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BACK TO THE FUTURE
Some of my colleagues in
the press found Marlow
dull and less than forceful,
but maybe I am, too.
WelL here we go again. Fm sitting here writing this without
any idea how the Congressional election will turn out. You're read
ing it after the results are in. Smart money says Republican Jim
Whitehead is our new Congressman. Gamblers say Whitehead is in
a runoff. Optimists say Democrat James Marlow is in that runoff,
too. Shrewd observers guess Republican Bill Greene is in that
runoff instead of Martow. Idealists believe that Libertarian Dr. Jim
Sendelbach should be in that runoff or should win it outright. You,
however, are the realist: you know who won.
If Whitehead is as strong as everybody says he is, even if he's
in a runoff, he'll probably crush his opponent. So maybe we're alt
better off if he wins it without a runoff and puts us out of our
misery.
This is life in Georgia's 10th Congressional District fo r
Athens liberals. We had a couple of years there in a di>trict de
signed by Democrats, but then the Republicans threw us into this
red rone, where no girl child will ever again be named Hillary.
But this was an unusual Congressional race: an open seat with
no incumbent. When Augusta-area Republican Congressman Charlie
Norwood died in the first month of his new term, this special elec
tion popped up. to be run without party primaries. The no-primary
setup even allowed Dr. Sendelbach onto the ballot without the
usual, daunting third-party signature-gathering ordeal. Indeed, if
you ever wanted to run for Congress, this was the time.
So, Dr. Paul Broun, an Athens/Ocor'ee physician who has for
a long time been active in Conservative Republican circles and
has run for Congress before, tossed his sphygmomanometer into
the race. He did so even
in the face of the fact that
his party hierarchy had
coalesced behind State
Senator Jim Whitehead,
who apparently had gained
the blessing of Norwood
while he was still able to
give it and had been quietly
positioning himself with money and contacts and Norwood's staff
and family to run for Norwood's seat when it opened up. Then Dr.
Broun even had to endure charges that he himself jumped the
gun and campaigned before Norwood was dead. No doubt there
were times out there on the campaign trail when the good doctor
must have contemplated whether politics could be any worse as a
Democrat.
I think I can confidently write this far before the polls close
that Dr. Broun will not be in a runoff, but, given who he is. he had
to run. So did Lt. Col Nate Pulliam—with no money, no name rec
ognition, no hope of winning. Yet he got into his car each day and
set out around the district campaigning and showing up for candi
date debates. Why would a guy pay S5.000 to do this to himself?
Same reason he volunteered for a year in Iraq after he was already
retired and didn't have to go.
Same reason Denise Freeman, the Lincolnton Baptist minister
had to run (again) for Congress, and Augusta-area lawyer Evita
Paschall, and Loganville Realtor Mark Myers, and Atlanta education
administrator Erik Underwood and Braselton conservative activist
Bill Greene, who guards our Internet against liberal operatives and
moonlights as a Minuteman guarding our southern border against
illegal immigrants.
An open Congressional seat is the gold standard of American
politics. When one opens, if you dr n't try to sit in it. you're going
to be left standing in the dust.
I supported James Marlow because he's smart and knowl
edgeable and seems sophisticated enough to hold his own in
Washington but small-town enough to relate to the people he
would represent. Some of my colleagues in the press found Marlow
dull and less than forceful, but maybe I am, too.
So, there probably are enough Republicans in this district to
put both Whitehead and Greene into a runoff, but I'm hoping
Marlow can squeak in there. I sincerely believe from the bottom of
my misguided, liberal heart that the Republican Party has deserted
its own traditional values and has been taken over by pirates, who
launched a ruinous war and botched it, while dismantling the tat
tered safety net that government should provide here in America. I
want a Democrat out there calling them on it for another month in
the runoff, and I hope that Democrat is Marlow.
I guess you're getting a good laugh out of all this, knowing
what you know and I don't But that's okay. A political race forces
candidates to talk about issues and forces people to talk about
candidates.
Whitehead won't be any worse than Norwood, and most of us
won't even know he's our Congressman, or care. With Marlow, at
least here in Athens-Clarke County, we would know we had us a
Congressman.
Pete McCommons editorOflagpole com
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE:
NEWS & FEATURES
Book Review 9
An Investigative Reporter's Take on Dwight “Malachi" York
A review of Bill Osmski s new book Ungodly A True Story of Unprecedented £\nt
Can the Progressives Ever Win? 10
; Author Laura Flanders Thinks So, and She Wants to Tell You Why
The Air America radio host and author will be in Athens this week
to talk about her new book on progressive politics m America
ARTS & EVENTS
Art Notes 15
Artists of AthFest
The low-down on art happenings at this year's Athfest What s up at Lyndon House Aits Center and more
MUSIC
Music! Art! Film! More Music!
| AthFest 2007 F^ogram
; See full schedule inserted m this issue
You Need to Be There! 26
: Flagpole Athens Music Awards ♦ AthFest Picks
| Info on the show, phis writers' picks tor shows not to be missed
.
Camp Amped 31
Nutt’s Space Aims Its Music Summer Camp At Athens Kids
The local resource center's first camp tor local adolescents runs for two weeks m July
LETTERS 4
CITY PAGES 6
CAPITOL IMPACT .8
BOOK REVIEW 9
LAURA FLANDERS 10
OUT THERE! 12
ART NOTES 15
MOVIE DOPE 16
MOVIE PICK 17
LOST PICTURE SHOW 18
ROLLER GIRLS 19
ABC ; 21
ABCOATL 25
ATHFEST PICKS 26
MARY SfGALAS 28
CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE 30
CAMP AMPEO 31
RECORD REVIEWS 32
THREATS & PROMISES 33
COMICS 34
REALITY CHECK 35
CLASSIFIEDS 36
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