Boys and girls, do we have an offer for you today. As you know, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will be here Wednesday for a high-end breakfast fundraiser hosted by Gov. Nathan Deal, U.S. Sen. David Perdue and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.
That self-funding stuff? Never mind.
Instead, an email is zipping around the richest inboxes of Atlanta, detailing what certain numbers of zeroes on your Trump Victory check will buy next week:
All $25,000 and above donors will also have a professional photo taken with him.
The next level is $10,000, which will include a professional photo.
The entry level is $2,700 for the opportunity to mingle with and hear Mr. Trump speak and answer questions.
If mingling isn’t your hook, there’s this:
… There will be no press allowed, so nothing is off limits, and we'll get the inside, off-the-record information on his path to the White House.
But wait, there’s more. If you’ve got at least $449,400 on your person and know two or three others with a spare $550,600, then, certainly, inauguration tickets are in your future. No, it’s not true that Trump U. grads get special treatment. Scroll through this breakdown of Trump Victory Benefits and see for yourself:
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So Mitt Romney is hosting his annual bash in Park City, Utah, today -- about as far from Trump Tower as one can get. CNN.com offers up these lines:
Romney, who has criticized Trump at every turn, will brief his allies in a highly-anticipated, even if brief, set of remarks Thursday evening.
Two Republicans who have been the most uneasy with Trump's ascension: House Speaker Paul Ryan, who just endorsed Trump last week, and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, who has refused to, will speak, their offices confirmed.
Among the locals in the audience will be Eric Tannenblatt, the Dentons associate and longtime Bush family supporter.
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Donald Trump is the headliner, but three Georgia Republicans are also scheduled to speak at Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference in Washington today and tomorrow.
U.S. Sen. David Perdue is booked for Friday, while U.S. Reps. Lynn Westmoreland and Barry Loudermilk will hit the stage this afternoon during the three-day confab being held by the Georgia-based group.
Also on the agenda: Former Trump opponents Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson.
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If you're a Democrat who won't be in Philadelphia on July 28, Georgia Win List wants you at their party. The group, which supports women candidates, has a bash in mind, but hasn't figured out the details. From the press release:
…[I]t will be an occasion you will not want to miss. Bring friends and family members -- especially daughters and granddaughters!
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This week's to-do list for Tom Graves was made much easier by his GOP colleagues in the U.S. House on Wednesday evening.
A ruling committee blocked debate on several proposed hot-button amendments to a $3.5 billion spending bill being shepherded by Graves, the Republican from Ranger, that would have otherwise forced him to thread a delicate needle.
Democrats wanted another tough vote for the GOP on a provision to uphold a White House executive order blocking LGBT discrimination by federal contractors. A similar provision led to chaos on the House floor on more than one occasion last month.
Democrats also wanted to strike language from the bill related to the Library of Congress' use of the term "illegal alien" to describe undocumented immigrants. That move, as well as the LGBT proposal, was rebuffed by the House Rules Committee.
The congressional panel also denied a vote on amendments from Steve King, R-Iowa, that would have blocked funding for any transgender bathrooms on Capitol Hill and allowed employees of the U.S. House to carry guns on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
All of which made Graves' job of guiding that bill to passage today and tomorrow much easier. The spending measure is otherwise pretty benign, providing funding for House and Senate offices, the Capitol Police and the Library of Congress. Read more about that debate here via Politico.
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Nearly a year to the day after he publicly announced his Parkinson's diagnosis, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is renewing a push for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect more systematic data on neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis in order to facilitate more research.
Isakson introduced an amendment to the annual defense policy measure currently being considered on the Senate floor that would do just that. It's similar to stand-alone legislation that advanced through another Senate committee in February.
"Modern medicine has allowed us to make great advances through the basic collection of data," Isakson said when that measure advanced earlier this year. "This legislation will put into place a national database that researchers can access to develop a better grasp of the many factors that must be taken into account to understand neurological diseases and hopefully move toward cures."
Lawmakers from both parties commonly try to attach their pet provisions to the massive defense bill, which touches on everything from the defense health care system to the military's energy use. It's still unclear if the amendment will come up for a vote.
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With all the turmoil in the world, sometimes we need comfort news. Comfort news, like comfort food, lets you know that, despite the hoopla, the world today is much the same as it was yesterday. And 10 years ago, and 10 years before that.
For instance, up in Ringgold, Ga., Patricia Anne Crowe, 59, of Lafayette, was arrested Saturday after she allegedly pulled a gun on popular wrestler Paul Lee during a match. The incident, we're told, has prompted promoters to consider installing metal detectors at entry points. From the Rome News-Tribune:
"I had him tied up and was beating on him, and this lady jumps up with a knife, cuts him loose, and then pulled a loaded gun on me," Lee said. "She had that thing loaded with one in the chamber and the safety off. All it would have taken was for her to get shaky with that thing and it could have fired."
Crowe also pointed the gun at the show's commissioner "Robbie Rude," reports show.
See? Comfort news. Don’t you feel better already?
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