Random questions (and smiles) of a summer's night as we head into the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Warning: some of the following paragraphs include adult language and graphic portrayals of stupidity.
The death of Michael Jackson will obviously shift the media's obsessive focus away from the extramarital exploits of Gov. Mark Sanford and his paramour from the pampas, but before we leave that topic entirely, let's look at some analysis of what the Sanford and John Ensign scandals might mean for the Republican Party.
For political bloggers, Mark Sanford is the gift that keeps on giving. Honestly, the laughter never stops with this guy. After going off the grid for five days, the bedraggled South Carolina governor finally returned to his home state on Wednesday and admitted to the media that he had spent a few days in Argentina where, as the old song goes, he'd just met a girl named Maria.
I always thought that Mac Barber, in his kind and gentle fashion, was one of the strangest people I'd ever encountered in writing about politics. But I didn't consider the amazing levels of nuttiness that would be achieved by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has been criticized in some quarters for not having much of a vision for the state's future, but his standard response to that criticism has always been that he's more interested in making sure Georgia becomes the "best managed" state that responds quickly to its "customers" (taxpayers).
Taking a quick look at political developments from outside Georgia . . .
I don't usually sit through oral arguments before the Georgia Supreme Court, but I may just do that on Monday when the justices consider an appeal of Willis v. City Of Atlanta.
In the ongoing debate over healthcare reform, the Republican Party's current talking point is that the Democrats' health plan will put "a bureaucrat between the doctor and the patient," a development that would make it impossible for doctors to practice good medicine. You'll hear that phrase uttered by every Republican Party official or operative who's interviewed on cable news.
The advertising slogan about Las Vegas, "What happens here stays here," doesn't seem to apply to Nevada politicians anymore.
Taking a quick look at some of the other political websites . . .
Tondee's Tavern has posted the first of what will apparently be several analyses of legislative districts represented by GOP incumbents who might be vulnerable to an election challenge next year. The spotlight falls first on Rep. Jill Chambers, a DeKalb County Republican who has been elected four times in a district that went for John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. The Tavern will also be looking at Reps. Mike Jacobs, David Casas, Katie Dempsey and Rich Golick.
I'm not quite sure why the Georgia Supreme Court would devote so much time and attention to this relatively minor litigation, but the justices handed down a 4-3 decision Monday that upheld Clarke County's local noise ordinance that forced two UGA students to turn down the volume on their music.
What sort of future lies ahead for the national Republican Party? Dan Balz of the Washington Post analyzes the latest demographic data and concludes that the party's future is not exactly a promising one.
In an op-ed published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week, state Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville) warned about the dangers of excessive spending and taxation during the recessionary times in which we live.
I'm sure this will do wonders for the GOP's outreach efforts with minority voters. Rusty DePass, described as a longtime Republican Party activist in South Carolina, stirred up a bit of a media controversy when he mused in a Facebook posting that a gorilla escaping from the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia was probably related to Michelle Obama.
My gosh, has it already been a year since Tim Russert, NBC commentator and Meet the Press host, died suddenly of a heart attack? Tim, we hardly missed ye.
In an interesting report out of Troup County, it appears that local government officials are complaining because the state Department of Transportation won't pay the full costs of resurfacing the access roads to the proposed Kia auto assembly plant (a repair project with an estimated cost of about $1 million).
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is making another try to pass his tax credit for homebuyers through Congress, introducing legislation this week that would take the first-time homebuyer credit of $8,000 that was adopted earlier this year and not only expand it to $15,000 but make it available to all buyers.
The smashing landslide victory by Creigh Deeds in Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial primary this week has given hope (or maybe a touch of boldness) to one of the Democrats running for governor in Georgia, House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin).
Senate Republicans are expected to filibuster to try to prevent a vote
on the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Even with
their thin numbers (there are only 40 GOP senators), Senate Republicans
are under intense pressure from their base to oppose Sotomayor under
any and all circumstances. 
Kudos to Carrie Teegardin for an excellent article in the Journal-Constitution detailing the state's offer of $96 million to persuade NCR to relocate its corporate headquarters to Gwinnett County and open a manufacturing plant in Columbus.There were two significant developments on the gay marriage issue this week. New Hampshire's conservative Democratic governor, John Lynch, signed legislation that authorizes same-sex marriages in that state, which brings the number of states where it's been legalized to six. Former vice president Dick Cheney also said he supports gay marriage as long as it is made legal at the state government level.
Taking a look at some political developments outside the boundaries of Georgia:
Roy Eugene Barnes set the right tone for his announcement that he'll try to regain the governor's job from which he was booted in 2002 by Georgia voters: conciliatory, somewhat apologetic, at least giving the appearance that he sort of understands why he and his sidekick Bobby Kahn pissed off so many people back then.
After months of speculation and guessing, it looks like Roy Barnes is finally jumping off the fence and getting into the race for governor. Whether the other candidates like it or not, he clears the field in the Democratic primary. Does DuBose Porter now run for lieutenant governor? Should Thurbert Baker go ahead and accept that federal judgeship? My educated guess is that David Poythress continues with his long-shot campaign but he will likely be relegated to the ranks of nuisance candidates.Paul Krugman, who's one of the smartest people playing the punditry game, presents us with another gem in his Monday column for the New York Times. Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist, lays out a plausible case that the causes of the current collapse of the financial industry and the economy can really be traced back to Ronald Reagan's signing of the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act in 1982. That bill deregulated the savings & loan industry, which went hog-wild making bad investments and essentially went belly-up in less than a decade.
