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Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Because real life isn’t like talk radio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every now and then, the state Capitol reaches out to remind you that life is not talk radio.
You are not allowed to speak your peace and walk away, or cut off reply with the press of a button. In fact, lawmakers are required — for the most part — to face down those colleagues they criticize and who criticize them.
The elaborate decorum of the Legislature, often stilting and frustrating, was invented, very practically, to avoid the name-calling that leads to fistfights, duels and bloodshed.
This morning, Robert Brown (D-Macon), the Senate minority leader and an African-American, took the well in defense of Seth Harp (R-Midland), a white senator who has introduced legislation urging the Board of Regents to merge black and predominantly white universities in Savannah and Albany.
Harp, who represents the 29th District, has said his only motive is economic. But clearly Harp has had other impulses ascribed to him.
Brown said:
“In addressing this issue that has been brought to us, I want us to be very careful not to get into a situation of where we are questioning the motives, the intent, the racial politics of the person who is bringing this — and in this case, specifically the senator from the 29th.
“I know that there has been a lot of discussion about what his motives may be. I also know that a lot of people haven’t even read the resolution. Because a lot of the things that are being attributed to the resolution in fact are not there.
“So I want this to get a fair hearing.”
The minority leader announced that Harp and state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), who is also African-American, were putting their heads together to redraft the bill.
This isn’t the first time this has happened. Two years ago, Brown — otherwise known for his hardball tactics on the floor — spoke up for state Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), who had introduced a bill to establish Confederate History Month.
Brown cited Mullis’ budgetary support for such things as the Harriet Tubman Museum in Macon.
That said, the Senate minority leader is no Pollyanna. Only a day earlier, Brown had called out state Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) — though not by name — on a school voucher bill introduced by the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
“This is the worst education bill since the 1950s. a similar bill was introduced in the 1950s that was a response to Brown v. Board of Education. It was rejected at that point, and I think we’d do well to reject this one now,” said Brown in an interview on GPB’s “The Lawmakers.”
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A letter before the Daschle fall: ‘Is tax dodging only acceptable for Congress and Cabinet?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No doubt you’ve heard that former U.S. senator Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name as President Obama’s nominee for secretary of health and human services.
Nancy Killefer quickly followed, politely declining the chance to be the federal government’s first chief performance officer.
All because of tax problems, which almost sunk Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
Now, he’s not claiming cause-and-effect here, but U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) became part of the discussion with a Monday letter to Obama requesting Daschle’s removal from consideration.
Westmoreland passed out copies of the missive to his colleagues. It part, he wrote:
“Leadership follows from example. When do one or two ‘innocent’ tax mistakes become an example to the nation that our tax laws are to be willingly discarded?
“Are we in danger of sending a message that tax avoidance is only acceptable if you are a member of Congress or the cabinet?
In the future, how can your administration decry tax shelters and the numerous other methods people use to avoid paying their taxes if members of your own cabinet are guilty of failing to pay theirs?”
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Gingrich on Limbaugh, Palin and the other woman in a 2012 race for president
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The word from Newt Gingrich, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor:
— On President Obama’s decision last month to invoke the name of Rush Limbaugh into a conversation with congressional Republicans:
“I can’t imagine the net advantage of the newly elected president of the United States - with 70 percent approval - picking a fight with a guy who will absolutely profit from the fight.”
— On Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin:
John McCain’s running mate in 2008,…could be “very formidable” as a presidential candidate in 2012, Gingrich said. But he stipulated that would be the case only if she “seeks out a group of sophisticated policy advisers” and “spends time developing a series of fairly sophisticated positions.” He noted that “Palin starts in Iowa with a substantial advantage. I think she has a very big base among the fundamentalist wing of the party.”
— Gingrich also said that, should U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison win a 2010 race for governor of Texas, she would become an “instantly formidable” presidential candidate.
Which could be one more reason why Palin just endorsed incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary, according to the Dallas Morning News.
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Bite by bite, state DOT is looking a mite skeletal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To approach the issue as Barbara Walters might, if the state Department of Transportation could be any kind of animal, what would it be?
Probably a cow cooling off in a nice stream down in South America. A cow that feels something fishy taking one bite out of its flank, then another, and another, and another.
In the state Capitol, the piranha-fest continued on Monday.
House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) introduced his proposal for a statewide sales tax devoted to transportation.
Smith has a laundry list of projects intended to lure supporters, but he also says that all revenue collected under such a tax would be lodged with the State Road and Tollway Authority, not the more-than-slightly-dysfunctional state DOT.
So chances are that Gov. Sonny Perdue, too, when he announces his reorganization of the state’s transitory transit agencies, will award new administrative focus to a refashioned SRTA.
Also Monday, state Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) and other Republicans dropped S.B. 85.
My AJC colleague Mary Lou Pickel gave the measure this description:
Senate Bill 85 would move authority for all state aviation assets from the Department of Transportation to [a] new authority, except for defense aircraft. The authority would have the power to charge for use of state aircraft and dispose of and buy, new aircraft and buy property.
The authority would be dominated by the governor, lieutenant governor, and the House speaker.
Mostly by the governor, it looks. He’ll decide who gets the window seats.
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Plains welcome center will remain open, state officials say
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the last episode, the welcome center in Jimmy Carter’s home town of Plains was tied to the railroad track by Gov. Sonny Perdue, in order to eliminate $186,00 from the crumbling state budget.
In hard times, foreigners from Japan or Britain or Wisconsin must live off the land like the rest of us.
But suddenly, in a budget hearing, George Hooks (D-Americus) who holds Carter’s old seat in the state Senate, unearthed a 1977 state law that mandated a “tourist center” in the “vicinity” of the home of any Georgian elected president.
Apparently, Hooks has won the day. This from a New York Times piece on the topic:
The Georgia Department of Economic Development said it would find a way to keep the center open, although it might reduce its hours or rely on volunteers to run it.
“That’s the law,” said Alison Tyrer, a spokeswoman for the department. “We’re definitely keeping the center open.”
But Bert Brantley, a spokesman for the governor, said legal experts must still decide whether the 1977 law allowed the state to scale back the center’s hours or to reach another compromise with Plains.
Roll credits.
NYT photo: Cardboard cutouts of former President Jimmy Carter, and his wife, Rosalynn, in a shop on Main Street in Plains, Ga.
