Yes, yes, it's hyperbolic. But sometimes the GOP presidential campaign has in fact resembled a "Conan the Barbarian" comic book. Or in this case, a "Superman" movie. But there's an element of truth in WSB Radio provocateur Erick Erickson's assessment of the decision by Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum to attend Donald Trump's wildcat event in Iowa.
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The executive committee of the Georgia GOP may be about to address their party's solvency. Fourteen members of the executive committee have called for a Feb. 13 meeting to discuss the matter. Earlier this month, there was this AJC piece:
The Georgia GOP filed an end-of-the-year report showing it had $11,403 cash on hand and was $231,000 in debt, in a startling revelation for a party that commanded millions just a few election cycles ago.
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Bryan Long of Better Georgia sends word that his Democratic-oriented group has launched series of robo-calls in the north Georgia district of House Speaker David Ralston, attempting to generate phone calls demanding that Ralston remove state Rep. Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson, from his post as chairman of the House Human Relations & Aging Committee.
Benton has generated controversy with bills aimed at preserving Confederate memorials, accompanied by remarks in defense of the Ku Klux Klan. Listen here:
"It made a lot of people straighten up," Benton told our AJC colleague Chris Joyner. "I'm not saying what they did was right. It's just the way things were."
The Democratic Party of Georgia likewise has pounced. From First Vice Chair Nikema Williams:
"Benton is either an ill-informed student of history, or he has no conscience. For over a century, the KKK has operated as a terrorist organization responsible for some of the most unimaginable violence in the country. In an era where communities are working together to bridge divides, Tommy Benton seems content with spewing the kind of half-witted hatred that divides. Benton should be ashamed and his Party should denounce him."
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The Atlanta Jewish Times has an editorial panning Sen. David Perdue's decision to block Dax Lopez federal judgeship because of his ties to a Latino group.
Perdue last week said he was "uncomfortable" with Lopez's participation in the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. The Jewish Times, noting Lopez is a Hispanic Jewish Republican, said it was tantamount to Rep. John Lewis belonging to the NAACP.
Lopez did not deserve confirmation for being Jewish or Latino or Republican. Nor should he have been rejected for those associations or any others, including GALEO. Judging an individual requires examining that person's actions, beliefs and court decisions.
We don't know how Lopez would have done under the scrutiny of the Judiciary Committee, although the vehemence with which his opponents fought his hearing leads us to suspect he would have won over the Senate.
The point is that Perdue, by prejudging the judge, betrayed Martin Luther King's dream to see people judged by the content of their character. The senator thus betrayed us, the people of Georgia, who elected him.
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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign didn't take too kindly to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed's boast that Hillary Clinton is going to "eviscerate him" in South Carolina.
Check out this response:
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Little bills like this can become major topics of conversation in the Legislature. From Zpolitics.com:
The bill eyes the Georgia High School Association (GHSA), which made waves in 2015 when they disqualified a high school track star from placing in a state championship race because he had a Bible verse on his headband. At the time, the incident earned the attention of elected officials, most notably Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and Congressman Doug Collins, who bashed the decision as "squashing" religious expression.
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