In case you were unsure, the following qualifies as bad news for a fellow seven months away from a Democratic primary. From our AJC colleagues Johnny Edwards and Mark Niesse:
Audio recordings are involved.
We’ve heard rumblings that certain DeKalb County forces, black and white, Republican and Democrat, have already begun scouting around for an alternative candidate to back in next year’s race for CEO. This morning we’ve come across a small scrap of evidence.
Michael Thurmond's personal Facebook page is a sparse thing, with not much content other than his employment at the law firm of Butler Wooten Cheeley & Peak LLP – whence the former state labor commissioner returned after an emergency stint as superintendent of the DeKalb County school system.
But there is another Facebook page with Thurmond's name on it, though not necessarily under his control – from his 2010 run for U.S. Senate against Republican Johnny Isakson. Someone has posted this image on the page:
The image apparently originated with the Loveless & Beth radio talk show on 87.9FM. And it's worth noting that half of that duo, Beth Cope, is a sometimes Democratic operative in Atlanta and elsewhere.
State leaders are in a tight spot over the explosive report over DeKalb Interim CEO Lee May.
Yesterday we told you that Gov. Nathan Deal ordered the GBI to review the bombshell report urging May to resign. Deal appointed May to the post in 2013 after Burrell Ellis, the then-CEO, was indicted on corruption charges. It's unclear whether he has the authority to oust him.
Attorney General Sam Olens went a different route. He said in a statement that the allegations in the DeKalb report are outside of his jurisdiction. Whether this is so or not depends upon your interpretation of this section of state law (emphasis ours):
(a) The Attorney General, as head of the Department of Law and as chief legal officer of the state, is authorized to institute and conduct investigations at any time into the affairs of the state; or of any department, board, bureau, commission, institution, authority, instrumentality, retirement system, or other agency of the state; or into the affairs of any person or organization to the extent that such person or organization shall have or shall have had any dealings with the state or any department, board, bureau, commission, institution, authority, instrumentality, retirement system, or other agency of the state.
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Neurosurgeon and Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson announced a 32-member "national medical coalition" today, including Chris Leggett of Canton. A leading cardiologist, who like Carson is African-American, Leggett was honored by the Georgia Legislature in 2002.
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U.S. House Speaker-in-waiting Kevin McCarthy might have stepped in it by touting the special committee on Benghazi's work in damaging Hillary Clinton's poll numbers, in an effort to show a conservative win for the U.S. House. (As opposed to its stated noble purpose of getting to the bottom of four American deaths.)
Democrats tried to keep this story alive on Thursday by blasting out individual press releases urging the Republican members of the committee leave their posts. Among them is Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Coweta County. Said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Jermaine House in a release dripping with righteous outrage:
"Congressman Lynn Westmoreland originally claimed that this Committee was for the purpose of investigating a terrorist attack, and it is now clear that its goal was political dirty work instead. Taxpayers in Georgia deserve better and Congressman Lynn Westmoreland should immediately terminate his membership on the House Select Benghazi Committee."
Westmoreland, as you might imagine, is declining to take the DCCC's advice:
"Well, the DCCC proved what I said. I said it didn't matter what was said, that the DCCC would say it was political no matter what - and then they used my statement where I said it was NOT political, claiming it was political."
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Somebody is fibbing, in Rome or the U.S. From the Washington Post:
The statement, issued by the Rev. Federico Lombardi, Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, said it was not a "real audience," suggesting that she was among a group that gathered to greet him and send him off.
And yet the Associated Press reports another version of the visit:
He says Vatican personnel initiated contact with Davis' camp on Sept. 14 saying the pope wanted to meet her. He says Vatican security picked up her and her husband up from their Washington hotel and brought her to the Vatican embassy. He says Vatican officials told her to change her hairstyle so she wouldn't be recognized since they wanted the encounter kept secret.
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