Just as I was setting out to write something prophetic about Zell Miller, David Worley beat me to it. I think it almost perfectly sums up the disapointment that so many Democrats feel in Zell Miller that they don't necessarily feel about a Nelson (NE), Breaux or Pryor, even though they often cross party lines too. They at least remember what got them there.
Greg Green has got the goods on Zell Miller's endorsement of Bush. I may comment more on it later over here.
Sen. Eric Johnson (R - Savannah):
I'd be willing to wager that every year Atlanta loses at least $1 billion in outflows to rural Georgia. Lest you think Johnson is innocent of this rural welfare, remember the payoffs offered to Messers Cheeks, Lee, Bowen and Hill, Georgia's notorious state Senate party switchers. Some elected officials have no shame and will say anything to make a political point. Make no mistake, Johnson's words are all part of a hoped for Republican alignment of rural Georgia.
I'm sorry, but it's hard for me to take Johnson seriously when he talks about budget politics knowing that he needs four full time staffers to do the work his Democratic predecessor did with one secretary.
Here is an article about some libertarians who are so rife with contradiction that I can't tell if it is sad, funny or both. They sound reasonable enough until they start talking about their personal views about economics (everyone should think of themselves as rich and then they will be) or reminiscing about their childhood schooldays (no desks or computers -- just rocks!).
On another note, I'm going to try to blog much more frequently. There is some sort of Atlanta blogger gathering coming up this week (I think), which I'll post detials on when I'm more solid about them.
David Broder wonders: If a Democrat gets elected President next year, how will he get a Republican Congress to cancel the Bush tax cuts? Seems like it would be impossible, until you realize that these tax cuts are set to expire anyway. As long as Democrats in the Senate prevent the White House from making them permanent, it shouldn't be any problem raising taxes in the future (as this is pretty much inevitable) even if a Democrat doesn't win until 2008.
Broder's column then seems very shortsighted. I'd imagine that a Democratic president would have a much easier time pushing through one of those balanced budget amendments that cancels future tax cuts if the country starts running a deficit. Every Democrat in Congress would vote for a measure like this, it would easily pass the Senate, and if a Democrat wins the White House, he'll probably win enough moderate Republican House districts to convince the House to pass something like this as well. If I were Broder, I wouldn't worry.
Interestingly enough, Bush is losing in every possible matchup in the Iowa Political Markets' 2004 vote share market.
When you add up all the bids and asks for all the possibilities, a Democrat has 55.3% of the market, and Bush has 47.8%. Most interesting is the Dean/Bush matchup, also Dean leads the market devoted to the Democratic nominee market.
Republicans are trying to build up the conception that Dean is a weak candidate, echoing Bush with "Bring Him On" op-eds and sound bytes. People who actually wager money on this kind of thing are also saying Bring Him On, and are betting he'd win.
My friend Nikhil Swaminathan at the 'Loaf wrote a nice article about Radiohead, but unfortunately (for him) I think Kid Rock is right!
Does it disturb anyone else that Conyers Middle School was labeled "Needs Improvement" under the No Child Left Behind Act only because it's special education department doesn't meet standards, and more than 100 non-special ed students were able to transfer to different schools?
Wouldn't one quick improvement to the act either be to fund special education at the federal level, or rewrite the transfer clause to say only when the areas of deficiency will affect your child? Kids who don't take special education classes shouldn't be able to transfer our of their district just because their school doesn't provide a good service that they won't even use anyway.
Amazingly, a majority in this AJC poll think ESPN should not fire Limbaugh as an analyst after his McNabb comments the other night. Online polls are not scientific and usually are pretty prone to flaming, and I wouldn't be surprised if this one has been Freeped given it's high participation rate.
Regardless of the poll, to Rush all I can say is Have you seen Vick play?