I was surprised learn about the sudden departure of Otis Story as CEO of the Grady Health System.  I have found him to be open, responsive and seemingly an agent for reform.  In fact, he and I have been working closely on a funding and competitiveness initiative that was to be formally proposed next week.  We were scheduled to meet tomorrow to flesh out some of the remaining details.

Perhaps there was a good reason for this decision, but I frankly doubt it.  Whatever the long term plan for the hospital, now is not a good time to be switching CEOs.

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I attended a meeting at the State Capitol earlier today with Governor Mike Huckabee, who later spoke at the Together for Life rally organized by Georgia Right To Life. Governor Huckabee, as always, was impressive. In the private meeting, he tied his Arkansas highway spending program back to the family, saying that the relief of traffic congestion gives moms and dads more time with their children. At the rally, he spoke about his willingness to lead on the issue of life.

My candidate, Senator Fred Thompson, officially ended his candidacy this afternoon. From my conversations with the elected officials who were supporting him, they appear to be gravitating toward either Huckabee or Governor Mitt Romney. I am deciding between the two myself.

Governor Romney was my early favorite. I heard him speak several times last year and even flew to Boston with a small group to have lunch with him. He is enormously talented, with a clear understanding of the economic challenges facing our nation. He has mounted the best organized campaign of any Republican, and like Senators Clinton and Obama, is free of federal campaign financing limits. A very compelling case can be made that he is the best choice to lead our party’s ticket in the fall.

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The Washington Post has identified Sonny Perdue as a potential candidate for Vice President, citing his impressive re-election victory as Governor in a year that went poorly for our party overall. The others mentioned were Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Senator John Thune of South Dakota and former Congressman Rob Portman of Ohio.

With the race for the Presidential nomination so unsettled, it is a little premature to speculate about running mates, but Governor Perdue would be the clear choice of that group and and an asset to the ticket in any event.

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I hesitate to comment on the impeachment resolution drafted by Representative Ron Forster for fear of giving the unfortunate matter more attention than it deserves.

As reported today in AJC, Representative Forster is seeking to impeach the Lieutenant Governor. He is unhappy that the Senate referred the veto overrides to committee. He believes the Constitution required the Senate to vote on the overrides immediately after receiving them from the House and wants the Lieutenant Governor put on trial and punished for the Senate not having done so.

The Constitution does in fact require the Senate to “immediately consider” any veto overrides transmitted to it by the House. When the transmitted overrides were received, the Lieutenant Governor immediately suspended the business of the Senate and ordered the Clerk to read the override messages aloud. On motion of the Senate Majority Leader, they were referred to the Senate Rules Committee by unanimous consent of the Senate.

There is no question that the Senate action was “immediate.” As to whether the action itself properly constituted “consideration” (a word that literally means “to think about carefully”), the answer to that question can be found in the Rules of the Senate which explicitly permit the Senate to refer a veto override to committee.

Representative Forster argues that the veto override provision of the Constitution trumps the Senate Rules.  But the veto override provision cannot be read in isolation from the rest of the Constitution.  The provision dealing with veto overrides must read in conjunction with the provision of the Constitution giving each house of the General Assembly the power to adopt its own rules of procedure.

But as far as impeaching the Lieutenant Governor is concerned, it simply does not matter whether the committee referral was constitutionally correct or not. The referral was not made by the Lieutenant Governor but by unanimous consent of the Senate. Justifiably unhappy or not, Representative Forster has taken aim at the wrong target. His recourse is to run for the State Senate.

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One of the most controversial issues of this term has focused on the right of employees to keep firearms locked in the trunks of their privately owned vehicles, even on company parking lots. 

Senator Chip Rogers introduced a bill that would have prevented employers from conditioning offers of employment on policies that would prohibit employees from keeping firearms locked, out of sight, in their vehicles.  His bill contained many exceptions, including airports, electric power companies and any employer with a controlled access parking lot.

A version of Chip’s bill was incorporated last year into House Bill 89.  Strongly opposed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, it was tabled on the final day of the session.

Today, the Senate Rules Committee agreed to a compromise that more narrowly protects employees who hold Georgia firearms licenses.  Firearms licenses, issued in each county by the probate judge, are available only to adults of good moral character who undergo criminal background checks.

The National Rifle Association agreed to the compromise.  The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has proclaimed victory.  Many local chambers, including the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, had broken with the Georgia Chamber over its opposition to the original bill.

I voted for the compromise, and it passed out of committee with bipartisan support and just two dissenting votes.

I offered two amendments to the bill dealing with the issuance of firearms licenses.  The first amendment required probate judges to request a background check within two days of receiving an application for a firearms license.  It also required law enforcement agencies to respond to the judge’s request within thirty days.  The second amendment gave applicants the right to seek judicial relief if the probate judge refuses to act on the application within 45 days.  Both of these amendments were approved by the committee and included in the final substitute.

I am not sure yet whether the bill will come to the floor this week or next, but when it does, I expect that it will pass by a comfortable margin, with bipartisan support.

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To those of you who missed my fundraising reception last month with the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, you have a second chance to support me next week on Thursday, January 10, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the 191 Club in downtown Atlanta. It is actually a joint fundraiser with Senators Judson Hill, Dan Moody, Chip Pearson, Chip Rogers and John Wiles.

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State Senators serve two year terms (as opposed to six year terms for United States Senators), and I will be on the ballot again next year in 2008.
We had a fundraising reception in Duluth yesterday evening for my campaign. I am grateful to Governor Sonny Perdue, Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and the many members of the host committee for their participatin in this event. Special thanks to my good friend John Fretti, the Mayor of Valdosta, who traveled the longest distance to be there in support of my campaign.

I have no announced opposition yet in either the Republican Primary or General Election but will keep you posted.

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My wife has had trouble making up her mind about who to support for President.  About two weeks ago, after watching her third or fourth Presidential debate, she advised me that she had settled on Mike Huckabee.  She was impressed, among other things, with how he is able to communicate his conservatism in an optimistic and ”nonjudgmental” tone.

Today I told her that, as President of the Arkansas Baptist Convention, Huckabee had signed a letter stating that women should graciously submit to the authority of their husbands.  She paused a moment and then informed me that if I thought that would cause her to abandon the candidacy of Mike Huckabee, I was sorely mistaken.  I told her, no, that I was simply suggesting that she should follow his advice and graciously submit to her husband’s endorsement of Fred Thompson.  That did not work either.

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I was surprised last night to be honored by the Gwinnett County Republican Party with its Reagan Roundtable Award.  Chairman Greg Howard presented me with a plaque at the party’s annual Holiday dinner.  He said that I had been chosen by County Executive Committee because my legislative service reflected the “spirt of Ronald Reagan.”

I am grateful for the recognition. 

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I spent a good deal of my career as a political operative trying, without success, to defeat Zell Miller.  When I was executive director of the Georgia Republican Party in the early 1990s, I helped recruit Guy Millner to challenge him for re-election as Governor.  I even left my job at the party to manage Guy’s campaign.  In 2000, when Zell ran in the special election to fill the late Paul Coverdell’s term as United States Senator, I supported Mack Mattingly, serving as his volunteer campaign treasurer.

Perhaps that is why I reacted differently than most Republicans to Senator Zell Miller’s de facto conversion to the Republican Party.  I treated the whole business with bemused skepticism.  This is a man, after all, who had earned the nickname Zig Zag before I was old enough to vote.

But I was still looking forward to Zell’s speech at Georgia Right To Life’s Changing Hearts and Saving Lives Celebration.   I was expecting to be entertained and instead found myself being both moved and challenged.

The former Governor and United States Senator began by tracing his religious roots to the mountain churches of North Georgia.  He spoke frankly about the challenges of reconciling one’s religious faith with the demands of political expediency.  Church attendance is the easy part, he said.  Applying those principles in everyday life is the hard part.

As Governor, Zell Miller had a pretty good pro-life record.  He signed laws banning partial-birth abortion and requiring parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion.  But in his speech, he dismissed these important pro-life accomplishments, saying he had done what he did because the polls suggested it was smart, not because his heart told him it was right.

His path to the Changing Hearts and Saving Lives Celebration was marked by a family medical tragedy that forced him to his knees in prayer and a grainy image of his unborn grandchild produced by the wonders of modern technology.  He talked about Baby Samuel, a “nonviable” 21 week old fetus from Villa Rica, Georgia, whose spina bifida corrective surgery was photographed by USA Today.  Science had compellingly confirmed to him what so many believe as an article of faith — that the fetus is a human being and not a mere clump of cells.

It was a good speech, and it earned him a standing ovation.  It also gave me pause to consider my own cynicism.  Zell Miller is not running for office.  He is not looking for votes or volunteers.  He was not paid a speaking fee, awarded an honorary degree or even given a plaque.  That 75 year old man had absolutely no reason to leave his beloved home in the mountains and brave the Atlanta traffic other than he believed strongly in what he had to say.

I am glad I was there to listen, and much to my surprise, I found myself wishing that his days in public office were not over.

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