About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 2018)
6A OPINION ®he £ntics gainesvilletimes.com Friday, November 9, 2018 Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Submit a letter: letters@gainesvilletimes.com The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. LETTERS Some concerns of proposed 279-lot subdivision are ignored by board On Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, Ponderosa Farms LLC presented its proposal to the Hall County Planning Commission for a 279-lot subdivision on a 121-acre tract on Ponderosa Farm Road. During the meeting, the Planning Com mission heard from multiple residents who objected and had serious concerns regarding the proposal. Unfortunately the Planning Commission did not address any of the concerns brought to them by our residents. The main concern raised by homeowners in the area was the overwhelming number of homes being proposed on the amount of acre age — 279 houses on 121 acres is ridiculous and Ponderosa Farm Road cannot handle this over development. Hall County Planning Commission members made their mind up before ever hearing one objection or concern from homeowners in the area. The commission voted unanimously and approved the proposal. Fortunately, we have one last chance to be heard and express our concerns for the overdevelopment of this farm land as it now goes to the Hall County Board of Commissioners for final approval. A subdivision is not the problem, 2.3 houses per acre is. We ask that all Hall County commis sioners please be open minded (unlike the Plan ning Commission) and listen to the concerns raised by homeowners. May common sense prevail. Kevin Sturm Gainesville To submit letters: Send by email to letters@ gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files) or use the contact form at gainesvilletimes. com. Include name, hometown and phone number; letters never appear anonymously. Letters are limited to one per writer in a month’s time on topics of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters may be rejected from readers with no ties to Northeast Georgia or that address personal, business or legal disputes. Letters not the work of the author listed or with material not properly attributed will be rejected. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters and other commentary express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times. Your government officials U.S. government President Donald frump, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500, 202-456-1111,202-456-1414, fax, 202-456- 2461; www.whitehouse.gov Sen. Johnny Isakson, 131 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, 202-224- 3643, fax, 202-228-0724; One Overton Park, 3625 Cumberland Blvd., Suite 970, Atlanta 30339, 770-661-0999, fax, 770-661-0768; isakson.senate.gov Sen. David Perdue, 383 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, 202-224- 3521, fax 202-228-1031; 3280 Peachtree Road NE Suite 2640, Atlanta 30303, 404-865-0087, fax 404-865-0311; perdue.senate.gov. U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, 1504 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202- 225-9893; 210 Washington St. NW, Suite 202, Gainesville 30501,770-297-3388; dougcollins. house.gov U.S. Rep Rob Woodall, 1725 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202- 225-4272, fax 202-225-4696; 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville 30045, 770-232-3005, fax 770- 232-2909; woodall.house.gov Hall County government Board of Commissioners, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville, P.O. Drawer 1435, Gainesville 30503, 770-535-8288, www.hallcounty.org. Chairman Richard Higgins, rhiggins@hallcounty. org; District 1, Kathy Cooper, kcooper@ hallcounty.org; District 2, Billy Powell, bpowell@ hallcounty.org; District 3, Scott Gibbs, sgibbs@ hallcounty.org; District 4, Jeff Stowe, jstowe@ hallcounty.org. County Administrator, Jock Connell, jconnell@ hallcounty.org Planning Commission, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville, 770-531-6809. Tax Commissioner’s Office, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, P.O. Box 1579, Gainesville 30503, 770- 531 -6950, taxcommissioner@hallcounty.org Tax Assessor’s Office, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville 30504, rswatson@hallcounty.org. Real estate property, P.O. Box 2895, Gainesville 30503, 770-531 -6720; personal property, P.O. Box 1780, Gainesville 30503, 770-531 -6749 Public Works, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville, 770-531-6800, krearden@ hallcounty.org Extension office, 734 E. Crescent Drive, Gainesville, 770-535-8293 Marshal’s Office, P.O. Drawer 1435, Gainesville, 770-531-6762 Elections Office, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville, 770-531-6945, elections® hallcounty.org Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Gerald Couch, 610 Main St., Gainesville, 770-531-6885, www. hallcountysheriffsoffice.org Fire Department, 470 Crescent Drive, Gainesville, 770-531 -6838, www.hallcounty.org/fireservices Sessions’ firing shows Trump’s strange definition of loyalty The day after the midterm elections, President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, replacing him at least temporarily with a more pliable loyalist. When Sessions got the news on Wednesday, he asked if he could finish the week. Nope. Close of business today was the answer. Now, as a matter of law, Sessions wasn’t fired. The president asked him for his resignation and Sessions agreed. That matters, because if Sessions had made Trump fire him, some restrictions would kick in that might make killing the Mueller investigation more difficult, if the president ends up going that way. In other words, Sessions’ last official act as attorney general was one more act of unrequited loyalty to the boss. Trump talks a lot about loyalty. He says it’s very important to him. A few months ago, he suggested it should be against the law for people facing criminal charges to “flip” on their bosses. This was in the con text of his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly considering doing exactly that. In Trump’s best-selling book “The Art of the Deal,” there’s a fascinating pas sage about his mentor, infamous lawyer/ fixer Roy Cohn. “He was a truly loyal guy,” Trump wrote. “It was a manner of honor with him.” He went on: “Just compare that with all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty.... Roy was the sort of guy who’d be there at your hospital bed long after everyone else had bailed out, literally standing by you to the death.” But it was a one-way street. When Cohn contracted AIDS, “Donald found out about it and just dropped him like a hot potato,” Susan Bell, Cohn’s longtime secretary, told Polit ico. “It was like night and day. ” Trump literally and figura tively wouldn’t stand by the man who would’ve stood by him. Sessions was the first sena tor to endorse Trump, at a time when doing so was still a consider able political risk. He campaigned for Trump. He defended Trump’s most controversial statements — about immigration, about Hillary Clinton, etc. A longtime advocate of restrictionist immigration policies, aggressive law enforcement and the drug war, Sessions saw in Trump a real opportunity to get his preferred agenda implemented. And, as attorney general, Sessions more than any other Cabinet secretary put pol icy meat on the bones of Trump’s rhetoric. But none of that mattered, because Sessions, a former U.S. attorney and Alabama attorney general, believed he needed to recuse himself from the Muel ler probe into allegations that Trump “colluded” with Russia. According to various reports, Sessions believed he not only had a legal and ethical obligation to do so, he also believed his recusal would be politically beneficial to the president because it would protect the integrity of the investigation. Trump saw it differently. He believed that the first loyalty of the attorney gen eral should be to Trump personally, not to the law or the Department of Justice. This view was shared by Trump’s most reliable loyalists, many of whom claim to be passionately committed to the “Trump agenda.” But whenever that claim is put to the test, they reveal they are more committed to Trump himself. Jeanine Pirro of Fox News railed against Sessions, calling him a “shill” and hectoring him to “resign immedi ately” or “put on his big boy pants.” Lib erty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who tends to define both conserva tism and Christianity as personal loyalty to Trump, said that Sessions was merely one of those conservatives who “pre tend” to be a “friend of conservatives and the faith community.” He also said Sessions should rot in jail because, well, because Falwell is an idiot. This is all one piece of the broader tapestry of what Trumpism always boils down to when put to the test: a cult of personality. Support of the man is more important than support of anything else, including Trump’s own agenda. I dis agree with Sessions on quite a few things, but the notion that he isn’t a conservative is silly. More importantly, the idea that he’s not a conservative — or a man of integrity — simply because he wouldn’t display blind loyalty to the president is grotesquely unconservative. Sessions resigned from the Senate to become attorney general because he thought he could accomplish important things. Trump had him fired (he refused to even talk to Sessions personally) because at the end of the day, the only truly important thing in Trump world is Trump. Jonah Goldberg is an editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. JMmm JONAH GOLDBERG goldbergcolumn@ gmail.com D&byV&MtetVfatercGraip LISA BENSON I Washington Post Writers Group What does 2020 mean for Trump and Dems? The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board What was the biggest surprise of this election in which Democrats won control of the U.S. House? Maybe that President Donald Trump is still plan ning to visit France this weekend for a World War I commemoration, instead of traveling to a battleground state for a political rally. No, it’s not too soon to be thinking about 2020. Because you know Trump is gaming out re-election strategies right now, just as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, among other Democratic leaders, is contem plating how her party can retake the presidency and Senate. You weren’t hoping to take a breather from politics, were you? This next stage of competition will play out on multiple levels. Soon, some of the Democrats who’ve been popping up in Iowa and New Hampshire will join U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., as announced presidential challengers. That surely will fire up Trump, who loves campaigning at least as much as governing. Meanwhile in Washington, expect that every day will be a struggle for control of the government — and the political narrative. With their House victories, Democrats are no longer strictly the voice of opposition in D.C. Chances are any major legisla tion passed during the second half of Trump’s term — can Americans even hope for legislative solutions in a grid- locked capital? — will require coopera tion from Democrats. Maybe there will be no such cooperation, which some in the party would see as capitulation. Along with their majority position, House Democrats will gain oversight powers, including the ability to launch investigations and demand documents — on Russian interference in elections, relations with Saudi Arabia, the admin istration scandal du jour. That could make life difficult for Trump. Here’s what Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, the top Democrat on the oversight subcommittee on governing operations, told Bloomberg: “It’s not like we’re going to go drunk-crazy with subpoenas. But it may seem that way because we are coming off a two-year drought of no subpoenas.” So not drunk on power, but maybe a little tipsy. On Wednesday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York gave Americans another preview of their emerging approach as he reacted to the news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had resigned at Trump’s request. Nadler, likely to chair the House Judiciary Committee, said he wants to know more about the impact of Sessions’ departure on the Mueller investigation. “We will be holding people accountable,” Nadler warned. Given a binary choice of legislate or investigate, we’re guessing that Connolly and Nadler would choose the latter. There’s widespread belief that divided government is positive for the country because it nudges the parties to compromise. “Bipartisanship,” they used to call it, like back in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan signed a tax reform act sponsored by Democrats. Americans of a certain temperament look back fondly at that era. Trump won’t go there of his own volition. The self-described “counter puncher” is most energized when he’s berating foes and stirring up dust. It’s an ugly act that doesn’t always work. Trump, after all, failed to keep Repub licans in charge of the House. That was mainly because he incited aggrieved Democrats to support their candidates. But while Trump lost the House battle, he didn’t lose the war. His presi dency did not succumb to a blue wave of opposition. Republicans appear to have increased their clout in the Sen ate, which means they’ll likely keep confirming Trump’s judicial nominees. They also won a number of important races for governor; they pivot to 2020 holding the governorships (and thus levers of power) in Florida and Ohio, arguably the two most crucial swing states in a presidential election. On Wednesday and beyond, America is just as divided as it was before Tues day’s election. But with that flip of House control and with lingering divi sions in both major parties, everything is amped up. Is that a reason for Americans to despair? Not at all. There’s work to be done as well as progress to be pro tected. The economy is going great guns; employers are hiring. Trump and the Democrats may dislike each other, but they can’t engage in fisticuffs 24/7. Both will want to show voters they know how to run the country. Because the race to 2020 is on. She Stines EDITORIAL BOARD Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com General Manager Norman Baggs Editor in Chief Shannon Casas Community member Brent Hoffman
