Cagle is one smart politician. Today, he killed Senator Staton's much-blustered-about constitutional amendment on Voter ID (you know, Staton's solution to the pesky and expensive constitutional problems with his legislation). With one strike, Cagle put Staton in his place and made oh so many Democrats (read: potential voters) happy. And, there was no real cost to Cagle. The thing was not going to pass anyway, so Cagle looks sane and Cecil, well, looks like Cecil.
It is not, in my opinion, a coincidence that Staton was staunchly in Reed's camp in the election (as in sent an oh-so-sweet op-ed to the Telegraph two days before the primary that discussed Reed's virtues), and Cagle is on record crediting his victory in large part to the twenty-plus sentors who signed the statement asking Reed to withdraw. It was Staton who was at Reed's "victory party" consoling Sadie Fields and complaining about the fun the media would have with Reed's defeat. This was a brilliant political move for Cagle. Staton? Well, one of two things happened. Either (1) Cagle did not tell him that he planned to pull the bill and let him walk into this rather embarrassing situation blind (ouch), or (2) Cagle did tell him, and Cecil, being his arrogant self, filed it anyway betting that Cagle wouldn't pull it. I'm betting on #2 and wager Staton won't do that again.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Cagle Puts Staton in His Place
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The day before Ralph Reed & Cecil Staton addressed the Bibb County Republicans at the Medical Center of Central Georgia this summer, a local Chapter of the Christian Coalition led by Dave Johnson was revoked.
Johnson had endorsed Cagle over Reed. So i guess that's a glimpse of what you get when you mix church and state.
I don't know where this Christian Coalition mouthpiece Phil Dacosta fellow fits in but he was side by side with Jack Kingston when Bush was in Macon and somewhat shy about his picture being taken with Jack. The same camera shyness was conveyed when he and my Christian friend Rep Allen Peake were together when Cousin Sonny came to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame last Winter.
Guess you gotta be a Republican to be a Christian in Phil's eyes.
Glad i'm a DemiCan and YidHindBudhChrisIslamist, these far right Christian guys are starting to act strange and erratic since America indicated it wanted to end the ChristianRepublicanNeoCon War.
http://www.macon-bibb.com/Peace
Roxanne,
Amy is probably getting weary of us posting on such trivial issues as health care here as she has yet to start a thread to post under, so i posted this on your website too. Thanks for putting a priority on Georgia's Health Care System Sis.
Erick at peachpundit.com is filtering and censoring the HC debate. But hopefully, he will come to his senses and this may show up later on the PP.com-Romney topic. In the meantime, Jason Pye has already posted it at Jasonpye.com, under the “Paving the way for state run healthcare” topic.
thanks,
Vic
Re: Health Care Insurance issues for Georgia Families
1/13/07
Dear Jason,
We’re both going to learn something from this Health Care Insurance Debate if we have the attention span and stamina to prioritize Health Care for Georgia‘s Families, so ask Erick to please not start censoring debate on the issue again. He claims to want this forum to be for all Georgians, time will tell his sincerity.
You can judge a “politics for politics sake” politico by the point they stop addressing an issue more than you can by what they say on the campaign trail. As a Libertarian, I’m sure you’ve observed that.
A fortune cookie once said, “Don’t’ seek so much to find the answer as much as to understand the question better.” If his parables were any indication, I’m pretty sure that was Jesus’ philosophy also. So, I guess you and I are progressively understanding the questions here. BTW, good work on Georgia Legislative Watch, hope you can sell some advertising.
http://www.georgialegislativewatch.com/
I know that this would go against your devout trust in and Pledge of Allegiance to the good will and benevolence of Corporate America; but do you really think Judson Hill & Newt Gingrich came up with this on their own? Wasn't Judson one of Ralph Reed's Attorneys, not too long ago? Isn’t Senator Hill a Merger & Acquisition Attorney?
We’ve got a lot more dots to connect before we know the real story, so please don’t quit before the essence is revealed. Take a look at the number one donors to Judson’s State Senate Campaign and ask if there may be an undercurrent at work here.
http://www.vote-smart.org/finance.php?can_id=MGA98218&fec_id=
Which Health Care Insurance Conglomerates do you think will benefit most from this? Do you really think they will self regulate? Please read through the historical financial news on Wellpoint & United Health Care and study the Kaiser Family Foundation Website before you answer that.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=WLP
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=UNH
http://www.kff.org
With a government administered, single payor health care system, do you think the voting citizens would allow the administrators to take hundreds of millions in “personal compensation” out of the system before they start paying claims to Doctors and Hospitals? That’s what Wellpoint Chair Larry Glascock and ex Chair Leonard Schaeffer have been doing for years. Not to mention United Health Care’s recent stock option faux pas.
Scroll through the stock option and merger & acquisition history of WLP and UNH on the financial links and at the Securities and Exchange Commmission site. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=WLP
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=WLP
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=UNH
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=UNH
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=Wellpoint&CIK=&filenum=&State=&SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompany
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=United+Health+&CIK=&filenum=&State=&SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompany
Do an Open Record’s Request for the 2004 Wellpoint/Anthem Merger hearing with Insurance Commissioner Oxendine and ask him why he stopped and temporarily reversed his position, which originally supported the 18 billion dollar merger; after I helped reveal that California had gotten fallout concession from Wellpoint and Anthem. Ask how the resulting Telemedicine settlement for Rural Health Care Hospitals in Georgia is being administered and overseen by Mr. Oxendine, or to whomever he delegated the task.
What's so hard about standing up and saying you are for transparent, fair, equitable and accessible health care for all Georgia Families? Almost everyone with a convenient-memory conscience said it on the campaign trail. Some industries should be sacred. I’ll salute your making all the money you want selling advertising on blogs or baseball bats but lets maybe draw the line at playing “Wall Street Merger & Acquisition Games” with the health of Georgia Families.
If you want to see your health insurance claims continue to escalate and be processed in India and South America and see Georgian‘s health care Insurance dollars go to a Corporation based in Indianapolis, Indiana or Minnetonka, Minnesota, then stand firm in your convictions and don’t flip flop, even in the face of new evidence. According to the Manly mindset here on Peach Pundit, it’s not macho or kosher to change ones mind, even when enlightened with new truths or a broader understanding. So I guess Jesus was being a flip flopper when he switched from Judaism to Christianity?
The Georgia Ethics commission hasn’t given itself the right to investigate Conflicts of Interest, so theoretically, our Georgia Legislators have the green light to trade as many favors with the Insurance Lobby that they want and there will be no consequences from Cousin Sonny‘s, arbitrarily, self regulating ethics department.
Per your statement: “Deregulation has not and will not create a monopoly. If anything it creates more opportunity for competition.” I ask, Why did David Shafer feel it necessary to introduce SB509 and Tom Knox do the same with HB 1517? And how does creating a favorable environment for one or two, internationally-financed insurers to buy up all the smaller insurers create a healthy market place? Delta is ready, why isn’t Georgia?
I know you are a free thinking, independent kind of guy and I respect that. But figuratively speaking, don’t wait til they are standing at your doorstep, after they burn everyone else’s house down and ask others for help, we might already be in heaven with Jesus by then.
Have a good weekend bro,
VictoratGaImproper
http://www.macon-bibb.com/GONZO
Roxanne: We should not underestimate Cagle, and this is a good theory, and it would work here, except that Cagle said, again yesterday, that he favors voter id. I think that he is wise enough to realize that they did not have the votes to pass the legislation, and that he was unwilling to expend political capitol making those who opposed it create a record of that opposition through their vote. He is also wise to make moves that at least appear to be at least a hat tip to bipartisanship. It's the kind of move that might make some dems and certainly some swing voters move over and vote in a republican primary in order to vote for Cagle over Richardson, for instance. We can talk about the implications of that later. The fact is, while there are new members, this thing has been voted on before and everyone is pretty much on record. So, there's little to gain there-even though Staton previously acknowledged that it probably would not pass, but thought that it would be worth proposing it so voters would know where their legislators stood on the issue.
The interesting wrinkle here for me is why Staton put the legislation forward if he knew Cagle planned to kill it, or if he didn't know this was the plan, why didn't Cagle clue him in. I think this was a no-loose for Cagle. He got to do the right thing, politically, and poke a stick in Staton's eye. It was a win-win. At least that's my theory.
Vic, I also think that in Georgia, to a lesser degree than nationally, Republicans are struggling to control their extreme elements, and Cecil Staton, the guy who thinks that if you don't have a driver's license you can just use your passport to vote, absolutely represents their most radical right-wing faction. The guy who beat Ralph Reed is absolutely no political dummy.
Like Amy, I am always interested in understanding motives, and in politics there are seldom actions without some sort of background agenda.
Maybe quashing the Voter ID bill (which is an ill-conceived idea doomed to fail anyhow) was a cheap bone to toss to the democrats. Looks big but no meat on it !
Hey Victor, I know Phil . He is a big animal lover who stands up for animals with politicians all the time. He is the only Republican I respect. He is a Christian wacko, but he lives out what he believes and he holds politicians who claim Christian virtues accountable. No one campaigned harder for Casey Cagle against Ralph Reed than him. He is very intelligent and passionate, which is great for animals, but hurtful to what we think is good for America’s future. He convinced my son to cross over and vote for Cagle. He almost had me convinced but I could not bring myself to ask for a Republican ballot. He is not very fond of Cecil Staton, the two of them clashed over the Reed-Cagle race and I know he is very suspicious over Statons close relationship to Godsey. He thinks Staton is guilty of heresy for publishing some book Godsey wrote. Although I don’t agree with how closed minded he is, I respect the way he stands up for what he believes in and for the countless hours he puts in standing up for animals.
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