Friday, March 20, 2009
News Word: 'Dark cloud over Georgia'
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Several Republican state representatives on Thursday opposed a privileged resolution to make President Barack Obama an honorary member of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus. Members of the caucus called the move political, offensive and bizarre — the state House has passed "thousands" of honorary resolutions without objection, one lawmaker said.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with the color of his skin. It has to do with his policies being inconsistent with our core beliefs as Republicans.”
— State Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, and 2010 governor candidate, after stating that the legislation read as if the entire Legislature endorsed the president.
“We pass [other] resolutions about people we know nothing about. It’s a matter of respecting the office.”
— State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta
“In my 35 years I’ve seen many resolutions. And I’ve never seen this type of action taken on the floor of the House. Now there’s a dark cloud over Georgia. And somebody has to remove it. This is a political act.”
— State Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Macon, the Black Caucus' national chairman, who had planned to deliver the resolution to Obama at the White House on March 20.
(Courtesy House Communications)
Comments (15)
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I don't see what the big deal is. Just because this pointless resolution was blocked there's a "dark cloud" over Georgia? Gimme a break! Rather than wasting time with honorary junk that serves no purpose shouldn't our elected officials be doing something useful?
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If you want to see the true colors of Georgia Republicans, you have to check out the comments on Peach Pundit. Scary. It's easy to figure out why Austin Scott pulled this stunt with the assistance of his supporters in the House GOP leadership. Scott was one of the rare Republicans who supported the 2001 state flag change that got rid of the 1956 Confederate battle emblem flag that was passed as a symbol of resistance to federal civil rights efforts. If he wants to make it through a statewide Republican primary, he needs to "get right" on race, and this was his chance. What that (along with the Peach Pundit comment threads) says about Georgia's Republican Party isn't pretty.
And this is about race how? Serious question - did the Repubs do this for Bush? If so, then it's fair game. To Bob Laquer - exactly. This is as silly as Obama's NCAA brackets. I have mixed emotions though. Usually when they do "real" work, things get more fouled up. Maybe I prefer them passing completely meaningless resoultions. To Sen Fort - the problem is we know a LOT about this person and that prevents many people from endorsing him. To Rep Smyre - oops, you can't deliver your gift wrapped butt smooch to the President during your Whtie House visit and brag about it to your buddies. Are you embarrassed? Guess you may have to show up with something of substance now, which is a real problem or damend near any elected politician. (R) or (D).
In fact, yes, the Georgia legislature passed a resolution commending President Bush on his response to Hurricane Katrina, without objection. http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2005_ss/search/hr7ex.htm
Anonlawyer - that resolution was not just about Bush, but specifically referenced the multitudes of people who had worked their asses off. http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2005_ss/search/hr7ex.htm It also didn't induct him into the Georgia State Assembly. Swing and a miss.
The point is the legislature passes resolutions all the time for any number of people and causes. The resolutions are normally bundled into one vote and they vote without debate. This one shouldn't have been any different. One has to wonder why. The reasons offered thus far ring hollow.
I guess a better question may be, "Why do they waste their time with this pointless crap and why don't we call them on it?".
I agree with you completely. They should save time and money and ban all of these. I wonder how much they spend on this stuff. The savings would probably be enough to save a furloughed teacher :-)
President Bush's response to Katrina was controversial, and yet the Democrats in the Ga Legislature managed to put aside whatever anger they might have had over his ineffective response to allow that resolution to pass without objection. Maybe it was because it also cited the other relief workers. But still, the Democrats in the legislature could've objected to Bush being included in the resolution as written. They could've demanded that the language be changed. They didn't. They let it pass unanimously because it's a ceremonial resolution with no legal effect, and there was no sufficiently good reason to make a stink about it just to prove a point. The point, as S. DeKalb Voter noted, is that until now these sorts of resolutions were routinely passed without objection and there is a reason this one about Obama was suddenly treated differently. Why was it suddenly worth making a stink about this one? You can think that the ceremonial resolution is stupid practice, but that still doesn't answer the question of why those Republican lawmakers decided this resolution, now, was suddenly the time to draw a line in the sand.
The double-edged sword is that, by giving up these trivialities, they have more time to "work" on "real" legislation. A part of me wants to keep them busy renaming streets and pointless resolutions so they can't screw us up even more htan they have already. Every part of our economic crisis can be traced ditrectly to politicians fiddling around with issues and systems of which they have ZERO understanding.
But that is not the question at hand. It just seems a little childish for the guy to stand in the way of it. There is a slight racist tone to it because this is the real world. When speaking with my parents conservative friends and all of my uncles there is always a racist undertone to their haterd of Obama. Dale you seem to be the exception to the rule of conservatives but that does not change how most suburban conservatives think. Read blog comments on the ajc or peach pundit and tell me the people who elect these republicans are not racist.
Anymore than the ones who elect the Democrats? Seriously. I don't know Scott and don't have a dog in the fight, but I can't find anything racist in his comments about this. He even supported the new GA flag. That is not a safe position with racists. Rjatl says he is trying to "get right" with the bigots. Go read the comments on blogs supporting the resoultion. Plenty of anti-cracker comments out there too. Everybody identifies with members of their own race, some to a greater extent than others, but most have an affinity for their own race. I don't think this was racism, I think it was politics and posturing. On both sides. I have heard the same bigotry in my parents generation.
republicans in ga legislature = vindictive morons with no answers but plenty of talk.
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