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Friday, November 10, 2006
Post-election, Rumsfeld, cookbooks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
• The president’s right. It was a thumping. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It hurts. But I am old enough to remember the gloom that descended on Georgia in the days after Lester Maddox was elected governor. And those were the darkest. He was a decent governor. Georgia survived. Conservatives will, too.
• Dark days for Republicans nationally, dark for Democrats in Georgia. Republicans won state House and Senate seats they should have lost, and made others — including the congressional seats held by Jim Marshall in the 8th and John Barrow in the 12th — far closer than they should have been.
• History, and military historians, will be kind to Donald Rumsfeld. While Rumsfeld and his generals might, in retrospect, have made different decisions here and there, including Fallujah, his strategy was sound, his insistence that the United States not prepare to be an “occupation” army was wise, and his leadership was just what a nation at war needs.
• Republicans now rule the roost under the Gold Dome. The lesson of this election: Stand for something. Think big and do it. Cut taxes, don´t raise them. The GOP in Congress had 12 years to make a difference. The Georgia GOP can’t count on any more.
• October was the year’s best month for stocks. But. Strategists wary. But fewer than half of Americans own stocks. Gas may be cheaper. But. Could go back up. Wages and benefits July-September rose at the fastest pace in two years. But. Consumer confidence slips. Unemployment fell to a five-year low of 4.4 percent last month. But. Housing’s slumping. Jim’s happy he’s on vacation. But. The mosquitoes could be biting. Oh, woe.
• New attention to two cookbook classics — Mrs. Dull’s 1941 “Southern Cooking,” just reprinted by the University of Georgia Press and “Joy of Cooking,” a new version of which hit the bookstores this week — evoke memories of a Southern childhood. A new bride got pots and pans and Mrs. Dull’s. Anybody who showed promise with Mrs. Dull’s was a candidate for “Joy of Cooking.”
• The U.S. Supreme Court takes a Georgia case overdue for resolution. At issue is whether police can use deadly force against a fleeing motorist who is suspected only of speeding or driving recklessly. No, they shouldn’t.
• In the “No Duh” Department, Aisle 1: A Syracuse University professor, Arthur C. Brooks, reveals in a forthcoming book that religious conservatives, regardless of income, donate substantially more than secular liberals to charity. “In the book, to be released next month,” reports the Syracuse Post-Standard, “he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives — from church attendance to two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services — make conservatives more generous than liberals.” Actually, liberals give more. Government’s their vehicle.
• Regional department stores disappear. The Christmas shopping season approaches without Chicago’s Marshall Field’s, latest to go. On reflection, it’s amazing how little department stores seemed to matter after Rich’s, and especially the downtown store, disappeared. Marshall Field’s was a part of Chicago’s flavor. The demise of locally owned department stores distresses. And takes all the fun out of being a last-minute Christmas shopper who could find something appropriate.
• Toll lanes for buses and trucks, proposed for parts of I-285 and I-75, are the way to go. When congestion-relief needs are far greater than available money, as is the case in metro Atlanta, it just makes sense to farm out part of the solution to the private sector. The trick is to make certain tax money “saved” is not then spent on frivolous transportation buys.
• See above for the prime reason Statehouse Republicans need to retool government. The private sector has a vital service-delivery role. The public sector’s job is to set priorities and performance standards, guarantee that the work is performed at a fair price — and police the contracts without getting too cozy with companies.
• More than half of the transportation projects scheduled for this year in metro Atlanta got under way. All types were delayed, but bicycle and pedestrian projects were delayed more, with 73 percent delayed and 5 percent getting dropped altogether. That is as it should be. Both are primarily for leisure, not getting there.
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