The lessons of Arizona, Mississippi for Georgia Republicans
On Tuesday, state lawmakers will begin submitting bills for their colleagues’ consideration in January, when the Legislature returns to Atlanta.
We are entering an election year, which means more than a few of the measures will be intended to stir the blood and drive GOP voters to the polls in November.
But stir the blood too much and the patient revolts. Votes in Arizona and Mississippi last week may have set boundaries for Republicans in Georgia when it comes to two hot topics: Abortion and illegal immigration.
Let’s address the more subtle of the pair first: Last Tuesday, voters ousted Republican Russell Pearce, president of the Arizona state senate and architect of that state’s illegal immigration law — which became a model for Georgia’s HB 87, passed earlier this year.
Opponents of state attempts to enforce federal immigration laws called Pearce’s defeat a victory. But Pearce was replaced by another Republican who also supports Arizona’s approach. Reports from the Southwest indicate that the difference between the two candidates was one of tone.
Pearce came across as sharp, mean-spirited and heedless of the consequences of his legislation. At least that’s the warning that some GOP lawmakers in Georgia have taken to heart.
“Both sides need to lay aside their ideology,” said House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, who will be in charge of rousting that chamber’s votes for Republican causes next year.
Lindsey voted for HB 87 last year, and says there’s no chance that the GOP-controlled Legislature will back away from the measure.
But Lindsey was one of several Republican legislators given tours of south Georgia farms where crops were left to rot this summer — after migrant workers fearful of arrest fled the state.
Republicans do not want an alienated south Georgia.
An attempt to create a guest worker program is likely next year, he said. Such things usually require coordination with — and approval from — the federal government. But the symbolism could be important.
“If my friends in south Georgia want to see us try to put the cart before the horse, to show the federal government that we’re serious about a guest worker program, we’ve more than happy to take a look it,” Lindsey said. “I think the state probably needs to show its willingness to run with it once the feds are willing to give us that leeway.”
Last month, state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, a Republican, testified at a U.S. Senate hearing endorsed a “penalty-based work authorization permit” for illegal immigrants already here.
Would Lindsey’s House colleagues consider that idea? “I don’t know,” the House whip said. “That’s something that needs to be put on the table, along with a lot of others I’ve heard.”
Mississippi is another matter. Voters there were presented with a proposed amendment to that state’s constitution that would have declared life to begin at fertilization. All abortions would have been banned, some birth control methods would have been made illegal, and physicians and the use of in vitro fertilization would have been curtailed.
The amendment, designed as a vehicle to overturn Roe v. Wade, was rejected by 58 percent of some of the most conservative voters in the country. Similar legislation — under the name of “the Human Life Amendment” — has been rejected by House GOP leaders in Georgia. Tuesday’s results in Mississippi are likely to reinforce that decision, especially as a means of driving GOP voters to the polls.
“Certainly we’re going to listen to our caucus,” said Lindsey, who has chaired hearings on the issue. “But the same concerns I had about the Human Life Amendment I still have today. I believe it has a lot of unintended consequences.”
Moreover, Lindsey said the proposed amendment splits the pro-life movement. The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta is among the opponents. “I don’t want to see another civil war break out among pro-life organizations in Georgia,” he said.
Dan Becker, on the other hand, thinks the war needs to be fought — as a revolt against the “tired arguments of timing that the pro-life leadership has been putting out there for the last 24 years.”
Becker is president of Georgia Right to life, and sits on the board of directors of Personhood USA — one of the groups behind the proposed Mississippi amendment.
Two Georgia lawmakers, one in the House and one in the Senate, are prepared to drop legislation to renew the fight here, Becker said.
The lesson of Mississippi, the GRTL leader said, is that the implications of the measure needed to be spelled out beforehand, in legislation that would accompany it. To ease legitimate concerns and combat illegitimate ones.
“We have 50 sections of the Georgia Code being worked on right now. That will determine what will and won’t happen,” Becker said. “We won’t have doctors prosecuted for ectopic pregnancies. Women will not be prosecuted for miscarriages. Passports will not be issued to the pre-born.”
A constitutional amendment requires two-thirds passage in the House and the Senate. “That’s not going to happen without the leadership being in favor of it,” Becker concedes. “We’re cognizant of that. We’re in it for the long term.”
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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130 comments Add your comment
double
November 13th, 2011
12:45 pm
Honested going off subject.I like your opinions.If this super committee don’t come to an agreement on spending cuts before the 23rd.What happends?If they do, and congress dosent pass what happends?If not made law what happends.If made law what happends?
hiram bronson granbury
November 13th, 2011
12:50 pm
Rick said…
“If illegal aliens were more dispersed throughout the country, even more US citizens would be outraged.”
It is a relative issue. I can say with confidence that the vocal illegal alien advocates here haven’t been personally impacted by their presence. I have.
During the late real estate bubble, when banks were issuing no-doc mortgages to literally anyone with a pulse, and giddy real estate agents were discovering the huge profitability of blockbusting, solid middeclass neighborhoods were laid to waste all over Dalton.
During that period, I came home from work one day to discover that the house next door had been sold to Hispanics, and intially thought that the 12 cars parked all over the lawn were just the moving party, and were temporary. I was wrong. I estimate that between 15 and 20 people moved into a three bedroom, two bath house, with a septic system designed for a single family. Needless to say, within months, I took a substantial loss, and moved from the home that I had planned to remain in for several more years.
I was fortunate to have the resources to absorb the finacial loss, but thousands of people around Dalton were trapped. When the bubble burst, and the carpet mills tanked, hundreds of these Hispanic boarding houses were foreclosed on, and are now empty. Today, Dalton looks like a war zone.
Needless to say, I have zero sympathy for farmers in South Georgia, and I am sick of hearing about only that facet of the story. It is apparent that the media is as complicit as the employers and lowlife politicians.
double
November 13th, 2011
1:14 pm
HBG get a Taco Bell Franchise.Make lemonade.
DannyX
November 13th, 2011
1:39 pm
“HBG get a Taco Bell Franchise.Make lemonade.”
LOL!
fire eater
November 13th, 2011
2:55 pm
Lesson from Arizona…beware of RINO’s heavily funded by pro-immigration forces…Pearce may take on this character in a REPUBLICAN primary next year…Democrats were able to vote in the recall.
Real conservatives should read Pat Buchanan’s new bestseller, “Suicide of a Superpower.” Pat pulls no punches in identifying the folks who are responsible for flooding our country with third world immigrants. Unlike the mindless optimistic moo shoveled out from neocon Faux News, Pat sees a grim future for America unless middle Americans mobilize now.
The “usual suspects” down at the ADL have condemned his book as “hate” and “bigotry.” No opinion from them on the truth of his accusations, just demands that he be removed from MSNBC.
Ol' Timer
November 13th, 2011
3:04 pm
The last thing in the world the Republican/Tea Party wants to be in angry and mean-spirited. Unfortunately, they haven’t conveyed that message to Canter, Ryan, Boehner and McConnell. But, they have a year to do a make-over.
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
4:02 pm
Why are all the extremists yelling?
GT/MIT
November 13th, 2011
4:17 pm
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
4:02 pm
“Why are all the extremists yelling?”
I don’t know Liz, you tell me, why are you yelling????
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
5:13 pm
Capital letters, GT/MIT. Capital letters.
GT/MIT
November 13th, 2011
5:31 pm
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
5:13 pm
“Capital letters, GT/MIT. Capital letters.”
You know Liz. my pseudonym is indicative of proper nouns that are usually capitalized. You have a problem with the written English word??
Smoke
November 13th, 2011
6:15 pm
Someone may have answered, but didn’t the GOP tell us “fence first?” It must not be working too well since Cain wants to electify it. Since he is against solar energy, how does he propose to pay the energy bill? What’s that about not meeting a promise?
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
6:36 pm
Evidently, GT/MIT, you are not aware that capital letters used in text is yelling or shouting. Please note the the previous pages have an “extreme”-ly large amount of shouting.
GT/MIT
November 13th, 2011
6:50 pm
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
6:36 pm
“Evidently, GT/MIT, you are not aware that capital letters used in text is yelling or shouting. Please note the the previous pages have an “extreme”-ly large amount of shouting.”
Your kidding right Liz?? Well you are only attacking my name and not my philosophy, so I guess that’s a plus, ah, I guess.
GT/MIT
November 13th, 2011
7:07 pm
Enter your comments here
Georgia Institute of Technology/Massachutsetts Institute of Technology
November 13th, 2011
7:17 pm
LizBeth, Having given some thought to your comments, and not wishing to seem flippant in my responses, I have spelled out my pseudonym thereby reducing to number of capital letters in hopes that you will find it less offensive. However its just too darn long so you’ll just have to learn to live with GT/MIT
honested
November 13th, 2011
8:02 pm
double,
Pardon the delay.
The ’supercomittee’ is a sham.
The ‘cuts’ won’t go into effect until 2013 and would be easily eliminated by whatever lame duck Congress exists after the 2012 election. No real pressure, just election talking points.
The main thing I want to see occur is NO EXTENSION of the failed shrub tax cuts. Our national budget was nearing a real equilibrium (minus the Afghan fiasco off budget costs and every penny associated with the Iraqi War of Choice) until shrub/cheney decided to radically reduce Federal revenue with no corresponding cuts or requirement for sacrifice to pay for the ill advised military expansion.
Therefore, after revenues have returned to NORMAL and such revenue adjustments are no longer a point of argument, revisit everything about budgeting. Then cut MIC (pointless weapons, offshore basing, mission-less aircraft built in Marietta just to protect the jobs of a couple of Congress midgets and Senators) and get serious about real budget priorities.
Does that approach your question?
double
November 13th, 2011
8:49 pm
Honested. thanks for the reply.I thought mandatory automatic cuts would kick in if no agreement was reached.I need to read again.I know they were looking for ways to avoid big pentagon cuts.
td
November 13th, 2011
9:49 pm
GT/MIT,
Welcome to the JG blogs where a vast majority of the people do not know what a philosophy is and they just think (Dem good, Repub bad). The same people on this blog now saying Obama will win in a landslide are the same people that were on here two years ago stating Barnes would win in a landslide.
double
November 13th, 2011
10:12 pm
I’m gonna sit right down and write my self a letter,and make belief……..
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
10:19 pm
Congratulations, GT/MIT. You’ve got a friend in td. Have fun with that.
Mike H.
November 13th, 2011
10:31 pm
Wow, Jimmie! I’m so glad you’re back and belittling the Republicans again! I think you must have heeded my advice and got your Voodoo doctor to prescribe a much stronger med that even Prozac would pale in comparison to! Great too, that all your socialist loonies are back on line, too. Keep up the good work and keep the Al Jezerra Chronicle tops in its class(less) newspaper rankings.
Pellet Mill
November 14th, 2011
2:51 am
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November 14th, 2011
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Bond
November 14th, 2011
9:11 am
TD wrote:
“How can you be pro life and pro death penalty at the same time?
That is an easy one, the death penalty is the consequences one has to pay for maliciously taking anothers life.”
This response gives away the sole moral ground upon which pro life advocates stand. That is, only God can give or take life. Once you start down the slippery slope of justification, then all you have is the substitution of man’s will for God’s.
To elaborate, if you can justify killing for a crime, it’s merely a justification. That means you would not be prevented from other justifications – say “women should have control over their own bodies”
This post is not intended to express an opinion on the abortion or death penalty issue. It is only to illuminate the flaws in the argument of the previous post.
GT/MIT
November 14th, 2011
9:58 am
LizBeth
November 13th, 2011
10:19 pm
“Congratulations, GT/MIT. You’ve got a friend in td. Have fun with that”
Golly Liz, you just never quit do you? Even dogs need sleep, no offense intended. As I suspected, from the content of your post I notice you do have a problem with the written word, albeit a slight one.
Oh and by the way, were you shouting at me?
Americana
November 14th, 2011
4:14 pm
It is noboby’s place to tell a woman what to do with her own body in regards to abortion. The GOP needs to get their noses out of peoples personal lives and stop trying to dicate social issues. We are Americans, and can do as we please. Its none of their business. As for illegals, any group that tries to stop enforcement of the laws, aid or protect illegals is traiterous to this country. Illegals are criminals who need to be deported. Legislatures should cut off ALL benefits to illegals and their anchors!
SlipKnot
November 14th, 2011
4:28 pm
To excuse execution and not abortion makes the abortion issue political and not moral.
Occupy the open thread | Blog for Democracy
November 15th, 2011
2:29 am
[...] From Galloway’s keyboard to God’s ear. Today lawmakers start submitting bills. Let’s hope they’ve taken something from The lessons of Arizona, Mississippi for Georgia Republicans [...]
common sense
November 15th, 2011
11:12 am
Anybody else think it’s funny that the right wing is so gung-ho over “personhood” from conception but so hateful toward illegal immigrants and anyone else they deem unworthy? Gays, liberals, etc. They have personhood too, correct? I mean, that’s the theory – personhood from the moment of conception, because ALL human life is sacred.
Ohhhh – I get it, you all think only the good white folks’ lives are sacred….
Second verse, same as the first.
RickHed
November 16th, 2011
5:14 am
When people stand up to injustice, a few will fall. Peace was pushed out by big money. The people in Arizona still support the laws, and America still wants out immigration laws enforced.
According to US law, a person who commits a felony cannot be a guest worker (visa) or resident (green card). In order to work here illegally multiple felonies were committed.
With our servicemen coming home, you explain to them how illegal alien guest workers took their jobs in the non agriculture fields.