The Three Stooges Running Georgia Government

Faced with spending a quarter of a million dollars on a special session that Tom Crawford reports will being either May 7 or May 14, Georgia's Republican senators and representatives need to be concerned about their job security. According to an Insider Advantage poll released yesterday, only 16.9% of Georgians polled have a favorable opinion of the job performance of the leadership of their state legislature. After the last session, no one should be shocked.

While state's the three top Republicans, Perdue, Cagle and Richardson, spent the session auditioning for a remake of The Three Stooges, the Rome News Tribune called the proposed property tax rebate "political fraud."

In November of 2006, nationally, Democrats took over both houses of Congress, in part because Republicans were perceived as corrupt, incompetent spendthrifts who had bungled the war and were out of touch with everyday people. Georgia Republicans have proven that they are no different than their Washington counterparts. In Georgia, where people change their political party more often than their underwear, the GOP has opened the door for Democrats in 2008.


Consider the Three Stooges who run State Government in Georgia.

• "Moe" Richardson, Speaker of the House who began the session under the cloud of scandal because of his alleged relationship with a lobbyist, continued to entertain with his efforts to bounce children off the PeachCare rolls. Like Moe, Richardson's arrogance leads him to believe that he is a lot smarter than he really is. His tirades, like Moe's, are legendary.
  


• "Larry" Cagle, Lt. Governor who seems like a nice guy but is just not all that competent, padded the budget for his office by 58% while failing to replenish the state's savings account and imposing about $100 million in 'austerity cuts' for public schools. I wonder who he thinks his new $150,000 a year job czar is going to recruit if we can't manage to get our kids through high school?
  


• "Curly" Perdue, Governor who used 'Sonny Math' to overstate revenue projections and then was 'Gone Fishin' for most of the session, showed up just in time to veto the supplemental budget. By the way, the Governor seems to have plenty of time on his hands. Maybe Cagle can just hire him to be the Jobs Czar. Conflicts of interest have never mattered much to this crowd anyway.
  
  

All of these "leaders" have opted for pork and tax breaks for special interests while underfunding healthcare, education and public safety, the very things that impact the lives of everyday Georgians. As the Rome New Tribune says:

"Might one suggest that citizens really can't do without the state troopers, or the doctors in public emergency rooms, or the social workers guarding foster children or the teachers trying to stem the flow of dropouts. What they can do without is politicians of this caliber."

Amen.

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