On a balmy Thursday morning last month, former state Sen. Jason Carter ducked into Gov. Nathan Deal's office for a quiet meeting between two once-bitter rivals.
Much has changed since Carter lost his campaign to oust Deal a year ago. He has returned to his law practice, prepared to take his grandfather's position as chair of the Carter Center's board and, at the time of the meeting, was about to embark on a journey to Myanmar to monitor that nation's historic first elections.
Neither Deal or Carter would talk about what transpired during that 30 minute confab on Oct. 22. But Deal spokeswoman Jen Talaber managed to say this much with a straight face:
"Following the election the two agreed to open communication and dialogue. In some cases, those are simply empty words. But not with the Deal administration. The two had an informative and productive meeting. But we don’t comment on the subject of private meetings."
That doesn't stop us from speculating. Their reunion came just days after Democratic state Rep. Scott Holcomb said he would join with Republicans to support legislation that would abolish the DeKalb chief executive position. The explosive corruption report urging interim CEO Lee May to resign was the impetus.
Deal endorsed that proposal two days before his meeting with Carter, who remains very much involved in DeKalb politics and a close ally of Holcomb. It wouldn't be surprising if he were trying to broker some sort of compromise over how to handle the fate of the position.
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