Archive for the ‘George Wallace’ Category

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle apparently survived another attempt to circumscribe his authority over the state Senate this morning.

As previously reported, there was an attempt on Monday to insert language into a resolution on the Senate consent agenda that would have given President pro tem Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, control of the Senate committee that holds the chambers purse-strings.

Say-so over the money, means say-so over staff. And that’s important.

But Cagle refused to call the item to a vote, and a days’ worth of backroom strategizing followed. (The exact wording of the Monday proposal remains a mystery. For some reason — no doubt a Senate staffer obsessed with recycling — all copies have disappeared.)

A morning meeting of the Senate Republican caucus stretched into overtime while a compromise was hashed out.

Under the measure that was approved by a 37-16 vote today, Williams indeed wins the chairmanship of the Committee on Administrative Affairs. But Cagle retains a majority …

Continue reading Casey Cagle wins an obscure but important tiff over redistricting »

Former Gov. Roy Barnes greeted by friends and supporters. Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com

Eight minutes into his chatty encounter with reporters last week, but before he announced his attempt at a comeback, former Gov. Roy Barnes apologized to the voters who removed him from office in 2002.

“I realized that I was impatient, and that I had an aggressive agenda,” Georgia’s last Democratic governor said. “I didn’t take time to explain why I thought certain issues were important.”

To teachers in particular, the former governor said his mistakes had been of the head and not the heart.

To the rest of us, the Marietta attorney and Methodist church-goer noted, “The law, as well as the Gospel, allows a place for repentance.”

But voters are a tribunal with their own rules, and can be more unforgiving than the Old Testament or any hanging judge. Neither you, me, nor Roy Barnes knows what their verdict will be.

To see a defeated governor of Georgia make a comeback is rare enough. Gene …

Continue reading Before the campaign, an apology »