The Political Vine

Minor Correction

In last week's Political Boxers, we stated that Tommy Sandoval was involved with the campaign-gone-bonkers of Joyce Stevens in a state senate seat now held by Renee Unterman. That was an error.

In fact, Sandoval was involved in the other campaign-gone-bonkers, that of Maria Strollo who got defeated in the primary against Stevens and Unterman.

Sorry for any confusion that you may have had.

PV's Footnote: Speaking of Maria Strollo, rumors have it that she is on her way to building another political fiefdom in her new home of Cherokee County. For the past 7 months or so, she's been going around with her new neighbors telling them that SHE was the Gwinnett Chairman of the Sonny Perdue campaign in 2002. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mike Murphy was Perdue's Gwinnett chairman, and that's a fact. It's too bad that Strollo's best buddy in the Governor's office never seems to get a clue about the people who accomplish things in this state. Hint: It will never be Maria.

PV's Note #1 To The Georgia Whine: Don't go wetting yourself over the fact that we made a mistake and admitted it. We're not covering-up our mistakes with claims of "well, we were in such a hurry on editing that we just missed the most obvious error on the planet [the one about Burkhalter replacing Senator Stephens]" (as if anyone buys your excuse).

PV's Note #2 To The Georgia Whine: We're sure you're going to claim yet another "editing error" on this one, but here's some advice anyway: when you write your (cough, cough) "column" in the third-person, you have to stick with it all the way. If you use "we," you cannot use "I."

For instance, in your last issue, you had the following response to Marty Dekom's letter:

"Not sure of national vote, but I bet [emphasis added] Bush gets 57% in Georgia."

"I" bet? Duhhhh...for two years you've been chasing the Political Vine, and you'll never match us in quality as long as you continue to demonstrate complete ignorance of English grammar rules. Face it: You started out 4th rate, and you will remain 4th rate. That's the best you can hope for. Learn to live with that.

Herman Cain Report

Around 65 people turned-out for the Citizens for Common Good (CCG) meet-and-greet event with U.S. Senate Candidate Herman Cain last Monday evening.

Also included in the crowd of attendees were 2 operatives from the Isakson for Senate campaign...looking a bit too smug for their own good.

PV Notes To The Isakson Campaign: Now we know you were just out taking the interns on a sight-seeing trip, right? Sooooo... we won't be seeing any quickly researched and assembled position papers on what Cain discussed, will we?

Of course, in case one or more of the subjects discussed were of interest to Johnny, we assume you will note in the papers your inspiration for the subject matter, right? We'll keep our eye on your Website.

Yet another example of why the MDJ SUCKS

In Tuesday's edition of the Marietta Daily Journal, they had an article on the front page titled this way: "House resignation gives Cobb reps chance to move up."

And the article, written by Matt Schafer, proceeds to lead the reader to the conclusion that House Minority Leader Lynn Westmoreland has resigned, either from the minority leader slot, or he has resigned his house seat.

The article further goes into analysis of who from the Cobb delegation might be stepping-up to replace Lynn after his "resignation." Names like Reps. Earl Ehrhart, Sharon Cooper, and Don Parsons are tossed into the article to add some gravitas to the article.

There's even a quote from Cobb GOP Chairman Anthony-Scott Hobbs about how great it would be if one of the Cobb reps were to replace Westmoreland.

PV's Analysis: Gee, it WOULD be swell if a Cobb rep replaced Westmoreland, but the teensy-weensy fact of the matter is that Lynn Westmoreland HAS NOT RESIGNED! You don't have to "resign" if you run for Congress. You can, as a lot of folks have done, just let your term expire and not re-run. There is no requirement to "resign."

This is SOP of the MDJ's standards of journalism. In the first place, they are usually about two days late in delivering timely news that the AJC has already covered. In the 2nd place, columnists like Bill Kinney usually pepper their seemingly triple-secret "inside information" writings with crap that is known by anyone but the most ignorant politico.

Maybe...just maybe the editor of the MDJ's news department (i.e., the person who titled Schafer's article) is the same person who writes the Georgia Whine...because both publications continually display an amazing amount of ignorance about the world of Georgia politics.

Gee, what a swell country to retire to...

So, we now hear that Idi Amin Dada, notorious ruler of Uganda for 8 years, is reported to be in a coma in...can you guess what country?...Saudi Arabia.

PV's Analysis: Let's look at this, Folks. Amin tortured and killed more than 200,000 people during his reign...and he ends-up being given refuge by the Saudis.

How many of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia? 18? Who wants to bet money that at least one, if not both, of the folks we are looking for (Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein) are resting comfortably in Saudi Arabia?

You see, despite what the Left thinks about our reasons, if our main purpose in going into Iraq was that we were after "oil," as they claim, it would have been a whole lot smarter for us to go invade Saudi Arabia. Let's be real, the Saudis are NOT our "friends." The Saudis harbor criminals like Idi Amin and allow the training of terrorists within their borders.

Rumsfeld ought to name a new "Special Ops" operation..."Operation Kick The Saudis' Into The 21st Century."

The Life and Times of Mr. CEO, Vernon Jones

To those of you not quite up on the going-ons of DeKalb County, Georgia, the CEO of the county is Vernon Jones. For the past 3 weeks, stories have swirled about Vernon's use, at the taxpayer expense, of a lot of overtime work by the sheriff's office by personnel assigned to protecting him. The dollar amount is substantial, at approximately $630,000.

And, it has been claimed by both Jones and DeKalb County Police Chief Eddie Moody that the reason for Jones requiring this "protection" is due to the fact that Derwin Brown was assasinated in December 2000, 3 days before he was to take office as the new sheriff of DeKalb.

PV's Analysis: Yeah, but, there's a slight problem with their reasoning. See, the reason why Brown was gunned-down was because he was elected to CLEAN-UP corruption. In Jones' case, no one is going to come after him because he's all about letting corruption continue to grow unabated in county government. He, and the folks he hires, allow the corruption to occur.

So, their reasoning about Jones needing "protection" is a lot of hooey. It's a waste of taxpayer dollars, plain and simple, to protect one man who is in no more danger of being assasinated than anyone else on the county commission. In fact, he is less likely.

Chester "O.J." Doles vs. The Federal Government

Only in America would it happen that a Neo-Nazi like Chester Doles would get lawyers like Bob Barr to come sailing to his defense.

Doles is a fourth-generation Ku Klux Klansman who became the leader of the National Alliance, a white-supremacist organization. Doles was arrested in March by federal agents who were tipped-off that he possessed a cache of firearms, in violation of his parole (felons cannot own a gun).

Doles' also has Barr's law partner on his defense team, Edwin Marger, a Jewish attorney who professes to be a "bleeding-heart liberal."

PV's Idea: Hmm...so Doles now has a Jewish lawyer and a "black" lawyer on his defense. Now all he needs to do is hire Baghdad Bob to handle the press and he's all set!

Well, there's a slap in the face of Calder...

Rumors have it that due to fact that the fundraising totals of 2002 nominee Calder Clay (R) were rather abysmal, Republicans are working to convince retired General Richard Goddard (R) to challenge Rep. Jim Marshall (D) in 2004.

Republicans will not easily walk-into the Senate if he enters...

Rumors have it that former Atlanta Mayor and former Ambassador Andrew Young (D) may be about to announce his entry into the U.S. Senate race in Georgia.

PV Ponders The Inevitable: Does this mean that Sen. Mary Squires (D) will withdraw from the race? That will mean the Georgia State Senate will have to suffer through another two years of having those "freckled legs" walking around the senate chamber...

FINAL NOTE: Oh, and the connection between Vernon Jones and Idi Amin? Just that they both appeared in today's Political Boxers' edition...what were YOU thinking they had in common?