Fresh Political Pickins From The Peach State

14 days till the GOP can put behind it the worst period in its history since the 1964 Civil Rights filibusters. Even Richard Nixon didn’t leave the country and his party in this bad a shape when he resigned in disgrace.

I’ve often heard and used the phrase “Worst President since Carter (or Nixon, LBJ, FDR)”. In the future, bad Presidents will be held up to the standard of crappieness set by George W. Bush.

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. . .Not less than two minutes ago, the Vice President of the United States swore in Saxby Chambliss for a second six-year term as a member of the United States Senate.

Chambliss was escorted to the rostrum by fellow Georgian Johnny Isakson where he raised his right hand and repeated the oath administered to him by Dick Cheney.

In the House of Representatives, none of Georgia’s congressional delegation has been sworn in yet but I’m told they will be shortly.

Unless Paul Broun isn’t on the House floor, we’ll finally be able to put to rest the question of whether he was sworn in (and hopefully end the dumb jokes on that subject).

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In less than a week the State Legislature will return to Atlanta (run for your lives!). In addition to the new laws that will be considered, many Legislators will consider their own political futures. Several officials have made their intentions known, but many others have not. I thought it might be fun to throw some names out there for consideration:

GOP Governor: We know about Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and Insurance Commissioner Oxendine. Will SoS Karen Handel jump in? How about Herman Cain? Who else might jump in?

Dem. Governor: David Poythress is out there and many think former Gov. Roy Barnes may attempt a comeback. How about Rep. Dubose Porter? Anyone else?

GOP Lt. Governor: Senators Eric Johnson and David Shafer are both running hard. I doubt anyone else gets in this race. Agree?

Dem. Lt. Governor: I haven’t heard any names. Who’s out there? Surely a Democrat Senator wants this job.

Secretary of State: If Karen Handel runs for Governor, who will seek the open seat? I’ve heard of at least one State Rep. who is thinking about it. What are the rumors out there?

Insurance Commissioner: Who will seek this open seat? Again, I know of a State Rep. thinking about it whose name I’m not a liberty to share.

Attorney General/Agriculture/Labor/Education/PSC: Who wants to take on Thurbert Baker/Tommy Irvin/Michael Thurmond/Kathy Cox or a PSC Board Member?

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So saith the Political Insider:

David Poythress, former state adjutant general and now a 2010 Democratic candidate for governor, sent out a note to supporters late Monday, saying he has raised $300,000 for the contest so far.

Among his details:

— “Our average contribution will exceed $800;

— “Nearly 90 percent of our contributions are from in-state;

— “More than $70,000 was raised in December (post U.S. Senate run-off election);

— “Contributions came from a wide cross-section of Georgia, including Republicans, Democrats, unaffiliated voters, north/south/central Georgia, National Guard family members, trial lawyers, labor, teachers and small business owners.”

Poythress’ $300k is small change in a race that is expected to cost several million. But it’s a start.

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No retribution from the Speaker for challenging him.

Richardson told him he won’t lose influence or committee assignments or be exiled to a far-flung office, common punishments for lawmakers who opposed past speakers’ re-election bids, England said.

“He and I sat down and talked in Atlanta, and we’re good,” he said. “He pledged that he’s as ready as we are to work for the people of Georgia, and he won’t punish anyone.”

Benton and England said at the time that they wanted new leadership because Richardson’s aggressive style - he publicly insulted other officials and bullied colleagues into supporting his plan to eliminate property taxes - was counterproductive and distracted from the issues. But Richardson has promised to tone it down, England said.

“I think you’ll see some things smooth out,” he said. “Cooler heads will prevail, hopefully.”

I suspect we’re about to see the Speaker “re-invent” himself, or at least re-tool his image. I hope so.

I do believe that of the major politicians in Atlanta, the Speaker is on the high side of the IQ curve ahead of most. The problem has always been that he knows it. His bullying and personal conduct have tainted the atmosphere up there.

I hope he will tone it down and get things done. I don’t much like being opposed to a guy who does good work. This was the guy who sought out Art Laffer, which means he’s got to be fundamentally solid. He just needs to let that come through more.

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Even Bill Shipp is saying something nice.

Gov. Sonny Perdue collected a state salary of $137,310.24 during the last fiscal year along with $47,206.17 in travel. I know that because I looked him up on a newly-launched website his press office was heralding Monday called the “Transparency in Government” website.

It allows online access to agency expenditures on professional services, employee salaries and travel. Plus, it includes state financial reports and program reviews from the two previous years.

The Open Georgia site is the result of Senate Bill 300, the Transparency in Government Act, sponsored by Sens. Chip Rogers and Chip Pearson. The bill, which was signed by Governor Perdue on May 12, 2008, called for the site to be operational in January 2009. State Rep. Jill Chambers also worked on similar legislation.

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Casey Cagle has chimed in on both issues. He won’t stand in the way of Sunday Sales and he wants a roads plan passed. He’s lining up his issues for his 2010 run.

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He’s standing his ground on this one.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle on Monday shot down plans one lawmaker has to expand the places gun owners in Georgia may legally carry concealed weapons.

Cagle, speaking with reporters at his Capitol office, said he had “no appetite” to revisit the concealed carry law. Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) has been considering a bill that would expand the places where guns would be allowed. The current law bans weapons at places the public gathers, a description that includes churches and college campuses.

The AJC goes on to say Cagle is “emphatic” in his opposition to expanding the law.

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Good grief. Hey, I haven’t really been paying attention to this story all that much. Has anyone screamed racism yet?

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For a communist, Ted Turner sure likes his property.

If you own 45,000 bison, you need a place to put them.

America’s 100 largest landowners are celebrated in the latest issue of The Land Report (the Magazine of the American Landowner), and Captain Outrageous, Ted Turner, is No.1, with 2 million acres in Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, New Mexico, Argentina and Tierra del Fuego.

It’s just the rest of us who should have to fork it over to pay for crap science projects like global warming remediation, etc.

Hey, did anybody see that column at Huffington Post on global warming? Couldn’t believe they’d ever run something like that.

Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that “the science is in.” Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.

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Ahead of schedule, but over budget, it works.

hat first day, as drivers began to whiz along flyover bridges connecting Ga. Highway 316 West to Interstate 85 South and Pleasant Hill Road, Teri Pope’s eyes began to tear.

In October 2007, when the bridges opened, the Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman spent the morning rush hour with a traffic reporter in a helicopter, watching traffic move the way engineers had dreamed.

“It’s made the merge a lot smoother,” Pope said of the $150 million construction project to transform the I-85/Ga. 316 interchange, which began in January 2006.

After three years of lane closures, 209,459 tons of concrete, 720 million pounds of asphalt and 430,000 pounds of reinforcing steel, construction was officially complete on New Year’s Eve 2008. And Pope said officials could not be happier with the results.

“You can tell what good we did because you can go,” Pope said. “Every piece you opened, you could see immediate results.”

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Government economics at work.

Thanks to a steadily tanking economy, the deficit MARTA announced last month grew even worse this month.

In response, fare increases of 25 cents, higher parking fees and service cutbacks as radical as eliminating weekend service are on the table.

“It’s bad,” said MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott. “We’re in one of those real periods of realignment.”

After new economic forecasts, MARTA officials said Monday they expect revenues for this fiscal year to be $10 million less than in their previous projection.

Only public transportation and the post office increase fees and decrease service when the economy goes in the crapper. Of course, the difference is public transportation is never expected to make money, so why bother even trying.

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We need it.

While the moist, gray weather that many areas have been experiencing for the past few days can be depressing, don’t expect to see any improvement in the dismal conditions today.

Not only is the National Weather Service predicting rain, it’s predicting a lot of it today, potentially leading to flooding in several areas.

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Macon’s City Council will consider a matter tonight that the local delegation considers “dead on arrival.”

In short, some members of Macon’s City Council want to divvy up the hotel-motel tax so that the Tubman African American Museum and the Georgia Children’s Museum get an automatic flow of tax dollars without having to go through any annual appropriations process that would keep the accountable.

The Museum of Arts & Sciences in town goes through an annual appropriations process and lays out what it did the prior year, etc. to get money. But for some reason some members of Council think these other museums should not have to be held accountable — never mind that just two years ago the Georgia Children’s Museum was under a federal investigation and had to shut its doors.

In any event, it does not matter. Enough members of the local delegation have told me it is dead on arrival. The issue has to have their approval.

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