Thursday, November 16, 2006

Childish Games and Partisanship Reigns

"It was a secret meeting and no blacks were in the meeting. They met behind closed doors and a black chairman was ousted by Republicans."

That's what David Lucas had to say about the Bibb delegation meeting yesterday. Well, it wasn't totally secret because they managed to be sure to get the press there. Priorities, priorities.

But leaving out the Democrats was all unintentional and not about race. Just ask the new chair, Cecil "Voter ID" Staton, for whom, apparently, race is never an issue. He has just tons and tons of credibility on that, don't you think?

According to WMAZ, Lucas and Randall say that they did not receive timely notice of the meeting and that it was scheduled at at time that conflicted with their regular caucus meeting where officers were being elected. Randall says that she got a phone call about the meeting when it was in progress. Lucas said:

"I got a call from Allen Peake on my cell phone this morning."

Staton said that he did not know that the Democratic caucus met at that time. Oh, come on Cecil, even I know that the Democratic House Caucus meets on Wednesday morning. He also claims to have had invitations to the meeting hand delivered to Lucas, Brown and Randall. Lucas begs to differ:

"Lucas said invitations were not delivered to him or Randall, either in Macon or Atlanta. He pointed that he was at the state Capitol Wednesday attending the Democratic caucus. Lucas said he stopped by his Capitol office, and there was no invitation to the morning delegation meeting. There was no invitation in Randall's office, either, Lucas said. "

I was at a local restaurant with Rep. Randall on Monday night, and Sen. Staton was there, as well. He never spoke to her and never took the opportunity to mention the meeting to her. Clearly, it was very important to him that she attend.

Unfortunately, local Republicans are so full of themselves that they can't even manage to be courteous. As a result of the elections, power in the local delegation shifted to Republicans. Until Wednesday, delegation leadership had been based on seniority. Republicans wanted to change that and had the votes necessary to do it. But instead of asking the current chair, David Lucas, to call the meeting the results of which were inevitable, they acted like snot-nosed brats, flexing their power behind closed doors, afraid to look their colleagues in the eye. How juvenile. Having the Democrats present would not have changed the results, but it would've interfered with the Republican media hit. For anyone who has watched these guys operate in Atlanta, none of this should not be news. It's S.O.P. And there are more school yard games where this came from. According to Staton:

"Republicans are in charge now and that's the way it's going to be."

Okay. Now, tell me something I didn't already know.



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2 comments:

Amy Morton said...

Fear not, Kathy. It's only two years for these legislators. They need to know that their performance evaluation starts right now.

Tina said...

"Republicans are in charge now...."
Well, yes, in Georgia and a few other Southern states. Nationally, they have now marginalized themselves.