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The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
On your payroll
city council
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
P.O. Box 3177, Cumming, GA 30028; (770) 887-4342
Mayor Pro-Tem, Lewis Ledbetter
205 Mountain Brook Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3019
Ralph Perry
1420 Pilgrim Rd.. Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-7474
Quincy Holton
103 Hickory Ridge Dr.. Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-5279
Rupert Sexton
705 Pine Lake Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-4332
John Pugh
10813th St., Cumming. GA 30040; (770) 887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Charles Laughinghouse, Post 1
3550 Rosewicke Dr., Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 886-7937; office. (770) 886-2810
David "A.J.” Pritchett. Post 2
4840 Chesterfield Court, Suwanee, GA 30024
(404) 392-6983; office. (770) 886-2809
John A. 'Jack” Conway, Post 3
6130 Polo Club Dr.. Cumming. GA 30040
(770) 886-9226; (770) 886-2807
Marcie Kreager, Post 4
9810 Kings Rd., Gainesville, GA 30506
office. (770) 886-2806
Eddie Taylor, Post 5
4195 Morningside Dr., Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 886-2802
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Ann Crow
96 Barker Rd.. Cumming. GA 30040
(770) 887-9640: acrow@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Paul Kreager
9810 Kings Rd.. Gainesville. GA 30506
(770) 889-9971: pkreager@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Nancy Roche
7840 Chestnut Hill Rd.. Cumming. GA 30041
(770) 889-0229; nroche@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Rebecca K. Dowell
2030 Commonwealth Place, Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 844-0830: rdowell@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Chairman Jeffrey Stephens
PC. Box 169. Cumming, GA 30028
(770) 889-1470:jstephens@forsyth.k12.ga.us ’
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
U.S. Sen. Zell Miller
Russell Senate Office Building. Room C-3
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3643: Fax: (202) 228-2090
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss
1019 Longworth House Office Building
Washington. DC. 20515
(202) 224-3521
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 10th District
2437 Rayburn House Office Building.
Washington. D.C. 20515
Gainesville: PO. Box 1015. Gainesville. GA 30503
Gainesville, (770) 535-2592
Washington: (202) 225-5211; Fax: (202) 225-8272
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U.S. Rep. John Linder, 7th District
1727 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington. D.C. 20515-1011
Washington: (202) 2254272: Fax: (202) 225-4696
STATE LEGISLATORS
Sen. David Shafer, 48th District
109 State Capitol
Atlanta. GA 30334
(404)651-7738
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Sen. Casey Cagle, 49th District
421 State Capitol, Atlanta. GA 30334
(404) 656-6578: Fax: (404) 651 -6768
Sen. Dan Moody, 27th District
(770) 695-3127;
Office (404) 463-8055
Sen. Renee Unterman, 45th District
(770) 466-1507;
Office (404)463-1368
Rep. Tom Knox, 14th District
Legislative Office Building, Room 504
18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-0188, (770) 887-0400, law office
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Rep. Jan Jones, 38th District
412 Legislative Office Building, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0137
Rep. Jack Murphy, 14th District
Legislative Office Building,
Room 612, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0325
(770) 781-9319, home
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GOP malaise on Bush growing
WASHINGTON At 1
p.m. on Feb. 25, some 15
prominent Republicans invited
to be surrogates in the coming
presidential campaign gath
ered at Bush-Cheney head
quarters in suburban Northern
Virginia for a private briefing.
Less than two hours earlier
that day. Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan
detonated a political bomb
shell. To judge from the bland
and uninformative briefing,
nobody on the president's
campaign team heard the
explosion.
Former Montana Gov,
Marc Racicot, a Washington
lawyer-lobbyist who last year
resigned as figurehead chair
man of the Republican
National Committee to
become figurehead chairman
of Bush-Cheney 'O4. led the
precisely orchestrated, one
hour briefing. He did not men
tion that Greenspan had just
testified to Congress advocat
ing reduced Social Security
benefits. Racicot might be
excused for being silent and
unaware of the centra)
banker’s latest political mis
chief. since it also escaped the
attention that morning of key
Bush policymakers.
The invited advocates were
handed a thick batch of talk
ing points to ingest by the
campaign's appropriately
named chief of surrogates,
Julie Cram. Nowhere in the
handout did the forbidden
* I
1
Meet the outlaw-in-chief of San Francisco
I watched Gavin Newsom,
outlaw-in-chief of San
Francisco, on "Larry King
Live" last week. With his
slicked-back hair and silk tie.
the 36-year-old mayor is the
perfect model for the Radical
Left's Extreme Makeover.
Out: Drug-addled, draft
card-burning, Molotov cock
tail-tossing, campus protesters
of the 19605.
In: Merlot-sipping, gay
marriage license-peddling,
cocktail party-throwing, pretty
boys in elected office.
Mayor Newsom looks a
little like Ben Affleck and
talks a lot like Bill Clinton.
He's got a trophy wife with
three names (former lingerie
model Kimberly Guilfoyle
Newsom) and a five-point
government plan for every
thing from renewable energy
("Expedite implementation of
San Francisco's solar energy
bond") to homelessness
("Care Not Cash" and "office
based opiate addiction treat
ment") to "aging with dignity"
("I will support Adult Day
Health Care"). Newsom
knows better than you. He
feels your pain (if you're a
member of a politically cor
rect minority group).
And he's all for paying lip
service to the rule of law
except when it gets in the way
of "diversity."
When Rep. Marilyn Mus-
Robert
Novak /
|
words "Social Security"
appear. "The president's oppo
nents are against personal
retirement accounts" is the
closest the briefing material
came to the dreaded subject.
Many prospective surrogates
left campaign headquarters
profoundly depressed by the
mediocre briefing and the
material given them.
This fits the deepening
malaise among Republicans in
the capital. They are neither
surprised nor terribly worried
by polls that temporarily show
George W. Bush trailing John
Kerry What worries the GOP
faithful is the absence of firm
leadership in their party either
at the White House or on
Capitol Hill.
The lack of a ready
response to Greenspan, while
Democrats quickly turned his
comments into an indictment
of President Bush's tax cuts,
was not an isolated failing.
Today, Republicans on either
end of Pennsylvania Avenue
seem to be going in opposite
directions:
• Disagreement between
congressional Republicans
and Bush over the size of the
highway hill reflects mutual
recriminations over runaway
Michelle ’ W
Malkin JK
■ESBESSW K
grave, the Colorado Repub
lican sponsoring a federal
marriage amendment, bluntly
confronted Newsom with his
criminal behavior ("I'm going
through the deliberative leg
islative process, Mr. Mayor.
You're defying the law."), he
pursed his lips and snorted:
"I'm hardly defying the law."
Hardly? Fact: In 2000,
California voters overwhelm
ingly approved Proposition
22, the state's Defense of
Marriage Act. Despite
Newsom's issuance of 3,500
marriage licenses to homosex
ual couples. Prop. 22 remains
the law today.
Musgrave didn't back
down: "You're making a
mockery of the law." Newsom
wheedled in response: "I think
you're making a mockery of
this country and our values of
diversity, and bringing people
together and uniting people."
Newsom has inspired left
ists in government positions
across the country to violate
their oaths of office in order to
"bring people together." The
26-year-old mayor of New
Paltz, N.Y., Jason West, has
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Frldiy, M«rch S, 2004 I
federal spending in general.
While the president's aides are
angered by the lawmakers'
addiction to concrete, conser
vative lawmakers are furious
that Bush's budget has pre
served and actually increased
federal funding for the arts.
• Bush's call to make his
tax cuts permanent and to
repeal the estate tax for all
time leaves Republicans in
Congress perplexed about how
they will be able to write a
budget without a massive
increase in the huge deficit
that never will command a
majority vote.
• House Speaker J. Dennis
Hastert and his allies are bitter
that they received no backing
from the president and admin
istration in their efforts to
keep the independent 9-11
investigation from extending
into the campaign season.
• The president came out
for a constitutional amend
ment to bar gay marriage
without consulting congres
sional Republican leaders,
which helps explain the unen
thusiastic reception from his
own party on Capitol Hill.
• Congressional Repub
licans still have not recovered
from the shock of the
President's Economic Report
extolling the outsourcing of
industrial jobs good eco
nomics perhaps, had politics
definitely.
The disaffection is such
that over the last two weeks,
issued marriage licenses to 21
gay couples in his village.
Ithaca Mayor Carolyn K.
Peterson said her city will now
accept marriage licenses from
same-sex couples. Ditto
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
The mayors of Minneapolis.
Salt Lake City, and Plattsburgh,
N.Y, have all chimed in to sup
port Newsom's urban guerrilla
tactics.
Many astute observers
have noted the media elite's
double standard in covering
the liberal Newsom's defiance
of California's marriage law
(he’s praised as a pioneer) ver
sus conservative Alabama
Judge Roy Moore's defiance
of a federal court order to
remove the Ten Command
ments from his courthouse
(he's condemned as a zealot).
But this is just the tip of the
iceberg.
Saboteurs in three-piece
suits have been making
mincemeat of the rule of law
on a daily basis without so
much as a shrug from the anti-
Roy Moore watchdogs.
Where’s their outrage over the
open-borders zealots on city
councils and in police depart
ments in San Francisco,
Chicago, Seattle, Portland,
Los Angeles and New York,
which have openly defied fed
eral immigration laws and
declared their cities sanctuar
ies for illegal aliens?
normally loyal Republicans
actually including more than a
few members of Congress
are privately talking about
political merits in the election
of Sen. Kerry. Their reasoning
goes like this: There is no way
Democrats can win the House
or Senate even if Bush loses.
If Bush is re-elected.
Democrats are likely to win
both the House and Senate in
a 2006 midterm rebound. If
Kerry wins. Republicans will
be able to bounce back with
congressional gains in 2006.
To voice such heretical
thoughts suggests that
Republicans on Capitol Hill
are more interested in main
taining the fruits of majority
status first won in 1994 rather
than in governing the country’.
A few thoughtful GOP law
makers ponder the record of
the first time in 40 years that
the party has controlled both
the executive and legislative
branches, and conclude that
record is deeply disappointing.
But incipient heresy also
reflects shortcomings of the
Bush political operation. Its
emphasis has been on fund
raising and organization, with
deficiencies in communicating
and leadership. The president
is in political trouble, and his
disaffected supporters who
should be backing him aggres
sively provide the evidence.
Robert Novak is a nation
ally syndicated columnist and
a television commentator.
Where's the condemnation
of California and Washington
state public university offi
cials. who continue to flout
state laws passed over
whelmingly by the voters
through the initiative and ref
erendum process outlaw
ing racially discriminatory
affirmative action policies?
And where's the alarm
over politicians nationwide
enacting local resolutions to
undermine federal anti-ter
rorism efforts? The Arcata.
Calif., City Council has
made it a crime for govern
ment employees to comply
with requests made under the
Patriot Act. Just last week,
Dallas passed a resolution
condemning the Patriot Act
that gives the city's law
enforcement officials "politi
cal and professional cover"
to resist federal orders relat
ed to the law. New York
City's anti-Patriot Act resolu
tion likewise urges cops to
refrain from threat profiling
and to resist cooperating with
homeland security authori
ties.
The shiny pied pipers of
the lawless Left are leading us
to drown in societal chaos.
Oh. well. At least we’ll have
"diversity."
Michelle Malkin is a
nationally syndicated colum
nist. Her e-mail address is
ma I kin @ Comcast. net.
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