federalism and the primacy of state government over the federal, DOMA is simply incompatible with those notions.
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