November 14, 2007
It is assumed by political pundits that Hillary Clinton will be the democratic nominee for president next year. For six months she has consistently sustained a twenty point lead over her nearest rival, Barrack Obama. With less than three months to go before the February 5th mega Tuesday primaries she will be hard to derail. In fact, the Las Vegas odds makers handicap her to win the whole ball of wax next November.
November 07, 2007
Even though Barack Obama is giving Hillary Clinton a challenge in the democratic race it appears that she will be tough to beat. She has been the favorite since the beginning and she is not faltering. She is running a flawless campaign. It has been a two person race for at least six months and Obama is the only threat for an upset. It appears that the rest of the field is simply posturing in hopes that she will pick one of them as her running mate. Therefore, the big question looming is will she pick Obama as her vice presidential running mate?
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October 31, 2007
The new political professionals who run campaigns today are highly paid hired guns. They go from state-to-state running U.S. senate and governors’ races all over the country. Much like the gunslingers of the Wild West days they build a reputation. Just like the western gunslingers of bygone days, who would swagger into a bar of a new town and haughtily soak in their deference and respect or fear, these modern day political gunslingers waltz into a state demanding huge fees to elect the candidate who has hired them for that year’s campaign.
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October 24, 2007
As a young boy I was fascinated with politics. I would devour political history with an insatiable appetite. At the same time I developed a close friendship with the two most veteran and powerful politicians in my county. They perceived that we were kindred political spirits and they were amazed and amused at my interest and enthusiasm in their game of politics. It was not only a game to them, it was their livelihood.
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October 17, 2007
As mentioned to you numerous times in this column the State of Alabama revenues are divided into two major funds. Unlike many of our sister states, who have one general fund and most of their tax dollars are unearmarked, our budgets are divided between a general fund and an education fund and most of our tax revenues are earmarked. Indeed the vibrant growth taxes, income and sales, are earmarked for education. Therefore, over the past few decades, due to the earmarking of these two rich veins of revenue, the education budget has incrementally surpassed the general fund in size.
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October 10, 2007
Historically congressional and legislative districts have been redrawn every ten years when new census figures are taken. However, the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark decision last year opened the door for legislatures to reapportion congressional and legislative districts at any time rather than every decade.
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October 03, 2007
Rumors are that Gov. Riley still plans to call a special legislative session for late October. An extraordinary session of the legislature is designed for emergency problems arising in state government that require legislative approval. George Wallace used the special session route often and masterfully to get what he wanted. He had a powerful grip on the legislature during his reign. In addition, the constitutional requirement inherent in a special session, which requires the legislature to focus on what the governor calls the session for, gives a governor a tremendous advantage in getting his issue approved.
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September 26, 2007
Several weeks ago I commented on the mean-spirited nature of politics today. There is a vicious, pervasive, take no prisoners, warfare mentality prevalent between the two political parties.
I attributed this acrimony to the legislative and congressional districts around the country being drawn so that they are either extremely republican or extremely democratic. This makes the legislators from that district very partisan. Therefore, he or she is dogmatically republican or democratic with very few moderate rational lawmakers. They detest their counterparts. This is a recipe for disharmony and gridlock with no real pragmatists or statesmen to create meaningful compromise legislation. It is no surprise that congress has an abysmal approval rating, even lower than President Bush which is pretty low.
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September 19, 2007
Three Alabama political icons from the 1960’s passed away in late summer. They all three lived long lives and their memories are indelibly planted into our state’s political history.
Richmond Flowers was born on Armistice Day November 11, 1918 in Dothan. He was the fourth son born to one of Dothan’s oldest families. His older brother Paul, who later became the most prominent physician in Dothan and founded Flowers Hospital in the hub of the Wiregrass, was three years old when their neighbor old Dr. Green came out of the Flowers’ home and told Paul that he had a little brother. All kinds of fire whistles blew and shotguns fired into the air. Bells were ringing over the celebration of the end of World War I but poor little Paul thought they were celebrating the birth of his little brother Richmond.
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September 12, 2007
Very seldom will I venture a prediction on a major race like president, especially over a year out and with each party having ten candidates openly vying for their nomination. In addition, it is the most open presidential race in my lifetime. It has been 80 years since a president was not seeking reelection and a sitting vice-president was not seeking to move up. The race is truly wide open.