Buddy Carter: The Epitome of Absolute Stupidity
by Bill Simon
When Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show, he often bantered with the audience when making observations about the weather or traffic or whatever, and he would make a statement like “The Santa Monica Freeway was so backed-up today driving to the studio…” and the audience would respond with “How backed-up was it?”
I just happened to check my email late this evening to find the missive from Georgia Tip Sheet regarding a new ad that Candidate for Congressional District 1 Buddy Carter has unveiled that attacks his runoff opponent Dr. Bob Johnson.
Quoting from the Tipsheet article, this is the narrative of Carter’s ad against Bob Johnson:
” ‘Bob Johnson claims he’ll never back down from Obama,’ a narrator says in the spot. ‘Bob Johnson is a dues paying member of a group and received funding from groups that support Obamacare.’ “
Now, let’s clarify a few things for the viewing audience: Dr. Bob Johnson is the guy who works in the profession of medicine directly responsible for writing prescriptions for his patients to take to a pharmacy like the one Buddy Carter owns and operates for someone like Pharmacist Carter to dispense the drugs.
So, Buddy Carter is attacking Johnson on the basis of Johnson receiving campaign contributions from a group of medical professionals that may or may not actually be “supporting Obamacare.”
Here’s a question: How stupid would it be for a guy like Pharmacist Buddy Carter to launch an attack on Dr. Johnson claiming that Johnson is supporting ObamaCare when, in fact, Buddy Carter’s “small pharmacy business” actually derives a significant revenue stream from….where? What source, Buddy?
Medicaid, of all things. How do I know this? Because Buddy Carter was required to submit transaction reports to the State of Georgia because he has been receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicaid revenue from the Georgia Department of Community Health:
2013 Business Transaction Report: $440,202
(Source: http://www.politicalvine.com/2014/CD-1/Buddy-Carter-2013-Ga-Transaction-Report.pdf)
2014 Business Transaction Report: $470,379
(Source: http://www.politicalvine.com/2014/CD-1/Buddy-Carter-2014-Ga-Transaction-Report.pdf)
And, one wonders how it came to be that Carter was able to secure those contracts with the Georgia Department of Community Health? Secret deals with political insiders who also act as lobbyists to the legislature?
According to that 2013 Transaction Report, the DCH Commissioner who signed-off on the payments was David Cook…who was, at the time, a registered lobbyist with DCH (See here)
As a member of the powerful Senate Health and Human Services Committee, did State Senator Buddy Carter use his prime position to engineer some sweetheart deals for his personal pharmacy business by way of trading whatever a lobbyist needed for the Department of Community Health for possibly obtaining some no-bid Medicaid contracts with the State?
And, what does this mean for the people of CD-1? Well, it means that if Buddy Carter is the one elected to Congress, Buddy Carter will looking for all KINDS of ways to ensure that his “small pharmacy business” gets MORE money from Medicaid, and likely directly from federal sources like Obamacare itself.
And, you can bet he will not be “fighting” Obamacare…he will be looking to make all the secret slimy deals he can make to enrich himself, the same way he’s done for the years he has been in the Georgia State Senate.
So, again, exactly how stupid was Buddy Carter to make that move to attack Dr. Johnson on an indirect issue when it actually opened-up his flank to be eviscerated with the direct exposure of these two transaction reports about the true nature of how his “small business” operates?That move was the EPITOME of being stupid.
