On Thursday, the Washington Post hosted a mid-term preview forum that featured former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The likelihood that Democrats would regain the House on Nov. 6, but fail to take the Senate was a working assumption in Gingrich's interview with Post columnist Karen Tumulty. You can find the entire discussion on CSPAN or watch a quick Post clip here.
But here’s a rough transcript that offers a glimpse of the political Darwinist that the former Georgia congressman has become:
Gingrich: Democrats – they face a really important challenge right after the election. They can decide they want to base 2020 as the party of better ideas, or they can base 2020 as the party of investigations. The system won't carry both. They've got to make a fundamental decision about which party they think gives them a better chance of winning in 2020 – if they end up with a majority, which I still think isn't in any way certain.
Tumulty: …They would be pretty limited as to which of their ideas they could actually enact into law. But where they would not be limited would be on the oversight and investigations. They would be getting subpoena power back – and they would be getting it back in a much more expanded version than they have ever known it, in part because the Republicans themselves have expanded the number of committee chairmen who can issue these subpoenas…
Gingrich: [Donald Trump] is a billionaire who has fought lawsuits his entire career, and he's never noticed them. He doesn't care. That's why he has lawyers. They can come at him from a hundred levels. He'll just handle a hundred lawyers and say, 'Call me when it's over.'…I don't think he has any fear of the Democrats' ability to investigate.
Tumulty: …What if they subpoena his tax returns?
Gingrich: Then they'll be trapped into appealing to the Supreme Court. And we'll see whether or not the Kavanaugh fight was worth it.
Oh. So that’s what that fight was about? You have to wonder what Chief Justice John Roberts is thinking this morning.
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It's all about the kids, right? First it was Brian Kemp featuring his daughter's date in a shotgun-toting ad. Now Geoff Duncan is spotlighting his youngest son Ryder in a TV spot. Watch here:
The 8-year-old touts his dad's baseball career and asserts he'd do a "pretty good job" as lieutenant governor. The campaign also released his own Twitter feed which, among other things, details instructions for how to get Ryder's autograph.
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Just don't call him Ricky Bobby: Another day, another big name comes to town to boost Stacey Abrams. This time it's actor Will Ferrell, who is headed to Kennesaw State University on Friday to tout the Democrat's campaign for governor. You can find the details here.
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As rough as this race for governor has been, it could be worse. Stone Mountain could be a larger issue, as this piece in The Guardian reminds us. The article is notable for DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond's take on the giant bas relief carving – what it really represents, and why its preservation might matter. Here's the YouTube summary:
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Just FYI, Tucker Carlson of Fox News has begun to take notice of Stacey Abrams and Georgia's race for governor.
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A new internal poll paid for by Lucy McBath's campaign shows the Democrat neck-and-neck with GOP incumbent Karen Handel in the fight for the Sixth District congressional district.
The usual disclaimers about internals apply, but the survey of 400 voters who have yet to cast their ballots has the Roswell Republican leading McBath by only one percentage point and 5 percent of voters undecided. The new poll comes the same week as an independent survey that had Handel polling 4 percentage points ahead of McBath, and a few days after the NRCC announced a large ad buy on Handel's behalf.
One last number that jumped out at us from the poll: 48 percent. That’s the number of respondents who had no opinion about McBath. That’s still notably high for a challenger hoping to knock off an incumbent in 11 days.
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We told you earlier this month of some impatience in rural Georgia when it comes to health care:
Crawfordville, Ga. -- One of Georgia's poorest communities is tired of the waiting, the endless jawing and the ideological hair-splitting.
Taliaferro County, with its population of 1,600 souls and not much else, is about to start up its own government-sponsored health care system. When operations begin next month, it will be headquartered in a double-wide trailer, under the auspices of the local school board.
School Superintendent/principal-of-the-only-school Allen Fort has sent word that the clinic, which will serve not just the school but all county residents, has now opened. Rahu Bali of the Oconee Radio Group has the audio, but we have the photo. That's Fort below, bestowing a little opening-day affection on the project:
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