An Oklahoma Republican is learning firsthand the art of the boomerang effect.
It started when Rep. Steve Russell, an Oklahoma GOPer and a retired U.S. Army officer, demanded paperwork outlining the performance of two women who recently graduated from the vaunted Army Ranger School at Georgia's Fort Benning.
Russell's
to "make sure that all of the people who passed the course deserved to pass it" - about a month after
from the rigorous program.
Now the congressman is about to face his own scrutiny. Several women who graduated from West Point have filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the Ranger School file for Russell, who earned the Ranger designation in November 1987.
Sue Fulton, a 1980 West Point graduate, told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer why she filed the request. From the report:
... Fulton was in the first West Point class to include women. She said about a dozen West Point women graduates have joined her in the call for Russell's records. A large group of West Point women attended the Ranger School graduation on Aug. 21 when Griest and Haver were awarded their tabs in a historic first.
She compared what is happening now with the questioning of the women who have attended and completed Ranger School with what she and her West Point classmates endured.
"It is the same stuff we heard in the early years at West Point," Fulton said. "That is why you are seeing these women say enough is enough. They are getting in the way of making the Army stronger. We made the Army stronger. These women will make the Army stronger."
***
Talk about awkward timing.
Gov. Nathan Deal's visit to automakers in Germany comes as Volkswagen is embroiled in a widening scandal over its admission to rigging emissions testing in the U.S. and growing questions over whether it did the same thing in Europe.
Deal and economic development commissioner Chris Carr visited the headquarters of Porsche, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, this week to thank the company for locating its North American headquarters at a complex near Atlanta's airport.
It's unclear whether the growing crisis was mentioned at the meeting. But to be a fly on the wall ...
***
New DeKalb County Commissioner Nancy Jester said she's getting police protection after she received threats from a local political group.
Jester called a press conference Wednesday to bring attention to statements by members of the DeKalb County Coalition for Justice and Police Accountability, which has been seeking reforms in how police handle officer-involved shootings of unarmed black men.
The activists' dispute with Jester came after she and other DeKalb officials met with victims' families last week. The activists say they are concerned because Jester didn't comment or show compassion during the meeting.
Coalition leader Makungu Akinyela said the group denounces "such threats or attempts to charge us in making such threats."
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Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is headed to Gainesville next month.
The Gainesville Times reports he'll be at the Free Chapel on Sunday, Oct. 11.
He's running in the top tier in most presidential polls, and so far he's given scant attention to Georgia.
***
Rep. Tom Price got a shout-out from another GOP presidential contender, Carly Fiorina, during one of her stops in South Carolina on Thursday.
The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive told a luncheon crowd in Greenville that the Georgia Republican's healthcare plan was among the conservative alternatives to the Affordable Care Act.
Here's the transcript:
"Since its passage, I have consistently said that repealing ObamaCare is the first thing we have to do to ensure quality, affordable healthcare for every American. In 2013, I was in an argument on TV in which I once again said "I think Obamacare remains an abomination." ... Since then, conservative health care experts have come up with significantly better alternatives to ObamaCare, including Representative Price's and Governor Walker's just to name a couple. To be clear, I believe that we must find a way to cover people with pre-existing conditions--but I do not believe we need a mandate of any kind to do that."
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