Count former President Jimmy Carter as one of those Americans who thinks he's being watched. If not by the NSA, then by someone else.
In an interview aired on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday, Carter said he has resorted to ink and stamps:
Carter, who is plugging his latest book -- which advocates women's rights, also said that while most of his successors in the White House have called on him for advice, the current commander-in-chief hasn't. Here's how he explained his relationship with President Barack Obama:
"I-- that's a hard question-- for me to answer-- you know, with complete candor. I think the problem was that-- that in dealing with the issue of peace in-- between Israel and Egypt-- the Carter Center has taken a very strong and public position of equal treatment between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And I think this was a sensitive area in which the president didn't want to be involved.
"When he first came out with his speech in Cairo calling for the end of all settlements and when he later said that the '67 borders would prevail, he and I were looking at it from the same perspective. But I can understand those sensitivities. And I don't have any criticism of him."
We wonder how their distant relationship may help or hurt Carter's grandson, state Sen. Jason Carter, in his gubernatorial run. The younger Carter, who attended a fundraiser with his grandfather Sunday in New York, needs conservative-leaning independent voters if he stands a chance at winning. But he also can't afford to jettison all links to Obama if he wants to mobilize his base.
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Former Georgia congressman and almost-governor Howard "Bo" Callaway was laid to rest last week with a number of profound eulogies.
But one of the best was uttered 50 years ago, after Callaway stunned his state by beating Lt. Gov. Garland Byrd with 57 percent of the vote, becoming the first GOP congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction.
You can listen to it as if it were just uttered yesterday.
Longtime Democratic strategist Keith Mason, former chief of staff to Gov. Zell Miller, pointed us to the archive of President Lyndon Johnson's recordings of private telephone conversations lodged at the University of Virginia.
The date was Nov. 6, 1964. Johnson had just won re-election, but had lost Georgia and several other Southern states because of his advocacy for civil rights legislation. He took the matter up with U.S. Sen. Herman Talmadge:
Talmadge: Yes, he's a fine boy, Mr. President. He graduated from West Point military academy. His father was Cason Callaway of Callaway Mills, one of Georgia's leading industrialists and a late, loved citizen. He was on the board of directors of one of the big banks in New York, also on the board of directors of U.S. Steel.
This boy finished the military academy and was immediately sent to Korea. He commanded a platoon of Korean troops over there in some of the hardest fighting in the Korean War. He came back to Georgia. His father was on the state Board of Regents, and his health was getting bad.
He retired and wanted me to appoint that boy. I appointed him on the Board of Regents in his stead. He made an outstanding member. His views are quite conservative. He got interested in this Goldwater philosophy several years ago.
He went to work. He got Byrd with him on a television debate two or three times. He's handsome, he's articulate, he's a quick thinker. And he made mince-meat out of Byrd in the television debates. But the main thing, Mr. President, was the Goldwater flood tide.
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Prognosticator Nate Silver is up with his first Senate race predictions of the year at his new FiveThirtyEight website. He gives Republicans a 60 percent chance of winning back the Senate and a 70 percent chance of holding Georgia:
"Democrats are almost certain to nominate Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, who has run even with or slightly ahead of the Republicans in scant polling so far. Ordinarily, we are skeptical of candidates who lack previous experience in elected office, but those from famous political families don't have the same name-recognition deficit to overcome and can sometimes tap into their families' networks to raise funds and staff their campaigns."
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Andy Miller of Georgia Health News recently got Gov. Nathan Deal to expand on his controversial call for lawmakers to rethink the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires hospitals to provide emergency health care treatment to anyone who needs it, regardless of citizenship or their ability to pay. Deal said in email comments that lawmakers should encourage those in non-emergency situations to seek treatment in a "more cost effective setting."
"No one's going to be denied service. None. This isn't about blocking doors to health services. It's about opening new doors that yield better health outcomes at a fraction of the price of emergency rooms. The onus is on us to make sure these non-emergency resources are available and convenient to the populations in need of service."
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The Associated Press this weekend took a big picture look at Common Core and the Republican Party from Nashville. From Bill Barrow:
"More than five years after U.S. governors began a bipartisan effort to set new standards in American schools, the Common Core initiative has morphed into a political tempest fueling division among Republicans."
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U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss had an interview with the Albany Herald over the weekend, which included this:
….Not all of the characterizations are wrong, however.
"Some of what we're accused of, though, is accurate," he said, "and sometimes we have been correctly characterized, I think, as — at least some people in the Republican Party — as voting against everything."
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In D.C. this week, keep an eye out for a big vote on unemployment benefits and talk of a Republican replacement for Obamacare.
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