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9 MAR 04: LET'S PLAY HOT POTATO

The buck was passed again Monday in the Kenneth Walker investigation. Well, maybe we should say the political football....

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker announced Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges will oversee the Kenneth Walker case. We can already count two winners from this move - convenience stores in Parrott and Dawson, from lawyers stopping for gas along Highway 520.

Ken Hodges revealed he took possession of the six-volume state report on the Kenneth Walker case last week, and already has it in Albany. Uh-oh, Hodges may be in trouble already - because civil rights groups couldn't watch him open the Government Center vault.

Ken Hodges told one TV reporter his study of the Kenneth Walker case probably will be "not as fast as some would like." This probably came as a surprise to many people - because both supporters and opponents of David Glisson have made up their minds, without even seeing the state report.

Attorney General Thurbert Baker said in a statement he chose Ken Hodges for the Kenneth Walker investigation because Hodges is "willing to make tough calls." This apparently means some people are NOT willing to make tough calls. Take Sheriff Ralph Johnson on the night Walker was shot....

The Georgia Attorney General noted Ken Hodges even had the courage to prosecute an Assistant Police Chief in Dougherty County for bribery. Somewhere inside the Government Center, District Attorney Gray Conger must feel like he's chopped liver.

Speaking of the Government Center, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition President William Howell submitted a first set of petitions Monday to recall Sheriff Ralph Johnson. Howell needed 100 names, and he turned in 120. Maybe now African-American
children will see the importance of learning math skills.

William Howell says he's confident he can get 30,000 signatures from registered voters, to force Sheriff Ralph Johnson into a recall election. Talk about overconfidence! We couldn't get 30,000 total votes on the sales tax question last
November.

Sheriff Ralph Johnson is up for re-election in November. William Howell says he has a candidate in mind to run against the Sheriff, but he will NOT name that person at this time. Hmmmmm.... is D.J. Jones really the right person for this job?

All these developments occurred after Monday's Ledger-Enquirer published a letter from David Glisson's parents. They say the former deputy is NOT racist, and grew up around African-American friends. That sounds good - but how often has he eaten collards?

Leroy and Katie Glisson revealed in their newspaper letter former Deputy David Glisson asked for an African-American judge to preside over his wedding two decades ago. Is that why he lives in Salem - because right-wing Columbusites ran
him out of town?

BIG PREDICTION UPDATE: Just as we figured, "Martha Stewart Living" remained on NBC-38 Monday, three days after her conviction on four stock fraud counts. Of course, this station doesn't have a local news department - so the managers might not know yet that she's guilty.

I didn't realize until this past weekend that NBC-38 had moved Martha Stewart's show to 12:00 noon. That means the end of "Coffee Break" - or at least it did. With Stewart's conviction, Don Nahley might be able to stay off the unemployment line after all.

(The ratings for "Coffee Break" never were very high - so NBC-38 must have decided it's better to have no coffee at all, than something that's really weak.)

WLTZ plans another schedule change next Monday. "Dr. Phil" will move from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., which means "NBC Nightly News" will be on at 6:30 with the other network newscasts. I'm pleased about this, because now I can focus all my attention on staring at the good-looking Victoria Recaño on "Inside Edition." No wait, WATCHING her....

But back to Martha Stewart: did you hear what local Kmart customers said Monday about the conviction? ALL of them said they'll keep buying items with the Martha Stewart name on them. Come to think of it, she's a big backer of Democrats - and they supported President Clinton, through all the sins HE committed.

(We'd like to nominate Joanne Cavis to replace Martha Stewart as "Domestic Diva." After all, Cavis used to co-host "The Answer Book" on TV-16, so she MUST know about as much.)

Now other quick thoughts from a very busy Monday:

+ More complaints surfaced about high school attendance lines, at a Muscogee County School Board work session. There may be only one fair, impartial way to settle this - have a first-grader draw them with an Etch-a-Sketch.

(One critic of the proposed attendance lines complained: "Northside got what they wanted." So what's wrong with that? All the other high schools have had their turn for decades....)

+ Alabama Governor Bob Riley named Troy King Attorney General, to finish the term of new federal appeals judge Bill Pryor. Somewhere Roy Moore must be wondering how Satan disrupted his plans....

+ Instant Message to the Columbus Square 8 theatres: Thank you for changing your sign, so only one movie title appears on a line. Seeing "Passion Twisted" the other day made me wonder if you were making a religious commentary.

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