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4A ♦ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2006 Houston 3Daikj .IJmmuil OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans Managing Editor Editor Emeritus A new front runner? Move over Hilary. Any of you other Democrats thinking about a 2008 presidency? Forget about it. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois let it be known this past week that he is “weighing” the notion of running for the presidency. And you can bet for top-level Democrats weighing the decision is the same thing as opening the door. And you can bet “if” he runs, all bets are off for all other challeng ers. After all, this is the guy who, following his keynote address in 2004 - described by others as “electrifying” - had Democrats looking at themselves asking: “Why isn’t ‘he’ our candi date?” This time he may be. Before, for Democrats it was sort of like the 2006 Tour de France(and the Tour de Georgia). You knew you had a good candi date in Floyd Landis but you just couldn’t get excited about it. But when seven-time winner Lance Armstrong was in the field: Our nation was abuzz. Obama, a Hawaiian born 45-year old African American, brings that to the Democrat table. Letter to the Ephtor No harm for our children Did you know that on the Nov. 7 ballot, Georgia voters will be given the opportunity to decide one of the most important issues facing hunters and anglers in years? Don’t be surprised if you have not heard about this “Hunting and Fishing” amendment, but with election day fast approaching, now is the time to act! You can affect the future of Georgia’s outdoor tradi tions simply by voting “yes.” On the ballot, you will be asked this question: “Shall the Constitution be amended so as to provide that the tradition of Fishing and hunting and the taking of fish and wildlife shall be preserved for the people and shall be managed by law and regulation for the public good?” Your yes vote on the “Right to Fish and Hunt” Constitutional amendment will help ensure that Georgia’s sporting traditions receive the highest form of legal pro tection possible. This amendment will ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the outdoors as sports men, just as we did as children and adults. With our abil ity to hunt and fish elevated from a privilege to a right, conservation groups can continue to spend donated dol lars on valuable wildlife and educational programs rather than fight radical groups in court over how, when and where Georgians can hunt and fish in the future. For additional information on this issue, please visit the Georgia Outdoor Traditions web site at www.gaoutdoor tradition.org. Please vote YES for hunting and fishing Nov. 7. John Trussell, Board Member, Georgia Outdoor Traditions Worth Repeating “The right to vote freely for the candidate of one’s choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of represen tative government” Earl Warren, 1891-1974 Chief Justice, V.S. Supreme Court Governor of California (Republican) Republican Vice Presidential Candidate (with Dewey) HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. All letters printed in The Home Journal will appear with the writer’s name and hometown - we do not publish anonymous letters. The news paper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Letter writers are asked to submit no more than one letter per person per week. We cannot guarantee that a letter will be printed on a specific date. The Home Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters to the editor are published in the order they are received as space permits. A Journal employee will call to verify the author of each letter. There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E-mail it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The Houston Home Journal at P.O. Box 1910, Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at 1210 Washington St. in Perry - between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. And you can bet tor top-level Democrats weighing the decision is the same thing as opening the door. And you can bet "if" he runs, all bets are oil for all other challengers. 50 years of making people iiappy' I attended the 50th anniversary cel ebration for the Houston County Association for Exceptional Citizens (Happy Hour) a few days ago. Nothing pretentious about the event. Just recognition of the accomplish ments of this remarkable organization and the people who make it so impor tant to our community. Fifty years ago the Warner Robins Jaycees and Jaycettes joined with a small group of parents who saw the need to help disadvantaged children. They organized and, in a town of about 10,000 people, laid the groundwork for an organization that today has hundreds of volunteers and about 175 exceptional children and adults. They held their first class at Second Baptist Church with seven children. A successful fund drive by the Jaycees and Jaycettes raised enough money for their first building, which was com pleted in 1964. It has grown steadily ever since, and some of the great men and women who were there at the beginning still are making significant contributions in money, support and hard work. The city of Warner Robins donated land for Happy Hour’s first building. Since then it has expanded its facili ties, including two group homes funded by HUD. There now are three workshops, where handicapped persons do produc tive work and are paid for it. “If I had taken the time to vote, I wouldn’t have made dumb choices like you did!" Gingrich: Still GOP's true speaker So why was it the Republicans in 1998 decided that Newt Gingrich had to go as U.S. speaker of the house? The continuing crisis over former Florida U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s inap propriate contact with teenage pages and the handling of the situation by current House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois jogs my memory back to November 1998. That’s the day Newt Gingrich, the man whose political campaigns I had chaired for years, suddenly resigned from Congress altogether. I fumed when he had to step down. I fume still. Now I get to unload on the GOP ingrates who turned on the only Republican in my lifetime, other than Ronald Reagan, to have original politi cal ideas. The day Gingrich resigned, I left early in the morning to take my family to our mountain house. Everyone in his office said Gingrich had the votes to remain as speaker. What many don’t know is that Gingrich, when he first moved into my North Atlanta district in 1992, was not popular even with Republicans. A group of us, who had established constituencies in the area, pulled every string and made every connection pos sible to help barely lift Gingrich past a virtually unknown opponent in the congressional Republican primary. It proved well worth the effort. I then witnessed the effort of Gingrich and a devoted cadre of pro gressive conservatives to reinvent pub lic policy programs, culminating with the Contract with America. I wanted to strangle Newt when he resigned. But his explanation to me made sense - it wasn’t worth continu ing the fight for true reforms if he had to also fight Republicans lacking the intestinal fortitude to see them through. Now, with the GOP House polling Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox.net The Association has contracts with Robins AFB and numerous business es. The work done in these workshops is professional and high quality. Also, there are contracts for recy cling. It is a big business, in itself. From the beginning Happy Hour has received broad support from the com munity. With a budget of $4.2 million a year it still needs more money to keep up with the growth of our area. As I sat there in the presence of more than 200 generous, warm-hearted vol unteers I was humbled to be in their presence. They are the kind of people—dedi cated, hard working, without fanfare or publicity—who make you proud to live in this community. Some of those who were in on the birth of this great organization say they want to be around to celebrate another 50 years of accomplishment. They won’t be, but the memory of what they sowed and have nourished Matt Towery Columnist Morris News Service lower all the time over everything from Mark Foley to ethics to the federal bud get, I ask again: Why did Newt Gingrich have to resign? He didn’t have to and shouldn’t have. I’m not judging Gingrich, but I’m about to judge some accepted history. Current research of that time mostly assures us that Gingrich’s plunge in popularity was largely a result of his showdown with President Bill Clinton, which forced a “government shut down,” and, subsequently, Gingrich’s alleged irritation at having to exit Air Force One from the rear of the plane when it returned from Israel. Sure, the media transformed the shutdown into a caricature of Gingrich as being coldhearted. But it was Clinton’s unwillingness to negotiate on tough budget constraints pushed by the Republicans that led to the short shutdown of government operations. And Gingrich’s alleged complaint about the airplane landing was taken out of context. He pointed out that Clinton had avoided the GOP leadership on board for the 20-plus hours of the flight. Budget negotiations could have been taking place. Then the president simply lacked manners in shunting the Republicans out the back of the plane. In reality, the shutdown was a con certed action by Congress to do what most Americans wanted them to do, rein in big government. Further, it was Gingrich’s capital gains tax cut that helped to spur the economy for which President Clinton ■HHk <■*> vBHK if will be remembered on that occasion. ■ ■■ During the current political sea son I keep reading about cutbacks in funds for various programs, when actually the amount of money being spent on them, including education, has increased substantially. This is the way critics of those in power come up with their claims of “cutbacks.” Departments submit pro posed budgets, which usually are unre alistically high, When the budget pro posals are reduced the word goes out that there has been a cut in funding for the year. Anytime you hear talk of “cutbacks” for federal or state programs, look behind the scenes and see what really happened. I learned how this process works when I was mayor of Warner Robins. Department heads consistently pre sented proposed budgets that exceeded our ability to fund them. So we cut back the proposed budgets, but usually were able to increase overall funding for departments based on their actual needs. It is a game played on all levels of government. It provides fodder for critics with an axe to grind and willingness to bend the truth. is now so widely credited. And it was Gingrich who forced issues of balanced budgets and welfare reform. It may have made him a poster boy for the left, but it ended up helping make the Democratic president’s legacy appear grand. As for the impeachment issue, which is also noted in many articles as hav ing hurt Gingrich, well, that too is a stretch. Gingrich was savvy enough to know that the effort to remove Clinton would be unpopular. But his members demanded action, and he fol lowed what he felt was a constitutional duty, if clearly an ill-conceived politi cal action. For all he did, his reward from an ungrateful bunch of spoiled Republicans was a demand that he walk the plank for having lost a few House seats in the 1998 elections. To his credit now, he has publicly stood by embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert, despite the fact that he would be well justified to hang him out to dry. Just remember, Republicans: What goes around comes around. This brilliant leader has had eight years to reinvent himself. With a party begging for brains and action in place of cocky half-wits and slick-looking talking heads, Newt Gingrich is look ing more and more like the hero he truly was. He’s still the GOP’s true Mr. Speaker. Matt Towery served as the chairman of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s political organization from 1992 until Gingrich left Congress. He is a former Georgia state representative, the author of several books and currently heads the polling and political information firm Insider Advantage. To find out more about Matthew Towery and read fea tures by other Creators Syndicate writ ers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web site at www.creators. com.