About The Banks County news. (Homer, Banks County, Ga.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 2017)
PAGE 4A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017 Editor: Angela Gary Phone: 706-410-1022 E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com Website: www.banksnewsTODAY.com Op unon “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe. ” — Thomas Jefferson Is Kemp already shooting himself When you look over the Republi can field of candi dates for the gov ernor’s race, two names stand out as front runners: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secre tary of State Brian Kemp. They are famil iar names with voters due to their service in elected office - Cagle and Kemp both served in the state Senate before mov ing up to their current jobs. They also know what it takes to mn and win a state wide campaign. Cagle has done it three times, Kemp has done it twice. They will both raise sig nificant sums of money. Kemp, in fact, announced just before the June 30 reporting deadline that he had already amassed $1.7 million in contributions. In a battle between Kemp and Cagle for the Republi can nomination, Kemp may be giving his opponent the advantage because the sec retary of state has already made several unforced errors. First, there was the mas sive data breach in the fall of 2015, when Kemp’s office erroneously distributed sen sitive personal data about each of the state’s regis tered voters, including their Social Security and driver’s license numbers. That date went out to both of the major political parties and numerous media outlets. Kemp ultimately found a scapegoat for the mess and fired one of his employees, but not before he was hit by a class-action lawsuit in Ful ton County Superior Court. He ultimately was com pelled to offer free cred it monitoring and identity theft restoration services for the 6.2 million registered voters who were potentially affected by the breach. More recently, Kemp was named in a pair of civil law suits alleging that he and other investors in a food processing company called Hart AgStrong had failed to repay more than $700,000 in loans after agreeing to personally pay back the loans. Kemp said in a state ment that he was just one of “many” investors in the Hart AgStrong business. Kemp has also put himself in the line of fire because of another decision involving personal information about the state’s registered voters. Donald Tmmp created a “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity” to investigate his unproved allegations that “millions” of people illegal ly voted for Hillary Clinton in the last presidential elec tion. The commission asked election officials in the 50 states to give it person al data about all of their registered voters, including the last four digits of each voter’s Social Security number, their party regis tration, their crimi nal record if appli cable, and their voting history. According to media reports, more than 40 states have refused to comply, either fully or par tially, with the data request from Tmmp’s federal com mission. One of the most colorful refusals came from Missis sippi Secretary of State Del bert Hosemann, a Republi can, who said: “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexi co and Mississippi is a great State to launch from.” Kemp readily agreed to give voter data to the Tmmp commission, although he said he would not pass along driver’s license num bers, Social Security num bers, birth dates, phone numbers, or email address es. “Through a simple request, any individual can get a copy of the statewide voter file after paying $250,” Kemp said. “During the last 18 months alone, over 600 groups have taken advan tage of this service provid ed by our office.” Kemp’s problem here is that he is showing his allegiance to Tmmp, who is a very polarizing figure in national politics. He is also handing over personal information about voters to the federal government, which likely won’t please Libertarian-minded Repub licans. None of these controver sies are necessarily fatal. I don’t think there was any thing venal about Kemp’s actions, and it could be that the civil lawsuits are resolved without anyone having to show up in court. Each of these events gen erated media headlines, however. You can bet those headlines will come back and figure prominently in attack ads aimed at Kemp during the Republican pri mary. If Kemp is able to win the GOP nomination, he’ll have to face the negative attacks all over again in the general election. As we saw in the recent 6th Congressional District election, attack ads can knock the stuffing out of a campaign. Just ask Jon Ossoff. Kemp may already be shooting himself in the foot, and we’ve still got months to go before voters make their primary elec tion choice. Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an internet news service at gareport.com that reports on state government and politics. He can be reached at tcrawford@gareport. com. Always enjoys tea time Three times a year, the four of us get together for a birthday tea. We’ve met at tea rooms in Bra- selton, Hoschton and Madison. Mom and I usu ally have on a hat. Sometimes our friend, Robin, and my sister, Aman da, will also wear a festive hat for the birth day get-togethers. In February, we get together for Amanda’s birthday, and in August, we celebrate Mom’s birthday. In June, we celebrate mine and Robin’s birthday. Robin is a childhood friend who we have remained close to as adults. We always enjoy getting together and laugh ing about our teenage years. A tea is the perfect way to celebrate a special occaision. This past Sat urday, we met at a tea room in Hoschton to cel ebrate the June birthdays. We’re a little behind this year because we all had a busy schedule in June. First up came the warm scones with lemon curd. This is always the start of “high tea.” We also were offered a salad or soup before the main attraction arrived. The tiered tray in a high tea is filled with a layer of small sandwiches, includ ing egg salad, chicken salad and cucumber, and a layer of sweets, including cookies and brownies. It was a great day of catching up with a good friend and enjoying a deli cious meal. I’ve always enjoyed tea time. In addition to the local tea rooms, I’ve also been to several tea rooms in Florida and Tennessee. If I pass by a tea room, I usually have to stop in and check it out. An afternoon tea is always a fun and tasty outing. In addition to the scones, small sandwhiches and pas tries that are served on the elegant tea trays, you also get to trying different hot teas. We usually all order a different hot tea so that we have four to try. In the sum mer, cold tea is also a great option. On our most recent outing, I really enjoyed the peach ginger tea. If you have a daughter who is a fan of American Girl dolls, you probably know about the tea room in Alpharetta. It’s adjacent to the American Girl store and you can take your doll with you for tea. It’s also fun to go to the American Girl Tearoom just for a meal. You don’t have to take a doll with you. On a recent afternoon when we were shopping in the area, I had to check it out even though I don’t have an American Girl doll. The staff offered to loan us one for our meal but we declined. When we moved into our new house 15 years ago, we had a tea for friends and family. Our church also had a ladies tea a few years ago. I also went to a “Mad Hat ter” tea party last year at tea room in Hoschton. It was my first themed tea party and I had a great time. The decor, as well as the menu, made for a fun outing. Angela Gary is an edi tor with MainStreet News papers Inc. She can be reached at Angie@main- streertnews.com. John Kasich was right; we need more adults in the room When I worked in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, one of the most interesting things I got to cover was the presidential primary season for the 2016 election. That state’s first- in-the-South prima ry is of course crit ically important for a Republican can didate’s chances of capturing the nomination, and so virtually every one of them visited the community I worked in, several more than once. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders also visited. Hillary Clinton, who easily won the state’s Democratic primary, did not, but for mer President Bill Clinton appeared on her behalf. During a 15-month span — from Rick Perry’s first visit in November 2014, to Marco Rubio’s appearance with then-Gov. Nikki Haley the day before the primary — I heard probably two dozen or more speeches. Reflecting back on what they all said, I came away thinking that, out of all the candidates from both par ties, Ohio Gov. John Kasich had the most potential to be a good, effective president. I’m a political independent who believes both parties are often wrong, or at least not entirely correct, and their general refusal to work together in the interests of the people they represent, not their party and whatever special-interest groups throw them the most money has often infuriated me. Looking back at some of that old coverage, Kasich captured this sentiment pret ty well. “You ever notice when peo ple mn for president, they never keep their promises?” he asked a roomful of people, several of whom had moved down from Ohio, in one of his four appearances. “That’s because they don’t under stand what they’re promising, and they don’t have the expe rience. You can’t solve major problems just by dictating. That is not the way you mn I scott thompson things in America. “You have to have a consensus of people about solving problems that aren’t so sim ple.” Kasich more than once in his appearances referred to the Republican Party as “my vehicle, not my master” and touted his previous bipartisan efforts in Congress. He was the chief architect of the 1997 federal balanced budget deal. Kasich’s more moderate tendencies didn’t turn out to be a hit in South Carolina (he finished fifth in the primary) or Republican voters across the country last year, who wanted a complete reversal from the eight years of Barack Obama. But, though still a pretty solid Republican, he doesn’t seem to have spurned his independent streak. He has been one of the leading crit ics of the Senate’s recent bill aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Ever since Obamacare became law, Republicans have campaigned vigorously on repealing it and repeal was a cornerstone of Tmmp’s presidential campaign. But the latest bill has had trouble getting the support it needs from the Republican- controlled Senate, forcing Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell to postpone a vote he hoped to get in before the 10-day July 4th recess. Some of the more con- servative/libertarian-minded senators (Ted Cmz, Ron Paul, etc.) believe it doesn’t go far enough in getting the gov ernment out of healthcare. Other more GOP moderate senators (Susan Collins, Dean Heller, etc.) have con cerns that the bill takes away funding for the poorest and sickest and will lead to higher premiums for our most vul nerable citizens. Kasich seems to fall into the latter line of thinking. “They think that’s great? They think that’s good public POLICY ON LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The policy for letters to the editor submitted to The Banks County News is as follows: • An original copy of all letters must be submitted for publication. Members of our staff will not type out or hand- write letters for people who stop by the office and ask them to do so. • Letters to the editor must be signed with the address and phone number of the per son who wrote them. The ad dress and phone number will be for our verification purposes only and will not be printed unless the writer requests it. • E-mailed letters will be accepted but we must have a phone number and address. • Letters that are libelous will also not be printed. Letters may also be edited to meet space requirements. Anyone with questions on the policy is asked to contact editor Angela Gary at Angie- Editor@aol.com or 706-410- 1022. policy?” he said last week, referring to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis that the Senate Bill would increase the number of unin sured Americans by 22 mil lion by 2026. “What, are you kidding me?” Ohio is one of the Medicaid expansion states under the ACA most likely to be hit hard by the Medicaid spending reductions planned under the new Senate proposal, as currently written. It is also one of the states hit hardest by the current opioid epidem ic and relies on the expan sion money to combat drug addiction. It’s possible that in an effort to get the number of votes he needs, McConnell may offer $45 billion over 10 years for opioid treatment that Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman has requested to soften the blow of the Medicaid reduc tions, but Kasich has said that won’t be enough. Instead, he and other gov ernors from both parties have called on a bipartisan approach to fix our healthcare system. Senate Democrats have said they would be will ing to work to address the issues with Obamacare if the GOP ceases efforts to entirely repeal it. When asked about that, Trump raised the question of whether Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his fellow Democrats were serious about that. I think it’s a fair question, and I don’t have a reason to believe either side is serious about actually working through the problems of higher and higher insurance premiums, skyrocketing prescription drug costs, etc. McConnell’s bill was drafted in secret and his attempts to get the bill to at least 50 votes (where Vice President Mike Pence could break a tie) has been conducted without includ ing the Democrats in that process and it’s been con ducted under the premise that if the GOP doesn’t sup port this plan, it will wind up with something far “worse.” Meanwhile, instead of attempting to sell the plan to the American people by specifically explaining what benefits it would bring, our president is too busy launch ing Twitter attacks against cable news show hosts. Instead of a serious attempt to address the prob lems with our healthcare system in a way that doesn’t significantly hurt the poor and the sick, our leaders are, as Kasich said, acting like a bunch of fifth-graders. “We have a healthcare civil war going on,” he said last week. “It’s all about recrimination.” Unfortunately, that’s right. Scott Thompson is edi tor of the Barrow News- Journal, a sister paper to the Banks County News. He can be reached at sthomp- son@barrownewsjournal. com. The Banks County News Founded 1968 The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga. 142 Old Highway 441 North, Homer, GA 30547 Mike Buffington Scott Buffington Angela Gary Charles Phelps Sharon Hogan Anelia Chambers Co-Publisher Co-Publisher Editor Sports Editor Reporter Receptionist Phones (all 706 area code): Angela Gary Phone 706-410-1022 Angela Gary Fax 7064)214112 Homer Office Phone 706-612-5327 Web www.BanksNewsTODAY.com (SCED 547160) Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc, P.O. Box908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 Yearly subscription rate: $25 Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga. 30547 (547-160) Postmaster: send address changes to: MainStreet Newspapers, Inc., PO Box 908, Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908 Member: Georgia Press Association Georgia Sports Writers Association
