Somehow, the words "moderate" and "Bob Barr" just don't go together...

Earlier this week, the Marietta Daily Journal did a little story on Bob Barr's candidacy for the 6th Congressional seat vacated by Johnny Isakson's run for the U.S. Senate.

According to the MDJ article, Barr stated that if the needs of the residents of the 6th District "are different [from the needs of previous districts], then my voting record will be different...Your voting record needs to be that of the people you are representing."

On issues like lower taxes, transportation, clean water, and improving the business environment, Barr said he intends to be aligned with "even the more moderate voters in east Cobb."

PV Is Puzzled: Say, Bob? Precisely what is it about east Cobb voters do you consider to be "moderate?" If you mean that we are not the type of fanatical Republicans that shoot their mouth off (or a loaded gun) at will and say anything we want to, then, yeah, we suppose we will fit the term of a "moderate Republican." We'd prefer to be considered "common sense Republicans," but we know the notion of commonsense escapes you. Your vitriolic campaign against 7th District Congressman John Linder proved that. And, your endorsement of Johnny Isakson for U.S. Senate isn't going to fool anyone.

Furthermore, whether the voters are "moderate Republicans" or not, why would anyone wish to have a reconstituted Bob Barr? People who support Bob now like his style, and could case less about his stances on things. In fact, we predict that if Barr becomes more of a "buttoned-down Bob Barr," he will lose whatever base he may have had in east Cobb. And, because of his style in the past 8 years in Congress, his negatives with new voters will still remain pretty high.

In conclusion, we wish Bob good luck with turning his Pit Bull image into that of a loyal, but friendly, Retriever (the dog of choice for commonsense Republicans).

Are you sick of hearing about the Cobb County Party? We sure are, but the show continues...

A few weeks ago, we covered, in great detail, the antics of the current Cobb GOP leadership. By "leadership," allow us to specify the parties currently in charge: Marilyn Gilhuly, Paul Ploener, Doug DeBolt, Frank Molesty, Lew Stafford, Anthony-Scott Hobbs, Doug Shaddix and a gaggle of other willing accomplices.

We described the fact that, despite being specifically told prior to February 8 by the state GOP that they had to adhere to the one delegate per 150 votes, the leadership of the Cobb GOP chose to ignore it and lie about what the state GOP actually said when the county mass precinct meetings were held on February 8. Shortly after our FUBAR issue, a meeting occurred between the Cobb leadership and the state GOP. Reports are that though the Cobb GOP walked in all smug and confident that they were going to be allowed to hold onto their 1 delegate per 50 votes, they walked-out extremely crestfallen that they were not going to be allowed to break the rules.

As a result of that meeting, the state GOP kindly offered a resolution whereby the Cobb GOP adheres to the 1 delegate per 150 votes and the excess number of delegates get taken care of by some method we don't care to spend time discussing here. That resolution is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow morning, Saturday, March 1, by the 2001-2003 Cobb County Committee at the Picadilly Restaurant on 41, just south of the 120 South Loop. (Not the Picadilly on S. Cobb Drive, but the one on 41, south of the Big Chicken.)

NOW, the interesting stuff going on are all the rumors and lies being told by the Anthony-Scott Hobbs Camp for County Chairman. Not satisfied, apparently, with flagrantly breaking state party rules, and being called on it, they have proceeded to engage in a vicious whisper campaign amongst themselves about people who are in the Scott Chadwick Camp for County Chairman.

For point of reference, the Political Vine is in the Scott Chadwick Camp for County Chairman. In fact, a bit of sidebar for you spectators is that the Political Vine and Chadwick had quite the exchange of cross words during the 2001 race for state chairman. Scott Chadwick was a Ralph Reed supporter and the Vine, as most of you know, was a David Shafer supporter. After Reed won, we didn't communicate with Mr. Chadwick until we ran into him at the November 2 Bush appearance in Cobb County. Mr. Chadwick walked-up to us and introduced himself as a candidate for chairman. We exchanged brief apologies that buried hatchets between us, and we became an instant supporter of his for chairman.

So, these past weeks, the Hobbs campaign has been engaging in lying by dreaming-up charges against Scott Chadwick that accuse him of being responsible in 1988 of blocking access by the Pat Robertson delegates at the state convention in Albany. Which, since Chadwick wasn't part of the Cobb leadership back then, he very well couldn't have been involved with it. And, to be quite honest, Scott is a darned religious guy and is closer to being a good Christian than ANYONE who supports Anthony-Scott Hobbs and his campaign of deceit and innuendo.

Other lies are being perpetrated against 6th District Chair Sue Everhart. The Hobbs Camp is accusing Sue of being against the resolution by the state GOP and is in favor of voting against it at tomorrow's meeting. Again, another bald-faced lie by the Hobbs people. Sue cannot attend tomorrow's meeting due to a previous commitment with a charity event. She has given Bill Simon her proxy and he has agreed to vote her wishes on it, which is to support the resolution as long as it's in the form originally written by the state GOP. As far as how Mr. Simon decides to cast his own vote is his prerogative.

Another interesting lie told by the Hobbs Camp, and started by Cobb GOP Chair Marilyn Gilhuly, is that, under Hobbs' reign as Cobb Finance Chair, the party has raised "more money than ever before." Anyone with the Hobbs Camp wanna bet? How much? We'll take any and all bets and we'll even give you odds...because you will lose your ass(es).

The fact is that in the 2000 Election Cycle, the Cobb GOP, under Chairman Don Hill, raised about $120,000 BEFORE the General Election. We emphasize "before" because it is important that money be raised before an election so that party money can be spent on helping to get out the vote and other similar activities. By the way, we did not get this number from Don. We got it from the Disclosure Reports on file with the Georgia Secretary of State on their Website. You can too by going to the R's under "Political Action Committees" and choosing the year 2000.

Contrast the 2000 performance with what really happened in Cobb during the 2002 cycle. In March of 2002, the Cobb GOP Disclosure showed a total raised of $23,093 through March 31, 2002. There was no disclosure filed in June 2002. Neither was there a filing done in September of 2002. No, the next filing of a disclosure by the Cobb GOP did not occur until the close of the 4th quarter of 2002, on December 31. And, that disclosure showed a total raised between the March 31 report and December 31 of $67,780, making the total for the 2002 cycle only $88,600...significantly less than the $120,000 raised in the Year 2000 cycle under Chairman Don Hill's leadership.

Besides being less than in 2000, the bulk of the Cobb GOP funds were raised AFTER Sonny Perdue was elected. Not before. AFTER he was elected. Which means that none of this money was used to help the party in GOTV efforts. In fact, upon looking at the expenditures, only $3,100 was spent on any kind of mailing, and it is unknown as to what purpose that expenditure was made for. $5,000 in contributions were made to undisclosed candidates (anyone up for an ethics complaint? How fitting for Gilhuly if one were filed...)

This is the breakdown of that $67,780 collected after March 31, 2002 (again, you are invited to go to the Secretary of State's Website to download and view these PDF files yourself):

* $10,627 on 6/20/2002 = Qualifying fees (which would occur regardless of any "fundraising" effort and $5300 of this had to be paid to the Georgia GOP and Secretary of State).
* $10,850 on 12/13/2002 = Proceeds from December 2002 fundraiser
* $22,495 on 12/24/2002 = Proceeds from December 2002 fundraiser
* $23,000 in varying contributions with no dates specified.

So, the fact is, Marilyn Gilhuly and Anthony Scott-Hobbs are lying when they state they have raised the "most money ever" when they didn't come anywhere close. And, to those Cobb GOP "newbies" who are in awe with Hobbs because he got the Governor to come to a December fundraiser, we bet that ANY county party in Georgia could now get the Governor to visit for a fundraiser, so, stop being so naive at Mr. Hobbs' amazing political powers. The only powers he has are the ones he's inherited from Gilhuly, and those are abilities of deceitfulness.

PV's Conclusion: The facts continue to demonstrate that Mr. Hobbs and Ms. Gilhuly are nothing but empty suits. Together, they have engaged in character assassinations against Scott Chadwick, Sue Everhart, AND any good Republican actually working for the good of the party. Their useless supporters are the scummiest of pond scum and should remove themselves from the Republican Party because they are anything but decent people. And, in case you've missed our previous publications, allow us to repeat the scummiest ones here: Paul Ploener, Frank Molesky, Lew Stafford, Dorsey Dodgen (Note to Dorsey: Sure hope we get a chance for a rematch tomorrow morning), and Doug DeBolt. Not only are these folks willing accomplices in deceit, but they are professional purveyors of malicious rumors against people unable to properly defend themselves. Which is why we at the Vine are always willing to expose these dirtbags to the light of day.

PV Adds A Footnote: To the members of the League of The South and the Georgia Republican Assembly who are the ones really behind and intensely supporting the "win-by-lying-at-all-costs" camp of Anthony-Scott Hobbs, we just want to let you know that we know you're out there, and what your intents are with regard to destroying the Republican Party of Georgia. And, when the time comes, we'll expose the truth about you as well.

And now, for something worthwhile to do...

A "Retire The Campaign Debt Party" for Cobb County Post 4 School Board Member Laura Searcy is being held this Tuesday, March 4 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Suggested donation is $50 per family. The address is as follows:

Barbecue Street
3815 Cherokee Street NW
Kennesaw, GA 30144
770-419-2626

Call 770-928-1377 or 678-886-4503 for further information.