When former Gov. Sonny Perdue needed legal help representing an agricultural firm he owns, he turned to a seemingly unlikely choice: Roy Barnes, the Democrat he ousted in 2002.
Barnes went back to his lucrative legal practice after failed bids to return to the Governor's Mansion in 2002 and 2010. And Perdue turned to his former adversary when he sought to file a lawsuit to force recoup more than $1.5 million owed to AGrowStar, a grain merchandising firm that he owns.
The lawsuit, which landed in federal court in October, seeks at least $2.2 million from a North Carolina bank and a handful of executives from a now-defunct wheat mill as well as attorneys' fees and punitive damages.
Barnes said he's confident Perdue is "entitled to prevail."
"We look forward to vigorously representing him in the case," he said.
Barnes, of course, remains a major benefactor to Democratic causes, and was a supporter of Michelle Nunn's campaign against Perdue's cousin, David Perdue, for Georgia's open Senate seat.
Politics can, indeed, come full circle.
***
Senate Democrats have put forth an ambitious agenda which, as we note in Sunday's dead-tree/premium edition, offers a blueprint of the party's direction the next two years.
The chamber's Democrats will renew their call to raise the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and allow same-day voter registration. But they're also pressing several new ideas, including job-creation requirements for companies receiving tax credits and new birth-control programs.
Another initiative, called the "Pay it Forward" Act, would create a pilot program that would allow in-state students to defer college tuition and instead sign a contract to pay a percentage of their income back to the state.
A Fair District Amendment would require redistricting maps to be drawn without favoring a political party or an incumbent. A separate proposal would eliminate runoffs. (No Democrat has won a statewide runoff since 1992.)
Many of these proposals would be fortunate to get a hearing in the GOP-controlled Senate, let alone a committee vote. (When Democrats controlled the Legislature for generations, they were equally skeptical of the minority party's agenda).
But one that could attract bipartisan attention is called "Bou Bou's Law," a restriction on "no knock" warrants named after the toddler disfigured in a botched police raid this year. It allows judges to grant the warrants only if police can prove an "imminent danger" to human life or to evidence without them.
A host of Republicans, from Gov. Nathan Deal to the party's libertarian wing, have raised concerns about police abuse of the warrants. And Democrats have called for new restrictions ever since a no-knock search in 2006 left a 92-year-old women dead after plainclothes officers stormed her home in a futile search for drugs.
***
We told you Saturday night how U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss was back in Georgia as the Senate passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill to keep nearly all of the government humming through September.
Our WSB-Radio colleague Jamie Dupree passes along word that Chambliss was at the Georgia Dome to watch his hometown Colquitt County High School take home the state 6-A football championship. The AJC's Chip Saye reports that it was the first state title and undefeated season for Colquitt since 1994.
That year, Chambliss won his first term in the U.S. House. Some nice bookends there.
***
Chambliss appeared Sunday morning from Atlanta on CBS' Face the Nation for presumably the final time as a U.S. Senator. He was cast as a supporter of the CIA after the torture report.
Chambliss, as he did all week, defended the agency's "enhanced interrogation techniques" and says they worked. In light of all that, Schieffer asked, "should they use these methods in the future if it becomes necessary?" Chambliss dodged:
"The Bush administration Department of Justice even determined that these enhanced interrogation techniques were legal. They were authorized by the Department of Justice. That's the scenario under which these individuals carried out these interrogations.
"So I think changes have been made, you have to remember -- and there will be additional changes made, Bob, if, as you go through -- as the CIA goes through the review of this."
Contrast that with former Vice President Dick Cheney on Meet the Press: "I would do it again in a minute."
***
Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson was in D.C. Saturday night and backed the spending bill, along with a failed effort by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to send the bill back to the House by declaring the president's executive order on immigration unconstitutional.
That's not to say Isakson was giving Cruz a bear hug. Many Republicans grumbled at his tactics, which forced senators to stay Saturday rather than come back Monday, and provided an opening for Democrats to move long-stalled nominations.
Politico quoted Isakson thusly: "I don't know what the strategy is."
***
As the spending bill goes to the White House, here are a few more Georgia priorities tucked in there:
- A new USDA facility in Athens gets $45 million to start construction of the $155 million project.
- The bill includes $345 million for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, which is just over the river in Aiken, S.C., but -- by converting weapons-grade nuclear material into fuel -- could help power Georgia's Plant Vogtle. (PSC commissioner Tim Echols is a fan.)
***
Lithonia Democratic U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson was quick to push a police militarization bill after the Ferguson, Mo., protests this summer -- the AJC's Chris Joyner did a deep dive on the issue Sunday -- and now he's dropping more legislation in response to the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases.
From The Hill:
"When the grand juries in Ferguson,[Mo.] and New York refused to indict those officers involved in killing those unarmed men," Johnson said during a Friday call sponsored by the Progressive Change Campaign Caucus, "I think many people understood that the nation's grand jury system is fundamentally broken, especially when police are investigated for the killing of civilians."
In a second bill, the "Police Accountability Act," Johnson wants to give the Department of Justice further authority to investigate officer-involved deaths, by making it a federal crime for officers to commit murder, manslaughter and other violent crimes. Right now, the federal government's main recourse in these cases is a federal civil rights case against an officer, which Johnson believes is too high of a standard of proof for a "garden variety homicide."
About the Author
