Archive for November, 2012

This time, they chose a chamber suited to their numbers.

After the 2010 election, Democratic members of the House gathered in their huge chamber, dwarfed by a space that emphasized their shrinking numbers.

On Monday, they gathered in the room at the state Capitol used by the 56-member state Senate. The 59-member House caucus filled the room quite snugly.

The occasion was the election of officers for the caucus, which two years ago was also a debacle. Shortly after being elected chairman of the Democratic caucus, state Rep. Doug McKillip of Athens switched parties and declared himself a Republican. (He was defeated in this summer’s GOP primary.)

There was the odd reference to the fleeing of white lawmakers to GOP trenches. “I’ll never leave this ship,” declared Scott Holcomb of Atlanta, who just survived a tough Republican challenge and was a candidate for chief deputy whip.

But the big surprise was a challenge to the House Democratic leadership team. Minority Leader Stacey …

Continue reading House Democrats shake up their leadership team »

We’ve entered the period for thoughtful responses to last week’s woodshedding of the Republican party in the presidential sweepstakes.

In the take-my-ball-and-go-home category, we have the news that 20 petitions have been lodged with the White House website, seeking the peaceful withdrawal of certain states from the Union. Georgia, of course, is among them.

Most of them contain the same language:

As the founding fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from …

Continue reading A White House petition to allow Georgia’s peaceful withdrawal from Union »

This bit of intelligence, from Buzzfeed, concerns an obscure, internal GOP fight that could help determine the clout of the tea party movement within Congress:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Tom Price, a key conservative in the House and favorite of outside conservative activists, rejected an offer from Speaker John Boehner under which Price would drop his bid for elected leadership in return for a ceremonial spot at the table — so long as he swore fealty to Boehner’s speakership.

According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, Boehner approached the Georgia Republican with the offer hoping to circumvent an ugly fight between Price and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers over chairmanship of the House Republican Conference….

….According to these sources, Boehner offered to make Price chairman of the Elected Leadership Council, the group of GOP leaders that runs the party in the House…But Boehner’s proposal came with a catch — Price would have to swear loyalty to leadership and …

Continue reading Tom Price rejects House speaker’s offer to avoid fight »

My father, who will turn 89 in a few days, left high school early for the U.S. Army, six months before Pearl Harbor.

Though none of them were born in this country, four of the seven Galloway brothers would scatter themselves across the globe during World War II. Dad was the youngest, and the only one to carry a sketch book.

He’s the only one left.

As an Air Corps mechanic, he started in north Africa, then moved on to India for flights across the Hump into China.

The cartoonist Bill Mauldin was something of a hero. Lined notebook paper would do in a pinch. Above is a rescued drawing from Dad’s return trip in ‘45. That lump in the background is the Rock of Gibraltar.

In the upper right hand corner are traces of a laundry list written on the other side — a brief catalog of one young warrior’s requirements for conquering the world: Four undershirts, four shorts, two handkerchiefs, two dress shirts, four pairs of socks, and two coveralls.

He was an amateur photographer, too. We …

Continue reading Going home »

Former Republican presidential candidate (and Neal Boortz successor) Herman Cain says it’s time for real conservatives to start a third party, according to a YouTube clip getting attention this weekend. Listen here:

Said Cain:

“I never thought that I would say this, and this is the first time publicly that I’ve said it: We need a third party to save this country. Not Ron Paul and the Ron Paulites. No. We need a legitimate third party to challenge the current system that we have, because I don’t believe that the Republican Party – although I ran as a Republican, I have been voting Republican for decades — has the ability to rebrand itself against the mainstream media machine that blatantly works to support this president and other liberals, and works, blatantly, to tarnish the brand of what the Republican party stands for.

The former pizza executive figures that it’s possible to link up with a few other people uncomfortable with President Barack Obama:

There are just as many …

Continue reading Herman Cain: Time is ripe for a third political party »

The shrinking white vote that doomed Mitt Romney on Tuesday has sparked a sobering national debate over who should be allowed inside an expanded Republican tent – and what the invitations should look like.

According to exit polling, white voters made up 72 percent of the U.S. electorate, another step in a well-documented decline.

We won’t have a racial breakdown of the statewide vote for several weeks. But among all those registered, white voters for the first time made up less than 60 percent of the Georgia electorate.

With the right candidate, some Democrats think Georgia can be a player in the 2016 presidential contest. Realistic contention in a race for governor could require more time – though not much.
Georgia, like the rest of the country, is quickly entering a period in which every demographic group will have to form an alliance with another if it is to succeed politically.

So what can be done to extend the 10-year Republican reign in Georgia? Curiously, the first move …

Continue reading How Ga. Republicans might hold off a demographic decline »

Several thousand residents of Georgia would rather see a dead scientist in Congress than a fellow who declares evolution and such to be lies from the pit of hell, According to this morning’s Athens Banner-Herald:

Charles Darwin, the 19th-century naturalist who laid the foundations for evolutionary theory, received nearly 4,000 write-in votes in Athens-Clarke County in balloting for the 10th Congressional District seat retained Tuesday by five-year incumbent Republican Rep. Paul Broun….

“I can’t ever remember seeing a (write-in ballot) report that long,” said Athens-Clarke County Elections Supervisor Gail Schrader after releasing the full list of write-in numbers to local media Thursday morning.

Charles Darwin

Broun generated 209,924 votes in his unopposed 10th District contest, so Darwin write-ins could be written off as a small fraction. But those 4,000 votes were only for Broun’s home county of Clarke, where the congressman generated 16,980 votes.

Which means that, in the …

Continue reading Long-dead Charles Darwin gets 4,000 votes in race against Paul Broun »

What do you do if you lose by 35,023 votes? If you’re Republican Mark LaJoye, who was defeated in the Muscogee County sheriff’s race on Tuesday by Democratic incumbent John Darr, you ask for a recount.

From Chuck Williams and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:

Reached this morning, LaJoye said representatives of his campaign were talking with Director of Elections and Registrations Nancy Boren about a recount. He would have to request it before the results are certified by the Board of Elections and Registrations, which is scheduled to happen at a 4:30 meeting today. Two LaJoye representatives met with Boren Thursday afternoon, Boren confirmed.

“Good gracious,” was Darr’s initial response to a possible recount. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

Clearly, somebody has evidence of 35,023 hanging chads. Wait – electronic voting doesn’t produce chads. Clearly, somebody has evidence of 35,023 badly misinformed voters.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

For instant updates,

Continue reading Your only recourse after a 35,000-vote defeat: Recount! »

A newly re-elected President Barack Obama will make a White House appearance early this afternoon to set the tone for negotiations with House Republicans on avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff.

But no pressure. Certainly not from U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, one of the leaders of a bipartisan approach to tackling the question of spending cuts and revenue increases. From an interview with Chambliss in today’s Washington Post:

”I was watching the news this morning and looking at Greece. That’s exactly where we’re headed. There are riots in the streets. It’s either going to be done by us, using this opportunity we have now, or the people we sell our bonds to are going to [respond]. You could see riots in the streets of the United States if we don’t do this right. We have the opportunity right now, and it’s imperative that we do, primarily through a $4-5 trillion package over 10 years.”

***
Several thousand residents of Georgia would rather see a dead scientist in Congress than a …

Continue reading Your daily jolt: ‘You could see riots in the streets,’ says Saxby Chambliss »

After a signing ceremony for a Veterans Day proclamation, Gov. Nathan Deal held a first post-election scrum with reporters.

Among the topics: The Atlanta Falcons’ drive to replace the 20-year-old Georgia Dome with a new $1 billion facility with a retractable roof. The governor will have to sign, and the Legislature approve, an increase in the bonding capacity of the Georgia World Congress Authority.

Deal was asked about hints that the Falcons have been dropping, that leaving the city – perhaps for Los Angeles – might be an option. Should people in Atlanta be concerned? the governor was asked. Replied Deal:

”I don’t know how to answer that question, because nobody has suggested that’s an option that’s on the table now. I did meet with the commissioner of the NFL, Mr. [Roger] Goodell, and met with the authorities of the Atlanta Falcons this week. We had a good meeting. We had a good discussion….

That really is an issue that addresses itself to the Legislature, and I’m sure there …

Continue reading Nathan Deal: Falcons need to make case for a new stadium »