August 26, 2011
Last week I chronicled the amazing transformation of the makeup of our congressional delegation over the last 50 years. In 1961 all eleven of our senators and congressmen were all white male Democrats. Today eight out of nine of our members of congress are Republican and two of our members are females. Let us compare their paths to power to the 1961 group.
Our senior senator, Richard Shelby, is identical to the group of yesteryear. He is practically a carbon copy and may have even been aware of this traditional path. His career perfectly replicates the earlier era.
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August 19, 2011
The political picture of Alabama 50 years ago was quite different from the one you see today. In 1961 we were on the cusp of beginning a decade of turmoil and political strife. The 1960’s were dominated by George Wallace and the race issue. The early fall of 1961 was the quiet before the storm. Bear Bryant won his first national championship that fall. John Kennedy was president. Our entire congressional delegation was made up of all Democrats.
Fast forward 50 years and what a sea change. Not only has our delegation on the Potomac been completely reversed on a partisan page, so has the entire Deep South. In 1961 all eleven of our members of congress were all white male Democrats. Today eight out of nine of our senators and congressmen are Republicans. In addition, two of our nine members are female and one of the females is an African American.
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August 12, 2011
Legislators must redraw congressional lines every 10 years after the census to equalize populations in each district. Every state in the union is required to have their new district lines drawn prior to next year’s congressional elections. While most states are in the throes of addressing congressional redistricting, Alabama is not one of them. Ours is done and ready for the 2012 elections. Alabama’s new Republican majority legislature saved the state about $500,000 by addressing congressional reapportionment in the regular session instead of in a special session, which most states require.
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August 05, 2011
Last week I shared with you some observations from the gambling trial playing out in Montgomery. This week I would like to further elaborate on the amazing lack of evidence the prosecution has offered against most of the defendants. Ironically, the taped conversations offered by the young inexperienced prosecution team flown in from Washington often exonerate the defendants rather than incriminating them.
The perfect example of this backfiring occurred in the prosecution’s attempt to implicate former State Senator Jim Preuitt. It is a well known fact among Goat Hill observers that Jim Preuitt is a wealthy self-made man with a quiet, reserved and thoughtful demeanor. When the indictments were handed down the media seized on the sensational accusation that Preuitt had been offered and accepted a million dollar bribe. My first impression was that this seemed ludicrous. Knowing Jim Preuitt very well, I knew that he would not accept a bribe and, furthermore, he did not need a million dollars.
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July 29, 2001
The sensational political gambling trial continues to play out in Montgomery. The scene is analogous to a theater production. The show is a blend of Broadway and Hollywood that resembles a movie based on a John Grisham novel.
As the trial drones on in the Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Federal Courthouse, it is apparent that as predicted it will last at least three months. It began on June 6 and has now been playing for eight weeks. We are only at about intermission. It will probably not close until after Labor Day.
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July 22, 2011
Next year is a big year in national politics. It is a presidential election year. The candidates are beginning to lineup. They will be testing the waters in early primary and battleground states.
President Obama will be the Democratic nominee. He can be defeated if the Republicans select a moderate as their nominee. Obama won because of the economy in 2008. The economy is still in the doldrums. Therefore, he could lose. If you live by the economy you will die by the economy.
Alabama and our sister deep south states have never gotten too excited about presidential politics. It is probably because we have never been a factor. For 84 years, from 1880 to 1964, we voted automatically Democratic. Since 1964 we have voted reliably Republican. Therefore, it is a foregone conclusion that we will vote for the Republican nominee for president.
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July 15, 2011
As late as 20 years ago Alabama was known as the worst state in America to do business in when it came to lawsuits. We were considered a wild west everything goes frontier to garnish outlandish judgments from any corporation doing business within our borders. It was truly a jackpot justice system that was almost comical if it were not so devastating. We were the subject of national business magazines, which chronicled the examples of ludicrous judgments that read like a comic book. The National Enquirer could not even compete fictionally with our factual examples of bizarre justice. Time Magazine referred to us on their cover as America’s “Tort Hell.”
The business community in Alabama and throughout the nation decided to remedy this situation. They put their money where their mouth was and decisively began to outspend the plaintiff trial lawyers who had gotten rich off of the situation. They began this effort in the 1990’s and outspent the trial lawyers by a 5 to 1 margin.
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July 08, 2011
There is a time honored maxim that says power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is a fact that the Republican Party is the dominant party in Alabama. We are now a totally red state from our choices for the White House to who represents us in the halls of the nation’s capitol. On the state level our choices for governor and all six of our other constitutional offices as well as eight out of nine of our State Supreme Court justices are Republicans. Now our legislature is also predominantly Republican.
This Republican mandate has been established for probably the foreseeable future. The question is will it be corrupt because it is total? From a party standpoint probably not. We have always been basically a no party state. We were a no party state when we were all Democratic and we will be a no party state now that the GOP rules. We do not get too excited about party politics. Personality has always been larger than party in Alabama and indeed throughout southern politics.
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July 01, 2011
When Alabama was being settled in the early 1800’s our first settlers were diverse in their origins. Our river regions were the most desirable lands. Indeed this is where the Indians lived. They realized the importance of water and the abundant fishing for their sustenance besides the natural advantage offered by these waters. The river basins also offered the most fertile soil for cultivation.
Among these river basins is a swath of land across the middle of the state that extends from Georgia to Mississippi. This area is known as the Black Belt. This region of our state is called the Black Belt because of the rich, black, luminous soil found there. This rich black soil is perfect for growing cotton. The people who settled the Black Belt were looking for new cotton lands. They had burned up their soil in the east coast of Virginia by planting the cash crop cotton continuously year after year. The soil they found in the Black Belt was much better than their worn out soil in the tidelands. Therefore, the people who settled in the Black Belt were primarily planters from Virginia and Georgia.
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June 24, 2011
The month of June in Alabama has seen the culmination of one of the most productive legislative sessions in state history, the beginning of a sensational gambling trial and record breaking sweltering heat.
Next year will be an election year but it is a presidential election year, which is not the big year for Alabama voters. Historically we have not gotten too excited about presidential politics. This is probably because we have never been a factor.
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