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Good sportsmanship has been given a bad rap as a superficial concern of the athlete/dilettante, as irrelevant as an upturned pinky in a melee.
In fact, as any student of Clausewitz would tell you, being a gracious winner is part of the realpolitik of sports. Because just as there is never a last war, there is never a last game.
The upraised middle finger, those loud lies about the sexual history of the pitcher’s mother – all will be recorded and replayed in the opposing team’s locker room just before the next meeting. Anger begets adrenaline.
Over the weekend, our AJC colleagues gave Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee a chance to express regret over shutting out dissent during last week's meeting that gave final approval to nearly $400 million in public funding for the new Atlanta Braves complex in suburbia. He declined. From the article:
The plan to keep critics away from the podium was organized by a group founded by John Loud, a small-business owner who recently was appointed to lead the chamber's executive committee.
His group, Home of the Braves, launched a website and Facebook page in support of the public investment in the stadium shortly after the Nov. 11 announcement.
But it was the Around Town column in Saturday's Marietta Daily Journal that may have advanced the runner – raising a potential consequence of last week's poor sportsmanship deficit:
Lee has already been wrestling with whether to include $100 million for construction of a $492 million Bus Rapid Transit line in such a SPLOST referendum. Many courthouse watchers feel that would mean the defeat of the SPLOST.
Opponents would paint a BRT-driven SPLOST as the second coming of the TSPLOST, which voters overwhelmingly shot down two years ago despite strong support for it from Lee and the Cobb Chamber. Commissioners are expected to decide in the next few weeks on whether to include the BRT in the SPLOST — and on the heels of Tuesday's events, it might be wise to go ahead and deep-six the idea.
Like we said -- there is never, ever a last vote.
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As the weekend began, former national GOP chair Haley Barbour warned delegates to the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans that the party must move past its tea party vs. establishment rift if it is to have a chance at the White House in 2016. From Bill Barrow of the Associated Press:
The former Mississippi governor drew a standing ovation for his lecture, but the same crowd spent the afternoon cheering a parade of archconservatives eschewing the calls for pragmatism.
"We're under attack from within our own coalition," said David Bossie, leader of the conservative group Citizens United. "This is a recipe for a crippled conservatism, a losing movement and a failing country."
"If in 2016 we don't have these people raising millions of Republican dollars and using it to attack Republicans, then we'll be stronger against the Democrats for president and for keeping the House and for hopefully keeping the Senate," said Mr. Barbour, who was one of the few speakers at the meeting to urge party unity.
One crucial test of the GOP rift comes on Tuesday, when incumbent Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, 76, faces down state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a tea party favorite. From a weekend fundraising email sent by Jenny Beth Martin, chairman of Tea Party Patriots:
"The entire GOP political establishment is waging all-out war on the Tea Party. They believe that if they can drag Thad Cochran across the finish line on Tuesday, they'll seriously embarrass our movement. And, unfortunately, they may be right."
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The fallout over the no-knock police raid that put a 19-month-old child in intensive care over the weekend has Democrats reviving their call to restrict the special warrants.
When Atlanta narcotics officers conducted a no-knock warrant at a west Atlanta house in 2006 and killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnson when she fired at the door with a rusty revolver, a bipartisan band of state Senate lawmakers pushed to make it harder for cops to get the warrants.
That legislation, sponsored by Democrat Vincent Fort of Atlanta and Republican Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga, passed the Senate but never reached a vote in the House. Fort now wants to revive the push.
“This has bipartisan support,” he said. “I think it’s about time we renew the call for a new law with tougher restrictions.”
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Count Georgia U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss among those not pleased with trading five Taliban prisoners for American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Also galling, according to the retiring senator: The administration not telling Congress about the swap in advance. (Congress is supposed to be notified, under a law the administration claims is unconstitutional.)
Here's what Chambliss had to say:
"However, the United States has a long-standing policy of not negotiating with terrorists, and I am deeply troubled the Obama administration not only broke this policy, but also did so without the notification or consent of Congress, as required by law.
"Six months ago, I was assured by the administration they would not consider the release of these senior Taliban leaders without consulting Congress. Today, they violated that commitment. The security assurances the United States has been given regarding these terrorists is feeble at best, and I fear it is only a matter of time before they resume their terrorist activities. These men are not soldiers; they are dangerous terrorists and President Obama should be treating them as such."
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Little more than a week after officially becoming a congressional lame duck, U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, helped push a pro-medical marijuana amendment through the U.S. House -- even though most Republicans were against it.
Just 49 Republicans joined 170 Democrats late last week to pass a measure preventing the Department of Justice from spending money to combat medical marijuana in states that allow it. In Broun's floor speech, shown above, he draws on his medical career -- "it's less dangerous than some narcotics doctors prescribe" -- and fondness for the 10th amendment, saying Congress must "reserve the states' powers under the Constitution."
Broun also mentioned Georgia's own consideration of limited medical marijuana use, though it failed during this year's legislative session.
Broun was joined by fellow Georgia Republicans Tom Graves, Lynn Westmoreland and Rob Woodall in favor of the amendment to a spending bill covering the DOJ. John Barrow of Augusta was Georgia's only Democratic "no" vote.
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