gapolitics.net

Mike Jacobs has been on the outs with Democrats almost since he got elected and starting opening his mouth and pointing his voting finger. He hasn't had the support of the "status quo" of the party for some time...the Bobby Kahns and Dubose Porters of the world...and for a long time those against the status quo were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, or so it goes. But this session, Jacobs voted for the Speaker (again) and the rules (again) and then went on to vote for Peachcare cuts and to bring back payday lending not once but twice.

Now only a small band of Jacobs associates will defend him and rarely at that. Democrats around the state and metro area have their sights (and sites) set on him in a primary for his house district, which Decaturguy and others have pointed out isn't the swing district lean Republican land that some of his supporters try to paint it as. Even if they might be impressed with Mike's dealings with the Republican leadership they didn't send him to the Capitol to gut Peachcare and bring back Payday lending (among other bad votes).

From Bruce Bartlett, the conservative columnist who is encouraging some Republicans to hold their nose and pick the Democrat who is least obnoxious to them in next year's Presidential elections:

The price of purity is political powerlessness.

Read the whole thing.

I want to start out my first diary by saying that Nikema Williams and her family are in my prayers and thoughts. Finding out that a loved one has cancer is certainly not my definition of fun.

Now, to clear the air a little bit, people posted both here and at Blog For Democracy about an alleged conversation between Anne Bartoletti and Nikema where Anne was alleged to have flatly told Nikema that she needed to resign as Congressional District chair because her mother had cancer.

Then the ball really started rolling with people calling for Anne's head -- of course she did that, she is a terrible person the comment process went. When I said hold up lets try to get the whole story Bernita even went so far as to say shut up you don't know what you are talking about.

When the Democratic world in Georgia talks about the end of the Shirley Franklin era (and for some, being "Not Bill Campbell" is no longer enough) they often become bogged down in a Kasim Reed/Vincent Fort/Lisa Borders pro and con debate. And who can blame them, in a city that gave John Kerry 75% of the vote compared to only 24% for George W. Bush it is almost a foregone conclusion that the next mayor to be elected will be an out and proud Democrat in what is nominally a non-partisan race.

Enter Clark Howard. Reporters know and like the guy. And he has a large following in the city of Atlanta and nationwide. In a city that is majority minority (in 2005 neither whites nor blacks made up 50% of the electorate) partisanship has a way of breaking down into racial lines which could create an opening for Howard.