Over Coffee by Gay Wiley Shook gay.shook@gmail.com

August 15, 2010

Our Primary runoff election in Georgia brought some interesting results. I did not follow all of the races, as there were so many; it seemed like everybody and his brother was on the statewide ballot. I had my head full with just the races in which I was personally eligible to vote. Here’s a big cup of expresso for you!

My biggest surprise was the squeaker loss of gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel to opponent Republican Nathan Deal. Handel was defeated by a meager four-tenths of one percent and yet, but not surprisingly, she was exceptionally gracious in her concession. She chose not to have a statewide recount. Having been our Secretary of State, I am sure she knew how much that would cost and did not want to burden Georgia with that extra man-hour expense. Her focus quickly shifted to loyal Republican support for Mr. Deal.

Unfortunately, I am unable to shift my allegiance away from Karen Handel at this time. The eleven weeks until the November General Election may prove edifying to us all as Democrat Roy Barnes picks away at the details of the apparently ongoing ethics investigation of former Congressman Nathan Deal. It’s possible even more information may yet emerge on that story now that Mr. Barnes is fully engaged. Unless that whole “deal” is discovered to be completely without merit somehow and Mr.Deal is deemed to be clean as the driven snow, I cannot vote for him. I shall write in Karen Handel’s name on my ballot. The instructions for how to do this are very clear on the voting machine and even a digital doofus like me ought to be able to do it.

For years I have observed politicians, good ones and bad ones. After reading about so many self-serving antics over and over again, I have developed an interest in Narcissism and really do think that personality disorder is what’s wrong with a great many of the politicians who pull these slick tricks against the body politic. Check out this link on Narcissism from The Infinite Mind: http://www.lcmedia.com/mind333.htm  

Here’s another: http://www.tressugar.com/Politicians-Narcissism-Cheating-Oh-My-
5329711   This article has a handy list of characteristics that is useful to laymen in trying to describe this mental state. It is emphasized that this disorder cannot and should not be diagnosed over the back fence, that clearly needs to be done by a healthcare professional, but I’m finding what I am learning about narcissism is very interesting. We all have a right to our own opinions!

Forgive me, my friends, but in my simplemindedness I cannot understand why lobbyi$t$ are allowed to exert $uch control over our Georgia legislators. Lobbyists are NOT elected by the taxpayers and should not be able to hold such $way over the men and women who ARE elected by taxpayers. As we have discovered, many of our legislators have a hard time deciding how or where to draw the line against lovely trips, dinners, and gifts hosted by the phalanxes of special interest lobbyists in the state capitol. As a Georgia taxpayer myself looking at the mess my state is in fiscally, educationally, transportation-wise, and more, I would say there has been far too much partying going on for far too long and not enough serious work or we would certainly have had better results in all categories by now. 

Today’s (Aug. 15, 2010) Atlanta Journal-Constitution Metro section had a cover story on “Lobbyists pay for Ralston” that I can recommend. House Speaker David Ralston took over after the Glenn Richardson embarrassing debacle and promised to clean up the ethics in the Georgia House of Representatives. At first, I believed him and was so relieved that somebody was finally going to address this sticky wicket, but not too much has happened. To this taxpayer, that Ralston promise turned out to be an empty one.

To quote this AJC article, “Ralston took over this year promising stronger ethics laws and more transparency for the House. Legislators proposed a host of reforms, including limits on how much lobbyists could spend on lawmakers. But Ralston opposed limits. The legislation he pushed and lawmakers approved during the 2010 session had no limits, but increased reporting requirements for lobbyists.”

The article goes on at great length to describe how after investigation of lobbyists’ reports by the AJC, it appears that not all lobbyists disclose everything. Well, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Ignoring the law isn’t an excuse either. Our legislators and the lobbyists they love apparently are willing to turn themselves into pretzels to avoid doing what should be done; that is, no gifts and no hidden transactions. Nobody tells the voters about all these trips unless there fortuitously happens to be a newspaper article. And, probably worst of all, we voters are letting our legislators get away with these shenanigans, which help contribute to opaque government. What is the matter with us? We aren’t going to get good government until we demand ethical and transparent government from our elected officials.

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Hope all is well and thanks for reading.

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