Radical Georgia Moderate

Read more »

• was his $800K personal security detail and subsequent grand jury investigation (true)
• were allegations he screamed at a constituent (maybe) and bumped Republican DeKalb County commissioner Elaine Boyer (maybe)
• were a pair of allegations he illegally owned property (one probably true, one probably false)
• was an allegation of discriminatory hiring practices in the parks and rec department (the lawsuit was thrown out)
• was the episode where a close personal friend on his payroll, Lance Robertson, drugged and raped a young girl at a hotel (true)
• were a couple of shouting matches with police before he was a public figure (true)
• was a rape allegation he deflected by calling it a consensual threesome (outcome unknown so far)
• was the one I thought could turn into another doozie, the retirement of Police Chief Eddie Moody under mysterious circumstances.

Moody said nothing immediately after his abrupt retirement, but word around the campfire was Moody refused to go along with Jones’ request for him to lie to the grand jury about the security detail. No doubt, Moody’s wife was happy to help spread those rumors. In testimony for a federal discrimination lawsuit (a different one I don’t remember hearing about, I guess, correct me if I’m wrong), Moody made the allegation himself (login).

In a sworn statement for a federal lawsuit, former DeKalb County police Chief Eddie Moody said an emissary for DeKalb Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones urged him in 2003 to lie to a grand jury investigating the CEO’s office.

A year later, the same messenger returned to Moody with Jones’ demand for Moody’s resignation, Moody said in his statement. He identified Jones’ representative as the Rev. Wiley Jackson Jr., a longtime friend of both men.

Jones has maintained that he had nothing to do with Moody’s decision to retire and on Thursday dismissed the former chief’s testimony as “utterly ridiculous allegations.” Jackson could not be reached for comment.

In Moody’s testimony, which was provided for a race discrimination lawsuit, the former chief said Jackson came to his home to deliver a message from Jones as Moody prepared to testify before a DeKalb County grand jury. The panel was investigating the operation of Jones’ office, including the size and budget of his personal security contingent. Jones had been the object of news reports that suggested the CEO had surrounded himself with excessive security.

Moody said Jackson told him that Jones wanted him to tell the grand jurors that Moody made all the decisions related to the CEO’s security. “Jackson said that Mr. Jones wanted me to take full responsibility for the number of officers assigned to the security detail and the time they spent on the security detail,” Moody testified. “Jackson said that ‘I needed to fall on my sword’ for Mr. Jones.”

Moody said he refused to go along. “Mr. Jones determined the number of officers and the hours they worked providing his personal security,” Moody said in his statement. “I did not lie and I told the truth before the grand jury.”

I know DeKalb is the largest county government in Georgia, and one of the largest in the entire country, but there is no way ANY county government should EVER be in the news as much as DeKalb has. And it has Vernon Jones, not Cynthia McKinney, to thank for that these days. How on earth does someone go about out-sociopathing Cynthia McKinney?

Just about everyone I’ve talked to thinks Jones isn’t going to stay CEO much longer. Of course, they didn’t think that leading into the 2004 election either. Conventional wisdom says he might, whether in ‘06 or ‘08, try for the 6th District seat currently held by McKinney. His support in south DeKalb is still pretty solid, while his outside-DeKalb support is non-existent, especially these days. It would make for a damn interesting primary, since many of their respective supporters overlap. I hope he does it in ‘06 (unlikely, though not impossible) and McKinney stomps him.

I’ll tell you right now if he ever runs for an office that affects me like, say, Lt. Governor, I’d vote for the Republican — ANY Republican, including Ralph-fucking-Reed. Not that Reed would be the guy by then, but just giving you a hypothetical. Somebody needs to get him off the stage. He’s an embarrassment to the Democratic Party.

« Hide it

Read more »

PERDUE’S JOB PERFORMANCE
48% good/excellent
52% other

IMPRESSION OF PERDUE
68% favorable
28% unfavorable/other

IMPRESSION OF COX
62% favorable
38% unfavorable/other

IMPRESSION OF TAYLOR
47% favorable
53% unfavorable/other

Something this early is barely worth commenting on since it won’t mean anything in a year, but it might help Cathy Cox with her fund-raising efforts.

« Hide it

Read more »

Kos explains the risk in this strategy (like Dylan, I find it hard not to quote the entire post):

Reid just engaged Frist in a game of chicken, and Frist blinked first.

Reid has been extrememly effective in whipping up opposition to the Nuclear Option, garnering strong grass- and netroots support, editorial board support, and popular support (as the latest polls show scant appetitite for ending the filibuster).

But in order to avoid looking like obstructionists, Demcorats had to make efforts to “find a compromise”, lest the chattering class get the vapors from such Democratic intransigence.

Had Frist accepted the offers for compromise, Bush would’ve gotten the majority of his judges through, and Democrats would’ve gotten — who knows what. All published compromise offers didn’t seem to give our side anything.

So Democrats would’ve faced a sea of criticism from our own side for snatching defeat out of the hands of victory. Frist and Co. would’ve finally gotten a procedural victory against Reid (who has run circles around them thus far). And all that good will Reid had built in the netroots over the past four months would’ve evaporated in one fell swoop.

It was one heck of a gamble, but the Senator from Nevada played his cards right.

Frist painted himself into a corner, having whipped up the forces of wingnuttery into a froth, he could not back down without damaging his White House aspirations for 2008. He’s banking on the crazies to get him the nomination.

So Reid got the Democrats to look conciliatory, forcing Frist and his Republicans to look even more inflexible than before.

I have little to add to this discussion, but was so awestruck by Reid’s political skill that I had to rehash the story here.

« Hide it

Read more »

SMOKING BAN
64% for
36% against/other

SHIELDING UNIVERSITY DONORS
38% for
54% against
4% other

VOTER ID BILL
80% for
20% against/other

ABORTION WAITING PERIOD
65% for
35% against/other

RATE THE LEGISLATURE’S PERFORMANCE
5% excellent
30% good
34% fair
31% other

See, it didn’t take 816 words to get that information across. I reckon writing an article that long around such a scant morsel of information is a good way to make it look like you’re working when you really aren’t. Oops, I guess that’s what we do on blogs too. I know this almost contradicts what I wrote last night. Piss off.

« Hide it

Read more »

Tim responded:

How did they out-think them, and on what issue? They made it harder for folks to vote in runoff elections.

That was just about the whole post, minus a “follow this link” sentence. Since comments are closed on his site, I’ll respond here, only in a less tactful and respectful way than I would have otherwise: try reading the next sentence in that post. It went like this:

While Dems were all hopping up and down, mad as hell about the bill’s potential to affect a small percentage of voter rights (as it may or may not have), the real point of the bill passes through virtually unabated.

I was complimenting their strategy, not their policy. Do I need to start breaking posts down into two-syllable words? Fourteen word per sentence limits? Three sentences or less per paragraph? Flowcharts? Bar graphs? Is this better?

Maybe I’ll start a new blog where I don’t even use words, just pictures. Then the chance of me being quoted out of context and not being allowed to respond would be eliminated entirely. That graph would have been more accurate if I’d put question marks by the two donkeys, since the Dems have added a whole lot of jackshit to the debate besides “this bill sucks!” Christ, I suppose the graph needs a footnote somewhere to tell people elephant means Republican and donkey means Democrat.

« Hide it

Read more »

Reading this article (login) in the Athens Banner-Herald about a hidden provision swayed me over to the Democrats’ side about the bill having more nefarious intentions.

[T]he bill also shifted the date of elections for nonpartisan offices — judgeships, school board and, in Athens-Clarke, mayor and commission [from July to November].

[...]

If no one person gets more than half the votes, a run-off election will be held three weeks after the general election — in the middle of a holiday week.

So, run-off elections for non-partisan offices have been shifted to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. That reeks, and is clearly targeted at affecting the outcomes of races for judgeships. As you know, there’s little love lost between the judiciary and today’s Republican Party. So, bravo to the Republicans for once again out-thinking the Democrats. While Dems were all hopping up and down, mad as hell about the bill’s potential to affect a small percentage of voter rights (as it may or may not have), the real point of the bill passes through virtually unabated.

Goddamn, where is a real opposition party when you need it? This thing has already passed, so it’s a little late now.

« Hide it

Read more »

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff’s credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.

DeLay’s expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. DeLay, who is now House majority leader, has said that his expenses on this trip were paid by a nonprofit organization and that the financial arrangements for it were proper. He has also said he had no way of knowing that any lobbyist might have financially supported the trip, either directly or through reimbursements to the nonprofit organization.

Most people are pissed at him because he’s an asshole who latches on to all the rubbish coming from the religious wing of the Republican Party, not because he went on a junket funded by lobbyists. Assholes wear big targets on their backs by virtue of being assholes, so he shouldn’t have expected anything less than a full-scale war when he left any daylight between himself and the law. He helped nothing by going on a proactive campaign to raise his profile as a major league asshole (with his rhetorical war against the judiciary and the whole idiotic T___ S___ drama) when he should have been holed away somewhere not speaking to the press. This may have blown over had he just kept his fat mouth shut.

Found on Cracker Squire.

UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist made it clear he’s not in DeLay’s corner in his much-ballyhooed remarks taped for a Family Research Council event (emphasis mine):

When we think judicial decisions are outside mainstream American values, we will say so. But we must also be clear that the balance of power among all three branches requires respect — not retaliation. I won’t go along with that.

As you might remember, DeLay has kept himself in the news against his best interests in part by making vocal threats of political retribution against judges who don’t rule the way he wants them to.

It’s a lot easier for Frist to speak against DeLay since he rarely has to deal with him. If you haven’t noticed, he’s been hopping from bandwagon to bandwagon lately. What a gutless whore.

« Hide it