The Political Vine

Ralph Reed's Gamble-The Nation-July 12, 2004.pdf
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It's Gonna Be Rock-em' Sock-em' Robots This SATURDAY In Forsyth County!

The Georgia Federation of Young Republican Clubs and

Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine
Sen. Jeff Mullis
Sen. David Shafer
Rep. Melvin Everson
Rep. John Heard
Rep. Tom Knox
Rep. Jay Neal
Rep. Jack Murphy
Bruce Garraway
Sen. Eric Johnson
Sen. Chip Pearson
Sen. Greg Goggans
Rep. David Casas
Rep. Tom Graves
Rep. Calvin Hill
Rep. James Mills
Rep. Joe Wilkinson
Todd Tibbetts

proudly present:

What? Debate & Dinner with Sen. Casey Cagle and Dr. Ralph Reed

When? This Saturday, October 29th from 5 PM - 7 PM

Where? Windermere Golf Club - 5000 Davis Love Drive, Cumming, GA 30041, Forsyth County

Hom Much For This Exciting Event? $100 for individual, $180 for couples $60 for Young Republicans, $100 for YR couples Buy Your Tickets Online

For More Information, Contact Tommy Sandoval at 678.410.1700 or Debate Info. Seating availability is limited.

Thumbs-Down on Harriet Miers

Date written and submitted: October 26, 2005

Were the nomination of Harriet Miers to any other post or position, I would not be sending this. I trust and support President Bush even though I don't always understand or agree with his administration's policies and actions. In his decision to nominate Harriet Miers, I cannot support the nomination because the risk for America is too high.

Years ago, the Left discovered that through the courts they can win political battles that could not be won at the ballot box. Through the courts, the Left has virtually invented rights that any reasonable individual reading the Constitution would not find. Recently, the Supreme Court said it is OK for governments to forcibly take homes from citizens for purposes that would have surely made our nation's founders spin in their graves. On abortion, pornography and property rights, the Left has used the court system to chip, chip, chip away at America's founding principles and value system.

What makes America different from all other nations is our founding principles. The text of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution indicate that "We the People" have God-given rights and that "We the People" grant certain rights to the State, not the other way around. Our Founders defined a system of government based on the ballot box and representative government. The court was the referee and interpreter of the law.

Somewhere along the way, some judges figured out that they could legislate from the bench by twisting the meaning of the Constitution. What was once wrong is right and right is now wrong. High school coaches are fired because they participated in their team's student initiated prayer before the game. America is a nation of laws and activist judges are tearing down our society's faith in the law by perverting and twisting the meaning of the Constitution. Prayer was taken out of the school and abortion on demand became a right because of Supreme Court decisions, not because of decisions by "We the People."

In some states, the courts have determined legal marriage can be between any two consensual adults - man/woman - woman/woman - man/man. What's next; three or more consensual adults? I believe those decisions are best made at the ballot box and not the courthouse.

Long ago, the Supreme Court, by twisting the Constitution, said segregation was legal. That bad decision was eventually corrected, but what decisions await the High Court? That is why it is so important that President Bush nominate the best and brightest to the Supreme Court. Harriet Miers is not that person. America's future depends on the direction of the Supreme Court; get it right Mr. President!

Respectfully submitted by,
Bob Mayzes

CC:
U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson

PV Note: Bob has served as Treasurer of the Georgia Republican Party for the past 12 years. At publication time, we have received news that Miers is withdrawing her nomination...maybe Bob's letter hit The White House just right...

The Truth About The Erroneous Decision On Georgia's Voter ID Bill

On October 18, 2005, Judge Harold Murphy of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that voters need not provide photo ID to confirm their identity. Here are some bservations about the 123-page decision striking down Georgia's photo ID bill.

First, the decision came as a surprise to no one. Common Cause and the ACLU lawyers carefully selected the judge that they wanted to decide the issue. Not surprisingly, the judge they handpicked gave them the decision they wanted. Venue-shopping (as it is known in the legal profession) is not an uncommon practice. Often, lawyers "shop" for the judge that they believe will be most favorable to their position. In this case, that is why the case was filed in Rome, Georgia where it would be assigned to Judge Murphy. It is also why lower court decisions are subject to appellate review.

Second, the decision is clearly wrong. Assume for a moment that the photo ID requirement did impair in-person voting. At best, the question would then be whether a state can discourage in-person voting in favor of mail-in (absentee) voting by imposing a photo ID requirement. Well, at least one state has gone much further than just discouraging in-person voting, it has banned in-person voting. Oregon eliminated in-person voting in favor of mail-in voting. All voting in Oregon is vote-by-mail. Yet, there have been no findings that its voting procedures are unconstitutional. There is a reason. They are not unconstitutional.

The Court premised its decision on a finding that Secretary of State Cathy Cox could not identify a single incident of fictitious voting over the last few years. Of course, what the Court ignored, and Cathy Cox refused to acknowledge, was that over 5,000 dead people have voted in Georgia. Every incident of a dead person voting involves impersonation since the dead person is not showing up.

Third, the Court left itself some "wiggle" room. When discounting the impact of the no-excuse absentee voting, and the ability to get a photo ID for free, the Court noted that voters were not yet sufficiently informed or aware of these alternatives for them to make a difference.

Of course, there have already been elections in which voters cast their ballots under the new rules without complaint. And, virtually any law could be challenged soon after its enactment and approval on the ground that not everyone knows about it yet. But, the fact is that voters can be educated regarding the alternatives before the Court makes it final determination.

The bottom line, however, is that those who have consistently lost at the polls have once again turned to the judiciary to accomplish what they could not do at the ballot box. While in this case it required some judge-shopping, they accomplished their purpose temporarily. The will of the people as represented by their duly elected Legislature and Governor has been set aside. A federal court has restored the ability of dead people to once again vote in Georgia.

Ultimately, one of two things will happen. Either the appellate courts will address the decision in due course, or the Legislature will simply preempt the process by changing the few items to which the judge objected. Either way, Georgia will, as recommended by a national bi-partisan commission, have a photo ID requirement that assures that voters are who they say they are.

J. Randolph Evans
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP

For Whom Does The Bell Toll? It Tolls For Ralph Reed

Rumors have it that some of the documents that will be dumped on the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Website on November 2 will be copies of bills that were sent from Century Strategies (or, any number of other Ralph Reed-connected companies) to the Coushatta Tribe via now-indicted Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon in Louisiana. The bills will refer to "Louisiana Project Mgmt. Fee." for the project name that Ralph was hired to work on.

The significance of the disclosure of these billing records will be the "blue dress proof" that Ralph is a liar when he claims he is "opposed to gambling and has a long-fought record of opposing gambling...blah-blah-blah." Now, here is the most interesting "background" story of these yet-to-be-revealed documents.

In July of 2004, The Nation, a Left-Wing weekly magazine, published a story by a left-wing writer, Jack Newfield. Remember what was going on in July 2004...there was a race for the presidency, and Ralph was in charge of the Southeast Campaign for Bush/Cheney.

So, when Newfield's article came out (you can download that article by clicking on the PDF at the top-right of this page...we've already paid the $10 for access to Nation's archives for you to read it), people interpreted it as an attack on the Bush campaign and, folks ignored it. Little did Newfield know that his story would be even MORE applicable to events in Georgia a little over a year later.

Now, we preface everything about this Nation article by pointing-out that it is written in a left-wing organization by a left-wing journalist. But, you see, when you read the article, you realize that there are a lot of things Newfield comments about that have now turned-out to be FACTUAL.

Like, Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon were highly-paid lobbyists of several Indian tribes to protect their casinos. These are facts that everyone with an IQ above 110 (and they haven't drunk Ralph's Kool-Aid) should be willing to admit as true.

As Newfield writes, "In early 2002, the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana was desperately trying to kill a planned competing casino that the rival Jena Band wanted to build in Louisiana...The Jena Band had hired former GOP national chairman Haley Barbour [PV Note: A factual event] to make sure its casino compact was approved by the heavily politicized Bureau of Indian Affairs. So, the Coushatta tribe, which already was in the process of paying Abramoff and Scanlon some $32 million over three years, also hired Reed, according to three witnesses and documents obtained by The Nation."

The documents Newfield refers to are bills that Reed sent to Abramoff and Scanlon for payment for "Louisiana Project Mgmt. Fee". According to one of Newfield's witnesses, Reed was hired to "mobilize Christian radio and ministers against the casino"...wow...we haven't recently heard of Ralph doing anything like this, have we?

Remember, Newfield's story was written in July 2004; how'd Newfield know that this "mobilization of Christian radio and ministers" was a similar ploy by Ralph used to defeat the Alabama Lottery initiative or the closing-down of the Tigua casino in Texas? Answer: He didn't. He could not have dreamed this up. He had to have learned this directly from a witness.

If the documents in the November 2 doument-dump show that Reed's company (Century Strategies) received $250,000 from one of Michael Scanlon's companies, Capitol Campaign Strategies, and an invoice from ANOTHER of Ralph's companies, "Capitol Media," to Jack Abramoff for $100,000 that mentions the "Louisiana Project Mgmt. Fee", then Ralph's little world will crumble into nothingness. His lies will blow-up into his face.

And, all the babble from some grassroots, or the blogs who try to point out that "Oh, this stuff is too complicated for Jane-Average Voter to sort out..." will be proven two things: ignorant and dead-wrong.

Again, we don't know if the federal grand jury that originally obtained copies of these invoices is done with them and has turned them over to Senator McCain's committee. We will soon find out on November 2. BUT, if the documents aren't released then...they WILL be released in the future...Because, Ralph's day of reckoning from God, through His disciple, Senator John McCain, is lonnnnnnng overdue.

And, since Eric Robert Rudolph is in jail these days, no agent of the religious socialists in this country can be called upon to take McCain out...not that they (and Ralph and Abramoff) don't wish they could accomplish that. Ah, too bad Karl Rove and "Scooter" are too busy to help Ralphie Poo out...everyone in the GOP apparatus appears to be rather ummm...pre-occupied at the moment.

How Many Times Do We Have To Warn You About ASH?

Rumors have it that our old non-friend, Cobb County GOP Chairman Anthony Scott Hobbs (aka "ASH") is up to both new and old tricks again.

Through a series of completely random events, the PV had a very interesting encounter with some "newbies" to the Cobb Republican Party very recently.

The random events were as follows: 1) PV had no intention of attending the Governor's Dinner a few weeks back, but, we received a call from a good friend in Gwinnett County who had bought a table and invited us to join him and his fellow comrades. We accepted and went to the Wednesday evening event.

2) At the table of our host sat a few people PV knew and several people PV had never met. In fact, the several people turned-out to be people the host didn't know either...they just asked to sit at the table, and the host had obliged.

3) During the event, some chit-chat occured between PV and the "several people" but nothing too deep or involved (kinda too noisy for anything too deep).

4) After the event, everyone at the table parted ways and went in separate directions. Through another odd set of events, PV happened to bump into two of the "several people" in front of the parking lot about 30 minutes after the event had concluded. PV was asked "Hey, what county do you live in?" To which we replied "Cobb County. You?" The answer was "West Cobb." Really? What a strange coincidence...

The two folks explained to PV that they were new to the Cobb County Party and they couldn't figure out how to sort out the two "factions" of their county party...and, could PV oblige? Well, most of you should be able to guess that PV is always on the lookout for opportunities to set people straight on what is true and what is not true, and a late-night chat session ensued at the OK Cafe.

What was revealed at this session was that Chairman Anthony is spreading some new manure in Cobb County that we think smells highly irregular, and may, in fact, require the investigation of the Cobb County District Attorney's office to sort out.

Newbie #1 informed PV that "Anthony told me that during the 2004 cycle, the Cobb GOP raised $140,000 and spent it on Cobb County candidates."

PV asked Newbie #1: "Really? Are you sure about the $140,000?" Newbie #1 was rather emphatic that that was the number Anthony told him personally.

Newbie #2 chimed-in with an eyewitness statement he had received from the Cobb GOP's New Treasurer that the $140,000 was what Anthony had also told the new Treasurer. ("New Treasurer" being the guy that replaced Michael Altman from several months/year ago?).

Anyway, here's the gist, short and sweet: Anthony has claimed to newbies that he and the Cobb GOP raised "$140,000" in 2004 and contributed to Cobb County Republican candidates to get them elected. Well, funny thing...we could only find $2000 that was disclosed as coming from the Cobb GOP, and that was to Candidate Chris Bouchard. We could find no money given to any Cobb County candidate from the Cobb County Republican Party on the SOS's electronic Website.

And, furthermore, we could locate no electronic Cobb County Republican Party Disclosure on the Secretary of State's Website for the 2004 Election Cycle (as required by law). The only one on there was filed for June 2005 and shows NOTHING about the money raised and spent during the 2004 Election Cycle. It's as if 2004 didn't happen in the Cobb County GOP.

In the past, we have written story after story about our concerns with the integrity and character of the leadership of the Cobb GOP. We're not just talking about the petty in-fighting stuff...we're talking SERIOUS dollars being raised by people whose integrity has not been proven that they can be trusted. These stories, that the Kool-Aid drinkers of ASH's brew shrug-off as "politics", are all documented on the PV Website.

One such story is this one from the September 30, 2003 edition of Political Vine. This was our first story of our concerns for the money being raised and managed by ASH and his cohorts. Their response was to post financial records that seemed quite out of whack with what ASH had been claiming.

Since those records were posted, there had been NO OTHER records posted that displayed any integrity in the financial well-being of the party.

Fast-forward to the Cobb County Convention of 2004, where ASH and his merry band (consisting of Treasurer Michael Altman, Resolutions Chair Frank Molesky and...oh, yeah, Calvin Rhodes (a trust baby who doesn't know his rear-end from a hole in the ground), and a few other useful idiots of Anthony's tried to pass a resolution to censure the Political Vine. They fell flat on their face, and this is that story's documentation..

Now, we apologize for showering you with documentation of our past concerns with ASH and the Cobb GOP. It is not to brag to you about our previous battles and ASH's defeats: it is to demonstrate that there is something quite amiss at the Cobb County GOP. And, now, it concerns money raised on behalf of the Republican Party that appears to have gone missing, if we are to believe ASH's words to newbies to the Cobb GOP that he raised "$140,000" last year.

The paper trail of that expenditure of money is nowhere to be found. The New Treasurer, a guy by the name of Keith Bartholme (sp?) told one of the newbies PV ran into that "The books were in such disarray after Michael Altman left that it took me 6 months to re-build the books into some sort of order. I had to discard everything Altman had left and re-build from scratch."

At the 2004 county convention, a by-law change was proposed and passed by ASH and his supporters. The by-law concerned the amount of money that the Chairman could write a check for and not get either prior approval from the Executive Committee of the county party OR, get a 2nd signature. The amount of that check-right granted to Anthony? $3,000.00 per check.

Just to give you a perspective, the previous amount was, as we recall, only $500, which had been in place for the previous 10 years. Seemed to work pretty well back then...when we had responsible leadership in the party.

Just to give you another perspective, the Georgia State Republican Party has in its by-laws the requirement that no check can be written by anyone (Chairman, Treasurer, financial controller, etc.), for any amount, without a 2nd signature of another state party officer.

Taking our current county party chairman out of the picture, what do YOU think about granting check-writing privileges for an amount up to $3000 of discretionary expenditures by one person? If you know anything about accounting controls, it should make you quite queasy and think "uhhh...that's not financial responsibility...".

The State Party manages a budget of around $20 million and they require 2 officer signatures on every check. The Cobb County party manages a budget of $150,000 - and, they allow the Chairman to write a check, with no discussion before the EC on what the expenditure will be used for? Yeah, that's a good example of responsible control (NOT!).

NOW, bring ASH back into this equation, and the rumored FUBAR-condition the old Treasurer, Michael Altman left the accounting books in, and, we will directly ask our readership: Do ya think there is an opportunity here so big to drive a truck through of financial mischief by ASH and the other members of the party?

PV Challenges ASH: Show us the money trail, Anthony for the Year 2004 Election Cycle. If you raised $140,000, where did it go, and how was it spent? There should have been accounting reports prepared that are in someone's possession that demonstrate SOME record of the finances of the party...in fact, it has been claimed to us by First Vice-Chair Debbie Ellis that "Yeah, we have records, what business is it of yours? Why are we the only county party that should have to publicly disclose our finances?"

Well, now that ASH is claiming to newbies that the party raised $140,000 last year that we cannot locate records for on the SOS Website, and the previous books, according to our source, were not kept in the right format that a true "CPA" would keep them, the answer should now be obvious why the party should disclose their finances repeatedly and regularly: Because the "factions" that exist right now in the party will remain as long as Anthony is in charge, AND, the only way to get the party back together is for the current regime to display open honesty about the finances.

Now, if ASH didn't raise $140,000, then that just proves what we've claimed all along: He is, at minimum, a prolific BS-artist and, at maximum....well...

PV's Final Point: If you take only one thing away from this story, take this: Do NOT contribute ANY money to the Cobb GOP. If you value your own reputation and integrity, do NOT associate yourself with Anthony-Scott Hobbs in any way in the political arena, regardless of the event he pulls together (Senator Chip Rogers, we feel for you in you getting suckered by ASH and Phil Kent a couple of weeks ago at the anti-immigration rally...we know you had no pre-knowledge of what Anthony's antics were going to be to embarrass the Governor). To put it simply, consider Chairman Anthony Scott Hobbs a walking "dirty-bomb."

Rumors have it that ASH has convinced some business and political leaders to help him restart his "Republican Business Council." Oh? Allow us to issue a warning: If we see one contribution from ANY elected official's disclosure in Cobb County going to the Cobb GOP, we're going to expose you as being completely unqualified to serve as a Republican because you don't know how to manage your campaign's finances.

Record of Stories Dealing with ASH and the Cobb GOP:

First Set of Warnings to the Georgia Republicans AND Follow-up of previous link

Second Discussion of ASH

The PV Questions the Integrity of ASH and Treasurer Michael Altman

ASH and Altman's Attempt To Destroy The PV Backfires (and, truly, one of our finest in reporting... where's our Pulitizer?)

Congressman Tom Price Is Worried...And, Based On His "Follow-The-GOP-Leadership-Blindly" Manner of Legislating, He Should Be

Rumors have it that there is a grassroots challenge being built in the Sixth District, led by a candidate who isn't running because of "political aspirations," but running because he is quite concerned with the impact of federal legislation like CAFTA has on his and everyone else's pocketbooks.

Who is he? A non-political (i.e., he has not previously been an activist) Republican voter by the name of John Konop from Cherokee County.

This person is being labeled by Price sychophants, whether they are Bart Brannon of the Cherokee County GOP or Price's district Chief-of-Staff, as being a "nut." He is only a "nut" to those people who are very scared that he knows exactly what he's talking about; AND, worse for Price, he can communicate the facts in financial and economic terms that everyone, even if they have not had the formal training and work experience in economics and finance that Konop has had, can understand.

Rumors further have it that Tom Price is so concerned about the challenge that he sent an ambassador to offer Konop some appointment to a D.C. commission in the hopes of placating Konop enough to buy him out of running against Price. The offer was politely refused.

The most interesting assertion by Konop is that Congressman Price's vote in favor of CAFTA and the re-authorization of the WTO bills has resulted in more doctors from OTHER countries coming to America, flooding the medical field with more supply, and causing the incomes of doctors in this country to plummet. If true, then all those medical-field related people who supported Price because they figured as a physician, he would protect their interests, are in for a big surprise. Welcome to Rude Awakening 101.

Don't just listen to us, though. Check out John Konop's Website and issues. If you are a true fiscal conservative, you will be informed of stuff you didn't know about before.