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HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL Michigan could change the GOP’s future Months ago, one of my clos est and smartest friends, Georgia House Speaker Pro Tern Mark Burkhalter, told me he was committing to Mitt Romney for president. I told him I didn’t think Romney had a chance. Now I’m starting to think my for mer colleague and good buddy is graduating to political genius. I know many “Reagan Republicans” believe Romney has flipped and flopped on too many issues. Plenty more people think he’s bought his way to a prominent position in the polls by overspend ing in lowa find New Hampshire. "That row of electoral ducks might be unhappy hunting for Rudy Giuliani, who otherwise looked ready to gather enough steam to head Into the "Super-Duper Tuesday" sweepstakes with don'Mook-back momentum." If all dogs go to Heaven - maybe Trouble can adjust By GEORGEAYOUB Morris News Service If you think you ‘have money trouble, I can assure you that Trouble has money. Twelve million simoleons to be exact. Trouble is a white Maltese whose former owner, the infamous Leona Helmsley, left the miserable cur sl2 million. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a lot of kibble. OK, so maybe the pam pered pooch is an upstanding canine citizen. Her former master, however, a con victed felon and noted harpy who treated any number of us in the little people uni verse like scum. That’s why Helmsley went to prison. She blew off pay ing taxes, a right she had earned according to her own demented economic theory. “Only the little people pay taxes,” she once told an ROBBINS From page 4A I looked at him like he was nuts. What was that he was smoking? “See, kid, if you can cross that without holding on, you can go all the way across there. It’s the same thing, only longer,” he said, waving his cigarette around as he spoke. I didn’t tell him what he just said made no sense, for LETTER Front page 4A judging students as profi cient-between 60 and 80 points - when placed on the NAEP 500-point scale. Massachusetts had the high est “NAEP score equivalent.” City of Warner Robins PUBLIC NOTICE According to the Georgia Municipal Election Code 21-2-379.8 notice is hereby given that the Election Superintendent shall place on public exhibition at City Hall, 700 Watson Blvd, a demonstrator (DRE) voting equipment unit that will be used by voters on the November 6, 2007 General Election. But in the complex recipe for presidential politics, this year there is a new ingredient - a sift ing and shifting of the dates for presidential primaries in various states. Strategies predictions - must change with them. The Michigan Legislature has voted to move its presidential primary up to mid-January. The likely national lineup of primaries and caucuses now reads, in order: lowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Michigan, South Carolina and then Florida. Following that arrives an avalanche of primaries on a sin gle day, the so-called “Tsunami Tuesday.” That row of electoral ducks might be unhappy hunting for Rudy Giuliani, who otherwise looked ready to gather enough steam to head into the “Super- Duper Tuesday” sweepstakes with don’t-look-back momentum. That goes for Fred Thompson, too. He will be entering the race officially next week. It had been looking like Romney’s gamble of betting the farm on lowa and New Hampshire was backfir ing. How many Americans care about lowa - which Romney basi cally is buying- or New Hampshire, a neighbor to Romney’s home of Massachusetts? And he’s been barely registering in the polls in South Carolina and Florida, and most everywhere else. employee. For the record she left her chauffeur 100 large, two grandkids 10 million each on the condition they visit the grave of their father once a year, and in true Joan Crawford fashion right down to the exact words from the actress’ will two other grand children nothing for “reasons that are known to them.” The rest (it’s in the bil lions) she left to her and her husband’s charitable trust. To recap: A bunch for phi lanthropy, a little for the driver, two nice pieces of change for a couple grandba bies, nada for a couple others and sl2 million for the dog. Sometimes I think wealth is wasted on the rich. Trouble’s big day was not the only troubling money story I read Wednesday. CNNMony.com reported that in 2006 the average CEO of a large U.S. company fear that he would get mad and kidnap me. Instead, I told him I didn’t think I could make it across. He insisted I could. We went back and forth, until finally, I said, “okay, I’ll do it.” This guy wasn’t going to be happy until I tried it, or split open my skull, which was proba bly part of his plan to kidnap me anyway. So, with smoking Doobie Brothers guy encouraging me from the sideline, I stuck my hands out and started to In other words Massachusetts proficiency standard matched the NAEP standard for fourth grade reading, better than any other state’s. Mississippi had the worst score equivalents in that subject and grade, followed by Tennessee, Georgia, Alaska, and Vida Rawls Municipal Election Superintendent fli o ummst But politics is fickle stuff. Right now Michigan is making it so. Consider this scenario: Romney wins lowa, New Hampshire, and does OK in the second-tier Nevada caucus. Next comes Michigan, where Romney has much in his favor. It’s considered a GOP “estab lishment” state. It’s not some where that “New York, New York” is frequently whistled, as it is in Giuliani’s home of New York state. Nor is it a place where wonk eggheads like Newt Gingrich are considered mainstream; or where molasses-mannered Southerners like Fred Thompson strike a tonic chord. As it was when Romney’s father, George, was governor decades ago, Michigan remains a sort of Jerry Ford-ish, don’t-rock-the-boat, plain vanilla Republican state. Mitt Romney will slide into that atmosphere like a hand into a silk glove. So will the old guard Republican establishment that made 364 tirfles what the average American worker made. In real numbers that works out to about sll mil lion vs. $30,000, give or take a few digits. That includes full and part time employees, which lowers the workers’ numbers. If 364 makes you wince, it’s actually an improvement. CEOs made 411 times what we made in 2005. The dubi ous record for the wage gap is 525 set in 2000. Obviously that was before we really got a handle on pouring obscene amounts of cash into corner offices even when its occupant did lit tle to improve the company or, in some cases, made it worse. Otherwise, it might appear we are doing something strange like leaving a for tune to a flea magnet. Of course, it’s all a mat ter of perspective, I suppose. inch my way out into the cen ter of the rink, looking like a miniature Frankenstein as roller skating kids streaked around me. About the time I got to the center of the rink, I heard the guy scream, “You’re halfway there, dude. Keep it up!” I did. Gaining confidence, the last 10 feet or so I was rolling and actually had some control over what I was doing. When I reached the rail on the other side, I turned around, raised Oklahoma.” My son was in fourth grade last year. 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Now, having the fresh air Elton & Vcrneaa Tucker you want is as easy as pressing a button (478) 9234111 when U ' s Fresh Air hy Ea, Q uest ™ r 00051252 52798 OPINION Think of the poor average CEOs who had to schlep to work every day in 2006 knowing that* the average private equity and hedge fund manager was making 61 times more dinero than they were. (That works out to be about $658 million, less, of course, what it costs to feed and water the dog.) Meanwhile, millions of Americans punch in and out every day, moving it on down the line and keep ing the home fires burning afterward. I would guess that even in a capitalistic system, where the theory of hard work and reward is alive, most workers would wonder why someone would leave her hound what nine of them together would make in a lifetime. They may also wonder, as they tote and lift, if the one in charge of the whole hive my hands in the air, and screamed “Yeah! I did it!” I looked across the rink, hop ing to celebrate my roller skating victory with my new friend and coach. He was gone. Over the next week or so of roller skating camp, I never saw the guy again. But I became a fairly decent skater because of his encour agement, and much more importantly, learned some thing about fear. It doesn’t take much to make a differ ence, does it? /RUSH AIR riJRiriHRS backs him in many states. y If Romney wins lowa, New Hampshire and Michigan before heading to Florida, he could by then be edging up to the status of front-runner, perhaps unstoppable front-runner. Money usually chas es wins in the Republican Party. For better or worse, the GOP often nominates the candidate who’s winning, and not necessarily the one who is best qualified or most likely to win the general election. My feeling that Romney would be pummeled in the general elec tion by Democrat Hillary Clinton is a sentiment backed by public opinion surveys. It could be that such a dire tea reading for the GOP is a bit pre mature. I’ve come to measure the presidential candidates primarily on their intensity and their tal ent for hanging tough through the merciless marathon of a presiden tial race. (Incidentally, marginal candidate Ron Paul is certainly the most unique of the Republican field, and often the most dead-on.) Giuliani clearly still has what it takes. John McCain clearly Jias deflated to a shadow of his 2000 self. The others have been mostly ignored. Romney keeps exceeding expec tations for both fundraising and for just plain appearing presiden tial. Matched up against Hillary Clinton, his never-at-a-loss-for Kathy Brown, Warner Robins WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2007 is worth 364 more times than all the worker bees, if just as much or more honey could be made if the gap was half of that. Of course, if you have it, why not spend it: On your dog, your grandkids, what ever. You can’t take it with you. 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Many on the right wing of the Republican Party view him skeptically as not bone-marrow conservative - a warmed-over, if spit-shined George Bush. My friend Mark is a true Reagan Republican. And if the presiden tial primary schedule stays as it is today, even those reluctant GOP diehards may see a chance for new life in* Mitt Roirvney. Matt Towery served as the chair man of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s political organiza tion 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 informa tion firm Insider Advantage. To find out more about Matthew Towery and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web site at www.creators.com. , came to keeping her hotels clean, left $3 million to keep her mausoleum spiffy, includ ing a yearly once over of washing or steam cleaning. 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