Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2008
Named the best weekly editorial page in the nation for 2007, 2008
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
our views
T his past
year may go
down in the
history books as a
time when the world
shifted. “Change”
was the mantra of
the political season
and it’s ironic that
the word now rings
opposite of its intend
ed purpose.
When Barack
Obama made
“Change” his politi
cal keyword, he was
referring to a new,
more positive and less divisive direction for Washington.
Perhaps Obama will someday be successful in that
quest. But for now, the word “change” has a distinctly
negative connotation.
The change we saw in 2008 was the collapse of eco
nomic prosperity as most Americans saw their net eco
nomic worth decline by one-third or more.
Home values, which are the main assets in most fami
lies, fell significantly. Foreclosures skyrocketed as thou
sands of families simply exited from home ownership.
Retirement savings were thrashed by the massive
decline in the Stock Market that hit in September.
Unemployment nearly doubled by the end of the year
and will likely go much higher before it reaches a pla
teau.
Government income, which had been going up at a
double-digit pace, declined for the first time in decades
during 2008 as fees and sales taxes spiraled downward.
Some big banks failed and others are on the verge of
collapse as the nation’s financial system reels from the
defaults on Wall Street and the bust of the real estate
market.
The U.S. auto industry is in freefall.
And then there was the corruption, greed and blatant
stupidity of leading government and corporate officials.
It’s bad enough to have an economic collapse; it’s even
worse to look behind the curtain and realize that many of
the wizards on Wall Street, in Detroit and in Washington
were just sleazy rob
ber barons whose
greed sucked the life
out of the nation’s
working class. That’s
why the Washington
“bailouts” are so pro
foundly unpopular;
it’s salt on an open
wound.
Yes, 2008 was a
year of change, but
not what we wanted.
It will likely go down
with 1932 and 1968
as a year when a his
toric transition took
place. In each of these years, the political, social and
economic tectonic plates shifted, collided and created an
earthquake that reshaped the world as we knew it.
If there is any saving grace to 2008 it’s that most average
Americans accepted it with remarkable equanimity.
Many of those who faced foreclosure accepted respon
sibility for the problem, admitting they’d bought more
house than they could really afford.
The election of Obama as president was profoundly his
toric, but it didn’t cause a counter-revolution. Even those
who didn’t support him accepted the vote and wished
him well. For all its flaws, our political system worked.
And in the financial marketplace, there has been little
panic. People joke about not opening their 401k bank
statements after September’s collapse on Wall Street.
Some banks have been taken over by the feds and others
are in trouble, but there’s not been a run on deposits or
widespread panic.
Americans, by and large, are resilient and will face
whatever comes with humility and resolve.
And that will be the ultimate “bailout” for this nation. The
economic problems will not be solved by Washington,
or the corporate elites; they will be solved by average
citizens who take greater responsibility for their own lives
and who, in light of all the political, corporate and regula
tion failures, will now demand greater accountability of
their leaders.
Yes, change came in 2008. Where we go from here will
be up to us.
2008: The year that was
.-r*
-*A""pL
IP 2,008
Y6AR IS
'■ REVIEW •
Etri-JONY I
— —
h- = t LCT.T
The winners and losers for 2008
IN ANY election year there will be roughly
equal groups of winners and losers. Here
are the Georgia political figures who can feel
good (or bad) about their wins and losses of
the past year.
Winner: Saxby Chambliss.
It’s incredible that a politician who did so
much to alienate his supporters could still
win reelection, but Chambliss did. During the
18 months prior to the 2008 general election,
Chambliss appeared to go out of his way to
annoy GOP voters: he was booed at the state
Republican convention for his immigration
reform bill, criticized for sponsoring an expen
sive farm subsidy bill, attacked on talk radio
for negotiating with Democrats on an energy
bill, and denounced for voting to spend $700
billion on the Wall Street bailout.
Those positions pushed Chambliss danger
ously close to defeat in the general election -
the mere fact that he was forced into a runoff
against a poorly financed Democrat has to be
a major embarrassment. But Chambliss’ sup
porters came home in the runoff and enabled
him to coast to victory.
Winner: the Georgia Republican Party.
A Democratic wave in other states swept
Barack Obama into the presidency and
gave the party firmer control of Congress.
Georgia’s GOP, however, was able to keep the
state’s electoral votes in John McCain’s col
umn and retain a hammerlock on the General
Assembly. The party still looks like the best
bet for victory in the 2010 governor’s race.
Loser: the Georgia Democratic Party.
You would be hard-pressed to name a state
political organization that squandered a bigger
opportunity than local Democrats did in 2008.
They could have exploited the surge of black
voters energized by Obama to win back some
seats in the Legislature but Democrats failed
to even put candidates on the ballot in several
competitive districts.
Loser: Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Perdue’s supporters hoped he would be
picked as McCain’s vice presidential run
ning mate or at least get an appointment to
a McCain cabinet - but neither of those pros
pects worked out. He had also been seen as
a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2010, but that
went by the wayside when Johnny Isakson
decided to run for
another term.
After a reelection
campaign in 2006
where he boasted of
saving Georgia from a
$600 million budget def
icit, Perdue was forced
to pull $600 million out
of the state’s reserve
fund in 2008 to erase a
similar deficit. Under
the Perdue administra
tion, Georgia’s schools
also continued to rank
in the bottom 10 per
cent while the state’s highways are among the
most congested in the nation. With a record
like that, why would he even want to serve out
his last two years as governor?
Winner: Glenn Richardson.
Even with a well-publicized divorce, shout
ing matches with Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey
Cagle, and the collapse of his tax reform plan,
Richardson was still able to fight off a chal
lenge for the House speaker’s position from
Rep. David Ralston. After all the huffing and
puffing was over, House Republicans voted
75-25 to give Richardson another two-year
term as speaker.
Winner: Johnny Isakson.
Georgia’s senior senator, who had been
mulling the 2010 race for governor, announced
this year he’ll just run for another Senate term
instead. By not getting into a governor’s race
he probably would have won, Isakson made
sure he won’t have to spend four years dealing
with legislative temper tantrums over budget
and tax issues. That’s a win right there.
Loser: Jim Martin.
Martin did what many thought was impos
sible by pushing heavily favored Saxby
Chambliss into a runoff election for the U.S.
Senate. In the runoff, however, Martin per
formed about as poorly as he did in his 2006
race for lieutenant governor, drawing less than
43 percent of the vote. Even in losing, though,
Martin still earned the gratitude of Democrats
both in Georgia and Washington. They will
be eternally grateful that he at least prevented
Vernon Jones from winning the Democratic
primary.
He could have been a winner: Roy Barnes.
If the former governor had been the
Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate this
year instead of Martin, Barnes might well have
knocked off Chambliss. Barnes is also seen as
the party’s best hope for winning back the gov
ernor’s office in 2010. But will Roy run? He’s
been asked the question but he won’t commit
to a statewide race.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol
Impact's Georgia Report. He can be reached
at tcrawford@caDitoIimDact.net.
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875 • The Official Legal
Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
News Department
Angela Gary Associate Editor
Jana Adams Mitcham Features Editor
Brandon Reed Sports Editor
Kerri Testement Reporter
Sharon Hogan Reporter
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
PO Box 908
Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908
Web Site: www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
Email: mike@mainstreetnews.com
Voice: 706.367.5233
Fax: 706.367.9355 (news)
Periodical Postage paid at Jefferson,
GA 30549 (SCED 271980)
Yearly Subscriptions: $19.75 in-county; $38.85
in state; $44.50 out-of-state; Sr. Citizens’ and
college students $2 off; Military $42.50
Pat Bell:
A ‘doer’ bows out
W ITH the “reported” retirement of
county commission chairman Pat
Bell, who the heck will I have to write
about in 2009?
I say “reported” retirement because it’s difficult
to believe she’ll be out of the public eye. As one
wag observed at the
ceremony held in her
honor two weeks ago,
the words “Pat Bell”
and “retirement” are
an oxymoron.
Bell has defied the
odds so many times
that it’s become a
cliche. Often under
estimated by her
political foes, she has
time and again risen
to challenges that
would have withered
a person of weaker
character.
Retire? Only if there’s a statute of limitations on
gumption.
To say Pat Bell is energetic is like saying a hurri
cane is a little breezy. And where she focuses that
energy, things happen.
That was evident in Jackson County way back
in the 1970s when Pat organized her 4-H organiza
tion to do a massive cleanup at Hurricane Shoals
Park. Today, such an effort would require five proj
ect managers, three consultants and a dozen envi
ronmental, archeological, botanical and financial
studies. It would take a dozen years and several
hundred thousand taxpayer dollars.
Not in Pat’s world. She got a bunch of teenage
volunteers to do it for free.
That she became involved in politics after her
years as county extension agent must have been
like entering the Gates of Hell for Pat. One day she
was getting things done, organizing projects and
making big things happen. The next day, she was
tossed into a sea of bureaucrats and politicians
who ...move... at ....a.... glacial... pace.
It was always a clash of cultures. Pat is a classic
“doer.” Talking about doing bores her to tears. But
that’s what most governments do; talk and talk
and talk.
You could often see the fmstration on her face
at meetings. You knew that she’d like to slap some
long-winded blowhard silly for wasting her time.
Above Pat’s head you could see a cartoon bubble
that said, “Quit talking about it honey and just go
get it done!”
But saying that Pat has been a doer does not
mean she just got caught up in the moment.
She was also visionary in the sense that she was
always thinking ahead with the question, “What
comes next?”
That has been an innate sixth-sense for Pat. She
didn’t need studies and reports to tell her what
problems needed to be solved; she just knew.
For one example, the Bear Creek Reservoir
fell into her lap. It wasn’t her idea, but she cast a
key vote to commit Jackson County financially
to the deal. She knew water would be increas
ingly important long before the current drought
made that apparent. And as she exits office, the
county is embroiled in legal action to protect its
investment in Bear Creek Reservoir. A leader with
less vision would have just closed their eyes and
ignored the issue, gone along to get along. Not
Pat.
The other big thing that most people would
say about Pat’s years of public service is that she
never did anything to help herself. In an era when
some public officials attempt to use their position
to profit personally, Pat has walked away from
such temptations. That has been a credit to her
and has on several occasions, restored the public
trust in Jackson County leadership at a time when
it had been tarnished by others.
I’ve been covering Jackson County politics for
many years now and I’ve seen a lot of public offi
cials come and go. Some have been pretty good.
Some were stinkers.
But I can’t think of any public official in the last
20 years who has left so many fingerprints on so
many critical issues in Jackson County as Pat Bell
has done. And nobody comes close to her verve.
From the courthouse to the statehouse, from
her thousands of hours in dozens of volunteer
groups, to hundreds of young people whose lives
she touched with her 4-H leadership, Pat Bell has
directly or indirectly affected everyone who lives
or works in Jackson County and beyond.
Wednesday is Pat Bell’s last day as chairman of
the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. She
has earned a real retirement.
But it’s difficult to imagine the local political
landscape without Pat Bell marching around it,
cajoling, prodding, pushing and getting the things
done that need to be done — and kicking a few
butts that need to be kicked.
I’d like to wish her well. But just in case she gets
bored, I’ll keep a mnning list of rear-ends that her
shoes might need to meet in the future.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald.
He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.