Safe as Houses

I think it's safe to say that tomorrow's Organized Tea-mper Tantrum Day is going to be one fantastic, comical train wreck to watch - made even more entertaining by the Georgia Libertarian Party working to throw the Republicans under the bus (wonder how much coverage that'll get on Fox News) - but I don't think we can do enough justice to the absurdity of this whole charade.

The catch phrase for the big day is that the 5,000 or so folks who gather tomorow will show that they are a 'silent majority no more' ... which, of course, flies in the face of logic and all sorts of statistical information and polling data. For instance, President Obama actually, you know, won the election last year by 10 million votes. And he's got approval ratings in the high 60s and low 70s (dragged down only by Southern disapproval). There's also the most recent Gallup poll that showed the highest approval numbers for taxation since the 1950s.

I mean, last time I checked a majority meant you had more than the other side.

Am I crazy or does that not seem to be the case here?

Funny ... and awesome.

Just a friendly self-promotion regarding my local blog.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

A bit of friendly advice for the David Poythress camp ...

Chill. The. Hell. Out.

Listen, you don't need to get all completely bent out of shape every time any one not affiliated with your camp says the words 'Georgia' and 'governor' in the same sentence. I mean, Rep. DuBose Porter's announcement was barely an hour old when you began slinging mud his way.

That's not rapid response. That's irrational reactions.

While I still think Poythress has tons of potential as a candidate, as of late, the only thing I've seen trickling out of his camp is baseless attacks against fellow Democrats and bizarre toutings of campaign work that is so ordinary and commonplace I don't know why you'd want to brag about it.

Put simply, this whole campaign has felt rather amateurish as of late.

You've been advocating for their ability to reach out to McCain Republicans in Georgia, their campaign has started to look a lot like John McCain's ill-fated venture last fall ... dramatically and reactively lurching from attack to attack, from position to position, in an attempt to win the news cycle.

Roy Barnes tosses in a throw-away quote in an online article, and you respond with a press statement that perpetuated the non-existent story.

Thurbert Baker announces for governor, and - according to various folks I spoke with - you began contacting any Democrat who had an issue with the Attorney General's office to get gossip on him.

And now you're criticizing Porter for, well, daring to vote in a progressive manner while in the Georgia House and threatening to attack him from the right during the campaign.

There are good people helping out Poythress, and he seems like a good man. But if he doesn't get his campaign under control and, you know, relax, this whole thing is gonna fizzle out before it ever gets started.

In the next few days, a lot of things regarding our electoral prospects in 2010 will begin to sort themselves out. Folks will officially announce for governor and various other statewide offices from both sides of the aisle, and what seems like the perpetual campaign will roll on.

So, again, one last time I'm going to ask someone a very simple, but very big question ...

Rep. DuBose Porter, will you please not run for governor?

Read more: Dear DuBose ...

I gave Sen. George Hooks some grief last week, but I give him ample praise for a priceless quote in this solid article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recapping the legislative session ...

When state lawmakers drove away from the Capitol early Saturday, they left many Georgians facing the possibility of higher property taxes this fall and the prospect of higher utility bills in the future.

They left students facing likely increases in tuition at universities and colleges. And they left metro Atlanta residents with the likelihood that MARTA service will be cut.

In a state that is seeing record foreclosures and unemployment, lawmakers left town Saturday morning giving average Georgians, at best, a mixed bag of legislation. At worst, what they did will wind up costing Georgians more money when they can least afford it.

Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus), the dean of the Senate and a legislative historian, said the priorities seemed to be off throughout the 2009 session.

“The little man behind the plow, as we say in South Georgia, got very little this session,” Hooks said. “They are certainly no better off.”

Lord, the Georgia Senate is dense.

I'm mulling over exactly how the nation's first former non-profit-executive-director-turned-president is actively waging a war designed to undermine non-profit organizations. I'm assuming it takes the time of mental gymnastics that assumes he's also not an American citizen, but whatever ...

Granted, I think Newt Gingrich's accusations that somehow amending tax policy regarding charitable deductions for the wealthiest income earners is tantamount to the first step in removing the Constitutional right to worship, but, again, whatever ...

I think President Obama's response kinda puts the whole thing in perspective ...

I'm assuming that that shouldn't be the determining factor as to whether you're giving that $100 to the homeless shelter down the street.

I'm gonna break with the company line on the local level, but, in a weird way, adhere to the company line on the national level (thus proving how silly I think this whole thing is).

But I've never really understood why we employ a rather undemocratic method to pass legislation in a democracy. The filibuster, though earnestly set up to protect the rights of the minority party, has never made sense to me because, by in large, it seems to be used primarily by a group of unpopular people to block the passage of incredibly popular ideas.

It seems rather backward to me that we have roughly 55 or 56 senators, a clear majority, willing to pass significant legislation regarding climate change, and that we probably have 57 to 58 senators eager to pass significant health care reform - all of them merely acting on the requests of the majority of Americans - and they can't get it pushed through because of a handful of folks.

Just because you have philosophical disagreements with a piece of legislation doesn't mean you should get the right to hold an entire agenda hostage.

I remember thinking this as well when Republicans were trying to get a handful of nominees appointed to various positions in the federal court system, and Democrats blocked them. Again, 'yay' for stopping bad judges, but 'boo' for doing it in what I feel is a preposterous way. The way you get judges you want is by winning elections (something Democrats began doing in gangbuster fashion in 2006).

And that leads me to the 2/3 majority rule that exists in the Georgia House of Representatives when it comes to budgetary and taxation issues. Yes, it's enabled a minority Democratic Party to block some really awful ideas coming from the Hosue Republicans - and, for that, I'm grateful - but I've never really been comfortable with it. A ruling party - one that holds a 10-plus seat advantage - that is able to tally 90-plus votes on a piece of legislation, ought to be able to have that thing passed into law.

It just seems ridiculous to me.

Folks here know that, of the two existing plans currently being debated right now, that I lean toward the statewide one-cent sales tax. I've conceded it's not the best approach, but it's the better one of the two out there.

All that said ... there ain't nothing happening with this transporation discussion.

The Senate isn't going to budge one iota because doing so would mean that Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle's plan didn't survive, which means he couldn't stick that feather in his cap when he seeks the governor's office next year. As a result, they're offering ridiculous arguments against the compromise proposed by Rep. Vance Smith ...

Smith asked if the Senate had any intention of presenting some kind of a compromise to its position, as the House had done. The House offered a bill that would propose a statewide referendum for the penny sales tax. If that failed, it would fall back on the Senate’s regional approach. 

Mullis called the House compromise “smoke and mirrors” and told Vance with all due respect, “You’re not giving us anything.”  That is because the voters would still need to decide on the regional approach in another referendum. The process could delay funding for five years, said Sen. Kasim Reed (D-Atlanta).

Why Senate Democrats didn't recognize the politics behind this whole thing is beyond me, and why Reed - like Sen. George Hooks before him - felt the need to get Cagle's back on this absolutely baffles me.