Blue Guy in Red Land

Sometimes, you find a piece that really expresses exactly what you are
thinking, and there’s no way to improve upon it.  So, here’s a rare
cut/paste job from the NYT.

The New York Times:

COLUMN: Mary Cheney’s Bundle of Joy

By Frank
Rich

Columnist Frank Rich calls Focus on the Family, Family Research
Council
and American Family Association the "axis of family jihadis" and
says
anti-gay politics is losing its ability to woo voters.

Sunday
12.17.06

IT’S not the least of John McCain’s political talents that
he
comes across as a paragon of straight talk even when he isn’t
talking
straight. So it was a surprise to see him reduced to
near-stammering on ABC’s
`’This Week” two Sundays after
the election. The subject that brought him
low was the elephant in the
elephants’ room, or perhaps we should say in
their closet:
homosexuality.

Senator McCain is no bigot, and his only
goal was to change the subject
as quickly as possible. He kept repeating two
safe talking points for
dear life: he opposes same-sex marriage (as does
every major
presidential aspirant in both parties) and he is opposed
to
discrimination. But because he had endorsed a broadly written
Arizona
ballot initiative that could have been used to discriminate
against
unmarried domestic partners, George Stephanopoulos wouldn’t let
him
off the hook.

`’Are you against civil unions for gay couples?” he
asked the
senator, who replied, `’No, I’m not.” When Mr.
Stephanopoulos
reiterated the question seconds later—`’So
you’re for civil unions?”—Mr.
McCain answered,
`’No.” In other words, he was not against civil unions
before
he was against them. His gaffe was reminiscent of a similar
appearance
on Mr. Stephanopoulos’

And I’ll be the country…. Freakin’ hilarious!

Everyone has heard about Senator Tim Johnson’s illness and how it may
affect control of the Senate.  The GOP is playing it cool, trying not
show their giddy delight at the thought that Sen. Johnson could die or
resign, allowing the GOP Governor of SD to nominate a Republican for
the seat and seize control of the Senate.  Sen. McConnell and the
outgoing Queen of the GOP, Ken Mehlman, have released appropriate
statements of good wishes for Sen. Johnson.

However, you know the GOP is salivating, praying that Johnson will at
least be forced to resign, and failing that, that he will join the
Heavenly Father.  You can almost smell the saliva dripping from their
mouths and pooling on the floor. 

I wish Sen. Johnson a speedy and full recovery.  News reports make it
sound like he is progressing nicely, and I hope that continues.  The
American people gave control of the Congress (BOTH houses) to the
Democrats for a reason in November.  To have it all undone because of a
tragic illness would be cruel indeed.

And I thought the GOP hated gays!  Well, they sorta do, at least in
public.  In private, they’ll hire us to do their dirty work.  But that
is not the point of this blog entry.  During the last week, I have read
articles that expose the naked underbelly of hate and fear the GOP is
trying to spread across Georgia in an attempt to solidify their hold on
power. 

First came former Rep. Bob Irvin’s screed
for Buckhead to join Milton County.  The impetus for this plea
allegedly came from the GOTV call from Shirley Franklin, John Lewis,
and Andy Young on behalf of successful Fulton County Chair John Eaves.
That call claimed that if the GOP took over Fulton County’s commission,
the days of fire hoses and attack dogs would return, and civil rights
progress would be undone.  A lot of my friends felt the ad was fine,
and it gave to the GOP as good as they ever give to us.  That’s a good
point, but the ad made me uncomfortable.  While I do think the GOP as a
whole wouldn’t mind undoing the work of Dr. King and the civil rights
movement, I’m not convinced the specific candidates for the Fulton
Commission were in that category.  I also feel that as Democrats, we
should be better than the GOP in all respects.  We need to find ways to
win without sinking to their level.  Perhaps that’s not possible.

What
I did not interpret that add to be saying was that white people are
bad.  The GOP claims that talking about "Republicans" is code for white
folk.  So much for their "diversity" plan, huh?  Last time I checked in
the mirror, I was a white guy AND a staunch Democrat.  A good number of
my friends in the Young Democrat community are also white and in many
respects, more liberal than I am!  So no, "Republican" doesn’t equate
to white.  Republican equates to REPUBLICAN, whatever your color or
creed.

Anyway, ex-Rep. Irvin wants Atlanta city council areas to
be eligible to join the proposed resurrection of Milton County.  After
all, the whole purpose of resurrecting Milton County is to stop rich
white people in Alpharetta from having their tax dollars potentially go
toward services for people whose skin is darker than theirs.  That’s
why the cities of Johns Creek and Milton have been formed.  That’s why
the GOP will propose a constitutional amendment in 2007 to resurrect
Milton County, thereby cutting of 46% of the value of the land of
Fulton County from the rest of the county that is south of the
Chattahoochee.  All for the sake of their perception that their tax
dollars should only go to "deserving" white people.

The whole
reason Irvin wants the city council districts to vote is to get
Buckhead to join Milton, in a first move that he admittedly hopes will
lead to a "city of Buckhead".  Well, shoot, Midtown seems to be
whitening up too, Bobby, so why not annex Midtown too?  Segregration
worked SO WELL the first time we tried it, right?  Why not give it a
second go?

Don’t be fooled.  This whole citihood push for North
Fulton and Dunwoody and the resurrection of Milton County is all about
segregration.  It’s all about walling yourself off from people who
don’t look like you or make the money you do.  And it’s disgraceful.
Yet I fear all this separation will come to pass, which will throw
Fulton into a tailspin since no services will be affordable anymore.
Will it fall to the cities?  Won’t that drive taxes way up?  Of course
it will, but the GOP doesn’t care.  They view this as hurting mostly
poor people who are brown.  "Those people" won’t vote GOP, so what does
it matter? 

The next article
was about Rep. Timothy Bearden of Villa Rica who is pushing a bill that
would prohibit all Georgia cities and counties from issuing documents
and forms in any language other than English.  Bearden ckaims, "They
refuse to learn the language, they refuse to assimilate. And that’s a
very dangerous problem." 

Ohhhhhh, it’s the ominous "they"!
They are here to rape your children, steal your women, and force you to
speak a strange tongue!  They are here to burn Christians at the
stake!  They, They, THEY!    How scary "they" are!  We must stop "them"
before "they" destroy us!

Bearden, he of "let’s vote back in the
Rebel flag" fame, also claims that English is the thread that unites
us.  Perhaps it is, perhaps it is not.  It’s telling though that the
idea of the week from www.georgiaspeaks.com, the GOP idea board, was:
"Public schools should be limited to kids who speak English as their
first language and whose parents speak English as their first
language."  That was Dec. 5’s "creative conservative idea of the
week". 

Immigration is a tough problem, and the system should
be overhauled, but it can only be overhauled by the national
government.  Mean-spirited notions like the ones Bearden supports will
get us no where.  It also sends a message loud and clear to Hispanics,
both legal and illegal, that they are NOT wanted here by the GOP.  They
are NOT welcome here by the GOP, and they will NEVER be "real"
Americans in the GOP’s eyes.

The question that I have is:  will
Georgians buy this?  Will they allow themselves to be manipulated and
fear-mongered into slapping around people who have never done anything
to them?  I used to have faith that the answer would be "no", but the
gay marriage amendment’s passage with 76% of the vote in 2004 changed
that for me.  The GOP was listening then, and that’s why they are doing
these things now.  At what point will it stop?

Will Georgia once again live up to its motto of Truth, Justice, and Moderation?

The Democrats in Congress plan to do the people’s work, including
adequate oversight of the Executive Branch.  This means that Congress
will be session 5 days a week from Monday afternoon to Friday morning.
Under my timekeeping, that’s technically only 4 days of work, but it
sure beats what the GOP Congress has done.   This year, the GOP
Congress met only 103 days, and the federal government is STILL being
run by a "continuing resolution" (i.e. "do what you did last year,
minus the earmarks") and will be run by one until at least February
15.  These jokers have met fewer days than the infamous "do nothing"
Congress of 1947-48.

All this "work" by the GOP earns them
$165,000 a year, official junkets, and lobbyists slobbering all over
them to give them free stuff.  They only met from late Tuesday
afternoon to midday Thursday….if they met at all.  For most of us,
holidays mean an extra day off work.  Not so for Congress.  One day for
mere citizens equates to at least a week for Congress.  The Democrats,
rightly, are putting a stop to it.  And the GOP isn’t happy.

Jack
Kingston (R-Savannah) seems to have been nominated to be official
whiner for the GOP caucus.  In a fit of hysteria, Kingston told the
Washington Post, "Keeping us
up here eats away at families.  Marriages suffer. The Democrats could
care less about families — that’s what this says."

Yes, that’s
exactly what this says.  Democrats are elected to public office, and
they have the audicity to believe that they should put in an honest
work week on behalf of the people who elected them.  Mind you, Kingston
is a guy who sleeps in his damn office to show how "fiscally
conservative" he is.  Many Congresspeople share living quarters to cut
down expenses.  Senators usually move their families since their terms
are 6 years.  Of course, many Congressmen do too.

It’s Jack
Kingston’s problem if his wife refuses to leave the confines of the
greater Savannah area.  You would think that after 14 years in
Congress, they would have discussed living arrangements that would look
after the well-being of their family.  Apparently, since 12 of those
years were spent with the GOP in control, ol’ Jack didn’t have to worry
about it since he only had to show up for a day and a half in DC.

I
have no idea how our fragile Republic survived all those years before
the advent of air travel, telephone, and the internet.  Why, a
Congressman would have to stay in town for an entire session, staying
in touch only through snail mail!  The HORROR!  Of course, back then,
our government was less complex and only needed to meet maybe 6 months
every two years.  Congress is a full time legislature, and it needs to
be full time.  If you don’t like that, then don’t run.  If Jack can’t
hack the new schedule, he can feel free to resign so that someone who
is willing to work for people of GA-1 can actually elect someone who
will gladly do the work he/she asked to do.

Kingston wrote
in today’s AJC that  "last year I hosted 25 town hall meetings
regarding Medicare Part D. The year before that, I held 17 town hall
meetings on Social Security. In addition, I made over 200 speeches and
meetings with veteran groups, farmers, energy, tax, health care,
education and environmental groups. And I met with many individuals who
had problems with the federal government — people who don’t have
business cards and don’t know doctors and lawyers personally. These are
the people who don’t have the lobbyists, the time, or the budgets that
would allow them to come to Washington and meet with me."  Wow, he had
meetings in his district 25 times in a calendar year!  That’s every
other weekend.  I don’t know where he gets the energy to keep up that
schedule!

Being a Representative or Senator to Congress is not
supposed to be easy.  If you have to spend your workweek in DC and
commute home on the weekends, so be it.  And if you truly care about
your district, you will find ways to stay in touch and not lose the
pulse of the people. 

Jack Kingston and his GOP whiners don’t understand that.

I wanted to update you on the latest news from the Young Democrats
of America. The last general meeting was this past weekend in Jackson,
Mississippi with a theme of "Rebuild. Remember. Retake."

Attending
from Georgia were: myself (National Committeeman), Flora Brooke Hesse
(National Committeewoman), Kirk Miller (YDA Rules Chair), Billy Joyner
(YDG President), Benson Manica (YDG Secretary), Kyle Bailey (Atlanta
Stonewall Democrats), and Shelby Highsmith (Atlanta chapter).

Apart
from various trainings on Fundraising, Press Relations, and Voter
Files, panel discussions explored the emerging "religious left" and the
strategy for winning back the South. Former DNC Chair Don Fowler of
South Carolina spoke as did the newly elected House Democratic Whip Jim
Clyburn of South Carolina. At Saturday’s luncheon, we heard from the
leaders of the Mississippi Freedom Democrats party that formed in 1964
as a protest to continued segregration and black voter suppression in
Mississippi. On Saturday evening, a special movie presentation on Iraq
entitled "The Ground Truth" was shown with a discussion afterward with
one of the movie’s stars, US Marine Corporal Sean Huze.

There
was a postmortem on the elections done in the Campaigns Committee, for
which Billy is the deputy chair and I represent the Southeast. Overall,
the campaigns did well, even though Georgia lost its races. There was
plenty of data collected during the campaign, and a professor at the
University of Notre Dame is analyzing the numbers in order to give YDA
a full report by its February meeting. There is the likelihood that
some funds will be available to local chapters in 2007 for use in local
races. If your chapter has contested city elections next year where the
youth vote could make a difference, please let Billy Joyner or myself
know so that we can keep you in the loop as the process for doling out
this money is determined.

In other news, Billy Joyner was
elected the Chair of the State Presidents Association of YDA, which is
a great honor for our fearless leader!

YDA adopted its budget
for the 2007 year, as well as started a restructuring of its charter
and bylaws. The action taken in Jackson included adopting a board
structure with 6 non-YD members elected to 4 year terms. There were
further technical amendments dealing with future national conventions. 

The
next YDA meeting will be in February 2-4 in Washington, DC in
conjunction with Founder’s Day and the Winter DNC meeting. The DNC
meeting starts on Feb 1, and the DNC has promised to get passes to any
YD who wants to attend. As always, any Georgia YD is welcome to attend,
so please let us know if you want to go. We do not know which hotel
will hold the event, but it will likely be within walking distance of
wherever the DNC is meeting. At the DNC meeting, YDA plans to push the
DNC to fulfill its long-neglected promise to include youth in state
delegations for the Democratic National Convention. Since 1980, there
have been no youth participation targets despite being clearly called
for in the rules. YDA would love to have a large turnout to pressure
the DNC to formally include youth in ALL state delegations in 2008.

NATIONAL CONVENTION

Mark
your calendars for July 18-21, 2007!!! The YDA National Convention will
be held in Dallas, TX at the Adams Mark Hotel. For those who have
attended previous conventions in San Francisco (2005), Buffalo (2003),
and Tuscon (2001), you know these conventions are a lot of fun and
great way to get together with YDs from across the nation, settle on a
national YD platform, and elect national officers.

Confirmed
speakers include Hillary Clinton and John Edwards so far. The
convention website will not be up until January, but some financial
details are available for you to start saving your pennies. The Adams
Mark Hotel is the largest hotel in Texas, and for rooms with two queen
size beds, the cost is $125/night (or $31.25/person with 4 people in a
room). For those who want your own room, a king size bed is available
in the Royal Tower for $145/night. Registration will cost $60/person.
American Airlines is offering a 5% discount off airfare for conference
attendees, and if 10 or more people fly Southwest, an unspecified
discount will apply.

With the convention being in Dallas,
we will likely have a driving option for those interested in that. The
downside of Dallas is that in order to maximize Georgia’s votes at the
Convention, we must have 34 people in our delegation. Fundraising will
obviously be key, and YDG will work with local chapters to offset the
costs. The experience of the national convention is worth it, though.
Dallas has world class shopping and entertainment, and it promises to
be a good time for everyone. I hope you will make plans to attend.

This
weekend also featured bizarre jockeying in the clusterfuck that is the
YDA campaign for 2007. We identified no fewer than 9 people who were
claiming to be running for YDA president. One truly surreal episode
involved a candidate my state favors who faced with vociferous threats
from the LGBT caucus that if he didn’t come out, he could forget
running for office.  The odd thing about these comments, other than
their viciousness in tone, was that the candidate about which they
complained is already out! 
He simply had never announced it to people at YDA, and no one had ever
bothered to ask him.   Of course, they all whispered their speculation,
but they didn’t ask the source.  Had they asked him, he would have
simply told them that yes, indeed, he is gay.  In fact, he’s been
living quite openly in a relationship for 4 years now! 

Some might claim he was closeted because he didn’t announce his
sexuality, especially when someone tried to spread a rumor that he was
homophobic, of all things.  Those of us who knew him best had a great
laugh about that, although at the time, none us knew for sure if he was
gay or not.  Some of us suspected, but we really didn’t care.  I knew
where this guy stood, so it didn’t matter much to me.  My initial
impression about the gay whispers was that he’s a metrosexual kind of
guy who didn’t sleep around YDA, so they were saying he was gay.  But
really, had I or anyone else just bothered to ask, he would have told
us. 

Why is it that asking about someone’s sexuality is so taboo?  It’s like
there’s something wrong with being thought of as "gay".  Most people I
know who don’t wear their sexuality on their sleeve, are quite open
when asked.  There are varying degrees of being out, but seriously,
with the candidate in question, you’d pretty much have to be deaf,
blind, and mute to not at least strongly suspect this guy is gay.  He’s
got way too much sense of style to be straight.

For a moment, let’s pretend this guy was deep in the closet despite
being heavily involved in a very gay-friendly organization like YDA.
Normally, I’m all about people taking whatever time they need to come
to grips with their sexuality and to come out on their own terms. I’m
also sensitive to the concerns of my fellow LGBT citizens who don’t
have supportive families or live in areas or have jobs where being out
would threaten their livelihoods. At the same time, I also understand
the vehemence of Democrats who say "HELL to the No!" when it comes to
closet cases in powerful positions.   The closet is truly poisonous,
and it leads to destructive behavior.  At the very least, it’s
self-torture on an emotional level. 

Anyway, people need to understand that the LGBT community is quite
diverse.  Not everyone in it is loudly out, and for many of those
people (including the candidate in question), it’s a non-issue.
There’s no closet, which people would know if they’d ask.   It was
really very silly as far as "controversies" go, and it’s looking like
this candidate will end up as the #2 on a ticket that is being put
together.   The fact remains, #1 or #2 on the ticket, this guy is
openly gay and has been for quite some time. 

The gay bar in Jackson was a sad, sad place. But we managed to make
it fun even though it was "bring your own liquor". Kyle gave a dance
performance on stage Saturday night to rival just about any gay club in
the country! No really scandalous hook-ups occurred while we were
there, which is unusual.

Jackson isn’t a bad place.  I just wouldn’t want to live there.

In the last several days, I have been reminded of about this time in 1992, just as we started to dare against all hope that Clinton would actually beat Bush the Father.  By late October, the Bush Pere campaign was starting to froth at the mouth, which is never a good sign.  You had the then-President proclaiming Clinton and Gore to be "bozos" and "environmental whackos".  It was really silly, and it didn’t stop the inevitable outcome.

There’s something about losing power that drives politicians and political parties absolutely bonkers.  I can’t blame then, since having your own bullet proof sedan, body guards, and control of the US treasury and armed forces would be heady stuff.  The trappings of power can and do corrupt better people than the ass clowns currently in power in Washington, DC. 

What we have seen in the last week or so is the emotional meltdown of the GOP.  Luckily, the NJ Supreme Court decision declaring that gay couples should have equal rights to straight couples hasn’t taken off in the press.  I kept waiting for the backdraft, knowing the GOP would seize on the issue.  They have seized on it, but people don’t seem to care as much as they did in 2004 before state constitutions all over the country were amended to prevent gays from marrying, and before courts in Washington and New York bowed to public pressure to give sanction to official discrimination against same-sex relationships.  And the New Jersey decision did not confer the name "marriage" on gays, which probably helped lessen the impact.  Nevertheless, George W Bush has been railing against "activist" judges who are "putting marriage in doubt".  Of course, he’s the man to protect us all from the sourge of same-sex love.

The response?  People yawn, and talk about corruption and how Bush has made a royal mess out of Iraq.  Still, some conservatives drool at the thought of another gay-bashing election season, so the President keeps the references in his speeches.  In the past week, he’s been to Georgia not once but TWICE.  I know he’s trying to unseat Jim Marshall in Macon and John Barrow of Athens, but all the attention in a state that STILL loves Bush (when the rest of the country seems to be finally waking up and smelling the coffee) shows how much trouble the GOP is in throughout the country.  If Georgia’s not "safe" by now, no where is for the national GOP.

Maybe Bush is perusing some land deals with Sonny, preferably in the path of some secret development plans in the vaults of the Department of Transportation that have not been made public yet.  Bush will be out of a job in two years, after all.  Gotta build that nest egg so he can fight off those crimes against humanity charges (I wish!).

While Bush was in Georgia the first time this week, he announced that if the Democrats win the Congressional elections in either house, then "the terrorists win."  Excuse me?  Did I miss something?  Did the Democratic platform change when I wasn’t looking?  Are we now the official Party of Al Queda in the US?

The President nakedly makes the argument (backed up by Chief Henchman, Dick Cheney) that the terrorists want Democrats to win, b/c that would be the way to defeat America.  So, they’re ratcheting up the attacks on our troops to try to sway the elections.  The only way to fight the terrorists is to re-elect the GOP congress and "stay the course"!  We’ll show them!

The more insulting thing is the insinuation that Democrats neither love nor support this country.  Sir, we love this country more than you could ever know.  Why else would we fight tooth and nail against your disastrous policies…your exploding deficit…and your general incompetence?  We don’t want to see this country ruined, and if we continue down the path you’ve lead for the past 6 years, we will be ruined.  Our reputation worldwide is in shambles, our military is stretched to the breaking point, and we are building a debt that could swallow this country whole within my lifetime.  Myself and my fellow Democrats love this country, and we will fight like hell to protect this country….but we will do it without pissing on our friends, creating new enemies, or engaging in wars of choice while bankrupting our finances.  To have you suggest that we are on the side of terrorists is disgusting, and I hope the public punishes you all the more for it on November 7.

Then John Kerry stuck his foot in his mouth yesterday with a comment that’s been exploited to say he thinks all military people are stupid.  So in another effort to distract, the GOP has jumped all over John Kerry and the "military hating" Democrats.  Last I checked, it wasn’t the Democrats who gleefully cut veteran care or military benefits the last several years.  It was this lilly livered bunch in control who never served a day in their lives.  The Democrats are the ones who want to armor our troops, protect them, get them home, and then keep our promises to take care of their physical and psychological wounds once they return.  It’s another distraction, just like the gay marriage thing.  Hopefully it too will pass.

As we come into the final weekend of the campaign, there is no telling what Bush and his team will come up with to try to turn the tide in their favor.  Maybe they’ll have Bin Laden release a tape declaring that Nancy Pelosi is his concubine or agent.  Or maybe they’ll just SAY she is, and hope for the best.

I’m sick of this bunch.  I’m sick of their games, their lies, and the way they are actively running this nation into the ground.  And if the American people don’t collectively vote at least one house of Congress to the Democrats on November 7, we will deserve whatever disasters come our way.

I have been unusually quiet for a while, and I do apologize for that.  Today, though, something happened on which I must comment.  New Jersey’s Supreme Court handed down its decision in Lewis v. Harris, the NJ marriage case.

The key portion of this ruling is the holding:

HELD:

Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed same sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to same sex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process.

This ruling mimics the Vermont decision of 1999 which held that Vermont could not treat same sex and heterosexual couples differently.  There was no justifiable reason to gives rights and priviledges to one group and deny them to another…at least not under the state constitution.  New Jersey has said the same thing. 

The NJ Supreme Court has told NJ that its domestic partnership law is not enough.   NJ must treat its gay and straight couples equally…giving them the same rights, privledges, and responsibilities as straight couples in marriage.  However, it didn’t need to be called marriage if that was what the legislature wanted, but the effect had to be the same.  NJ could either amend its marriage statute to allow same sex marriage or it could create an equal institution that was marriage in everything but name.  The legislature has 6 months to comply.

Generally, this is good news.  However, I wish that the NJ court had just held off a couple of more weeks until the elections were over.  Another two weeks would have killed nobody, and it wouldn’t have given the damn Republicans something to latch onto as they drown in their own incompetence.

You can be rest assured that the GOP will now gleefully ressurect the gay boogeyman of 2004 where they gave middle America the image of flaming homosexuals banging down their front doors and forcing them to marry people of the same sex, whether they wanted to or not.  Or that gay marriage would end our civilization or that little Johnny would see two men married, and even though he preferred women, would decide to marry a man.  And the only way to stop this scourage of raging homos is to vote GOP!

I don’t know how the Mark Foley scandal will affect this message, but you can be rest assured that Karl Rove will use this to try to keep the Congress.  It will certainly affect the NJ Senate race, but how is uncertain. It seems Menendez is crooked, and Kean has his head so far up Bush’s ass that he take a dump without the White House knowing first.

It’s too important that GOP control of our country is broken this election.  We can’t wait another two years and hope things will get better.  If anything, a GOP win this year will mean they will get MORE arrogant and wreckless, not less.  I fear, though, that this decision will help the GOP staunch the bleeding and potentially keep Congress.

Why couldn’t the NJ Supremes have just waited another two weeks to rule that gay people should enjoy ALL the same rights as straight people???

The newspapers have been all atwitter about the absence of Cathy Cox from the Taylor for Governor campaign.  Cathy has been very conveniently busy or travelling whenever an opportunity has arisen to appear with Mark and put on a good show for the cameras.

But today, the AJC reported that Cathy’s campaign chairman, a Democratic turncoat who became Republican to preserve his seat in the legislature, has endorsed Sonny Perdue for re-election.  Dan Ponder was supposed to be emblematic of how Cathy would govern in a different way, and she would reach across the aisle for the best ideas from both sides of the political spectrum.  Apparently, there were a lot of GOPers eager to support the first female governor of Georgia, even if she was a Democrat. 

The problem is that Cathy’s campaign collapsed.  Much of it was her fault, I think, and she didn’t handle Mark Taylor’s well-timed attacks too well.  I’ve already documented on this blog my disappointment and anger over Cathy’s reaction to the gay marriage amendment "crisis" earlier this year.  I think she totally blew it and flushed her chances of election at that time.  Mark Taylor did play dirty with her, there’s no doubt.  And the "Taylor Trolls" out there who were his most vociferous supporters (or the ones who just hated Cathy the most because she was a woman running for Governor) did more than their fair share of Cathy-bashing.

After Cathy’s loss, I thought her concession speech was fantastic.  It was the old Cathy Cox that I had once known and loved.  However, I cannot blame her for being angry over Taylor’s campaign tactics.  She should not have been surprised though…he’s notorious for playing rough when he has to.  He always waits for his opponent to mess up first, but then he goes after them with a vengeance.  After that wikipedia scandal when her campaign director Morton Brilliant amended Mark Taylor’s bio to include information about his son’s drunk driving and vehicular homicide charges in South Carolina…she should have known it was coming.

Cathy and her people have every right to feel bitter and angry about the primary.  I look at it as a missed opportunity. I think Cathy could have peeled off GOP voters from Sonny easier than Mark will.  Her campaign, though, did not do what it needed to do in order to nail down the Democratic primary.  It was a case of opportunities wasted. 

I think Cathy’s revenge will be to stand idly by while Mark Taylor flounders and ultimately loses to Sonny in November.  First, people aren’t pissed off at Sonny like they were at Roy Barnes 6 years ago.  Sure, Sonny’s a mixture of greed, insider dealing, and broken promises packaged in a folksy grampa persona…but he doesn’t have people really pissed at him.  That’s hard to fight in an incumbent governor.  The sweetheart tax deal that Sonny had the legislature pass to save him $100,000 in taxes would have been a great start to the fall campaign, except for the fact that Mark Taylor’s daddy pays him $100,000/yr and the free use of a Buckhead mansion for a couple of hours of work a month.  Which is worse?  I would argue Sonny’s tax situation, because it was an abuse of his power and position as governor, but Mark’s situation is no less sleazy and self-serving.

I’m not sure what Cathy’s game plan is.  Maybe she’s setting her sights on 2010 to try again for Governor, or maybe someone can convince her to run for US Senate against Senator Bush, errr, Chambliss.  I’m not sure inaction to let Mark fail will hurt her in the long run.  She can’t be seen as actively against Taylor, but she can just sit at home and do nothing to help him.  Honestly, that’s what a lot of Democrats in Georgia seem to be doing.  We want to beat Sonny, but we’re not sure Mark’s the guy to do that.  Cathy could have done it, maybe, but she screwed the pooch on her campaign, and there are LGBT voters who will never forgive her for the way she handled the marriage amendment being overturned.  I’m not quite as harsh.  I withheld my vote in the primary, and that was my punishment for Cathy.  I hope she learned a lesson from it, and I’m willing to support her again in the future.  I also will cast my vote for Mark Taylor, but the race doesn’t get me as passionate or excited as, say, the Jim Martin campaign for Lt. Governor against that theocrat neanderthal Casey Cagel.

It will be interesting to see what happens.