Archive for the ‘Jimmy Carter’ Category

Former President Jimmy Carter, 87, is on another book tour, this time to push a collection of his Sunday school lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, combined with biblical text.

Passages are said to include an endorsement of gay marriage, which Carter touched on in this Huffington Post interview:

“Homosexuality was well known in the ancient world, well before Christ was born and Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things -– he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.

“I draw the line, maybe arbitrarily, in requiring by law that churches must marry people. I’m a Baptist, and I believe that each congregation is autonomous and can govern its own affairs. So if a local Baptist church wants to accept gay members on an equal basis, which my church does by the way, then that is fine. If a church decides not to, then government laws …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: ‘Jesus never said a word about homosexuality,’ says Jimmy Carter »

Early last month, during one of an infinite number of committee meetings at the state Capitol, a group of House and Senate members were handed an official estimate of future HOPE scholarship payouts.

It was a breath-taking experience. Literally. Members of the audience could hear the gasps of lawmakers.

Only last year, Gov. Nathan Deal and the Republican-led Legislature, with some Democratic cooperation, revamped the HOPE program in a highly publicized effort to save it, resulting in reduced grants for most students.

The figures handed to lawmakers in January indicated that the program will limp along until the fall semester of 2013 – when HOPE payouts again will have to be reduced to meet the growing number of students who seek and qualify for the scholarships.

But that was only one part of the shock. What really may have knocked the wind out of legislators was the realization that, in coming years, they may be forced to cast vote after vote to reduce the HOPE payout. Not …

Continue reading On returning to a needs-based HOPE scholarship program »

Former President Jimmy Carter, in an interview with Piers Morgan to be aired tonight on CNN, says Newt Gingrich is purposely using the code words of the old segregated South when he talks of a “food stamp president” and the need for the poor to learn how to hold a job:

A partial, quick transcript:

Carter: Gingrich, in the South Carolina debate – I watched the first part of it, watched the first half of it – I think he has that subtlety of racism that I know quite well, and that Gingrich knows quite well, that appeals to some people in Georgia – particularly the right wing.

Morgan: You think he’s doing it deliberate?

Carter: Oh, I think so. He knows as well the words that you use – like welfare mommas and so forth – that have been appealing in the past, in those days when we cherished segregation of the races. So he’s appealing to that in South Carolina, and I don’t think it will pay off in the long run.

Morgan: That’s a pretty serious charge to level at Newt Gingrich – that …

Continue reading Jimmy Carter to CNN: Newt Gingrich using ’subtlety of racism’ »

A fundraising email sent out by the Newt Gingrich campaign last night carried a subject line of “South Carolina or bust” and declared that state’s Jan. 21 primary to be “make or break for this campaign.”

We’ll have to wait until Jan. 22 to see whether that’s so. But Secretary of State Brian Kemp is hoping that the GOP presidential contest will hobble along until March 6.

Because Georgia has emerged as the state to win that day.

Last month, because of continued court wrangling over new district lines, Texas pulled out of Super Tuesday and postponed their presidential primary until April 3. “Their presidential primary serves as their regular primary. They didn’t want to have two elections,” Kemp said.

Texas and its 155 delegates — home to Gov. Rick Perry — would have been the primary target on March 6. Georgia has 76 delegates at stake.

Perhaps just as important, Virginia has sidelined itself by limiting its ballot to Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Other candidates, the state party …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Georgia emerges as the big dog on Super Tuesday »

After months of focus elsewhere, the GOP presidential campaign of Herman Cain is buckling down and establishing an operation in Georgia.

On Saturday, the Cain campaign intends to establish a state headquarters in DeKalb County, just off I-85 inside the perimeter. Cain’s national headquarters has been in a Stockbridge office complex near his home.

The Cain campaign also named as Georgia co-chairs Dave McCleary and Rachel Little, both longtime GOP activists.

Cain intends to make a party of the 11 a.m. opening at 3700 DeKalb Technology Parkway, Atlanta, Georgia 30340. On the guest list, including the candidate: State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, and state Rep. Josh Clark, R-Buford; Republican National Committee member Linda Herren; and radio talk show host Neal Boortz, for whom Cain often subbed on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB.

Update at 10:30 a.m.: GOP chairman Sue Everhart, whose name appeared on the Cain guest list, sends word that she won’t be there — an appearance would …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Herman Cain’s ‘Peach State Travelers’ — don’t call them a Peanut Brigade »

Las Vegas will serve as the venue for yet another Republican presidential debate at 8 p.m. tonight, this time on CNN.

Even as you wade through the cheesy gambling metaphors, remember that you’re witnessing what could be a historic shift in the dynamic of American presidential campaigns – a downgrading of the importance of state-by-state referendums on candidates, in favor of a series of national confrontations.

From Dan Balz and the Washington Post:

The GOP contenders will meet here Tuesday night for their fifth exchange since Labor Day and their eighth of the year. Once considered forums that only occasionally had a real effect on a nomination battle, the debates this year have been the defining feature of the contest.

“For the first time in decades, primary debates aren’t a sideshow, as candidates are using them as a major platform in lieu of early TV ads to project their ideas, personalities and candidacies,” said Jonathan Collegio, communications director for the GOP …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: An 8th GOP debate, and Iowa is still distant »

What with state budget cuts and all, it’s even tough to muster up a guide at the Capitol.

Fortunately, there’s an app for that.

Tim Crimmins, a professor of history at Georgia State University, has developed a free iPhone app that gives you a guided tour of the place — and access to the history that occurred right on the spot, from the three-governors fight of the late 1940s to Jimmy Carter’s declaration in 1970 that the time for racial discrimination in Georgia was over.

It’s perfect for teachers bringing their classes for a look-see at the sausage factory.

And, oh, that video. The app includes this rare news footage of Lester Maddox shoving away black attempts to be served at his restaurant – narrated by Monica Pearson of Channel 2 Action News :

Say you’re in the Capitol rotunda. Punch a few buttons, and you can see Eugene Talmadge lying in state. He died shortly after being elected to yet another term as governor in 1946, setting off one of Georgia’s more unusual struggles …

Continue reading Want to tour the state Capitol? There’s an app for that »

The National Republican Congressional Committee has taken aim at 51 House Democrats – including Savannah’s John Barrow – for their support of a loan program included in the stimulus package that made the Solyndra solar debacle possible.

As Barrow pointed out in this space last week, the New York Times notes that the Georgia congressman is blaming the GOP abandonment of earmarks:

“Congress has not been as good a custodian of the people’s money in the past and as a result of past abuses of the earmarking process, with highly placed members of Congress abusing their incredible influence at the closing stages of the appropriations process,” Barrow said. “The political repercussions of that have been to forswear all earmarks, which is basically Congress abandoning its responsibility to decide how the people’s money gets spent.”

One other argument you’re likely to hear Barrow make: The loan program that allowed Solyndra is the same one that is guaranteeing $8 billion for the …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: GOP tries to paint John Barrow with Solyndra debacle »

My AJC colleague Ariel Hart had a revealing game of cat-and-mouse with Gov. Nathan Deal on Thursday, over the topic of who might replace the exiting Vance Smith as head of the state Department of Transportation:

Q: Do you have a preference for who ought to be the next GDOT commissioner?

Deal: No, I hope that they will come up with someone that’s qualified, and has an experience factor of being able to deal with difficult problems.

Q: Have you suggested anyone to (the DOT board)?

Deal: I have suggested that there may be some existing state employees who might be considered, but this is their decision and we’re going to watch and see what they do.

Q: Would that be Steve Stancil (who is executive director of the Georgia Building Authority)?

Deal: Well, Steve Stancil is someone that we think has done an excellent job in his current position and I think possesses the kind of qualities that you would be looking for.

Q: You suggested him?

Deal: (chuckling) I think I’ll leave it at …

Continue reading Your morning jolt: Nathan Deal on the next DOT chief »

At least in theory, a true baseball fan can root for Boston, but still appreciate – and applaud – the nifty glove work of a Yankee.

The same should apply to politics, though it rarely does.

It is too soon to tell whether state Sen. Jason Carter, D-Decatur, will go as far as his grandfather. But if he does, the nine-minute video clip below – making its way around Democratic circles — will someday be cited as a first sign that he was meant for something more than the farm leagues.

Carter spoke on Wednesday, the final day of the special session that redrew Georgia’s political boundaries. It was probably the best speech of the session and – whether you agree with him or not – deftly, without bombast, laid out the Democratic position in the coming court fight over the meaning of the Voting Rights Act:

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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Continue reading In appreciation of some Democratic glove work »