9 MAR 06: PUSH TO THE BRINK

When I heard there was a news conference Wednesday on the Kenneth Walker case, several thoughts went through my mind. Might the Walker family be ready to settle its civil suit against the city? Might civil rights groups dare to call another boycott - figuring sooner or later, one of them HAS to work?

It turns out the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition had something else to announce. President William Howell displayed a letter to the chair of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, asking for a meeting on the Kenneth Walker case. As if this civil rights group doesn't have paid Washington lobbyists....

Dr. William Howell hopes to meet with Senate Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter within a couple of weeks - and he says Rainbow/PUSH will take a "delegation" to Washington when that happens. So why weren't any local elected officials at the news conference? Is this "Poor People's March II?"

Dr. William Howell says his group has sent letters to the F.B.I., Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's office, seeking an indictment in the Kenneth Walker case. But he says the letters have "never been addressed." Apparent translation: they said no.

(Someone told me Wednesday if the letters have "never been addressed," that explains everything -- because you need addresses to get the letters delivered.)

In the words of Rainbow/PUSH's William Howell: "We are tired of writing letters, so we thought we would write a letter to the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee." If you're REALLY tired of writing letters, you might make a phone call instead....

William Howell is trying Senate Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter because he's "the person that controls the entire pot." So when in doubt, you try to get the Justice Department's funding cut -- and then it can't investigate plenty of other cases, much less Kenneth Walker.

William Howell admits he hopes a meeting in Washington with Sen. Arlen Specter will bring national attention to the shooting of Kenneth Walker 27 months ago. But S.O.A. Watch lobbies in Washington one day a year -- and it only gets national attention when Martin Sheen shows up outside Fort Benning.

I heard William Howell's comments and thought of one word - desperation. It's obvious he's run into closed doors, trying to get former Deputy David Glisson indicted or a new grand jury called. Now Rainbow/PUSH is in the awkward position of begging for a meeting with a fairly conservative Republican.

But hey, wait a minute! The son of Rainbow/PUSH national leader Jesse Jackson is a U.S. House member from Illinois. Why isn't HE twisting some arms for a review of the Kenneth Walker case? You'd think he'd want to keep up with Barack Obama....

A number of other questions were left in my head, after watching William Howell on the evening news:

+ Why weren't other civil rights leaders with him at the news conference? Are they waiting for the civil suit to go to trial - or are they all worried defense attorney Bill Campbell will be found guilty of corruption in Atlanta?

+ Has Rainbow/PUSH tried to contact area Senators, in their quest for an indictment? Alabama's Jeff Sessions is a Judiciary Committee member - but maybe Phenix City has too many Democrats for him to care.

+ Whatever happened to the appeal to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker? Is he too busy looking for gas stations with $4.99 a gallon on their pumps?

THE BIG BLOG QUESTION was updated Wednesday night, and now thinks about city politics. As you may have heard, Mayor Bob Poydasheff is running for re-election. If you haven't heard that, he hopes to appear on radio talk shows about once a week from now through July.

I haven't heard anyone else announce a campaign for Mayor - so I came up with some potential candidates, and ask you which one might be most successful against Bob Poydasheff. You also can offer another name, or reject them all and give the Mayor a second term right now. Talk about advance voting, and early returns....

As for the old Big Blog Question about beer.... hey, what do you know! That's a B.B.Q. with beer! People tend to like that combination in Columbus....

But anyway: the beer question was unanimous - seven votes for cold beer, none for warm. One woman told me warm beer is like warm diet cola. I suppose both of them WOULD wake you to your senses.

One voter in the beer question smelled something fishy here, and left this comment:

Is this question part of a plot by Barry Merrill to avoid paying the electrical bill for keeping his beers cold? If he could convince everyone that warm beer was better, he could save enough to buy three more Dunkin Donuts franchises!

An interesting guess, but a wrong one. I've never met "B. Merrill," unless he came to my table during dinner without my knowing it. Besides, warm beer with spicy chicken wings probably wouldn't work too well.

I didn't realize B. Merrill owned the Dunkin Donuts shop next door to his restaurant on Manchester Expressway. They share a parking lot - and come to think of it, some people could spend hours there on weekend mornings. Wait in line for donuts, then walk over and get in line for lunch....

BLOG UPDATE: Blaine Stewart was back on weather duty at WRBL Wednesday - and now we know why. Your blog has learned News 3 is down to one healthy meteorologist. If Darren Stack gets his forecast wrong and gets caught in a rainstorm, this could be real trouble.

Sources in the know tell me WRBL Chief Meteorologist Jeff Donald is off the air due to surgery, and weekend weathercaster Bryan Bennett has left the station. We wish Bennett well on tour, at Lyle Lovett look-alike contests.

By the way, WRBL apparently has lost its nightly 7:00 p.m. news rebroadcast on WCGT. Now that the Christian Television Network owns TV-16, it's showing a talk show with Jim Bakker instead. I'm not sure this is a step up in credibility or not....

Now for other selected passages from the Wednesday news scroll:

+ The evening news spotted a work crew taking soil samples in West Point, on the site of a proposed Kia auto plant. But the workers refused to say why they were there. Maybe we're going to have a debate over Georgia's official state dirt after all.

+ Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue needed stitches on his eyebrow, after tripping and hitting a wall while playing racquetball. Maybe I've finally found a racquetball opponent - for the right-sized campaign donation, of course.

+ The Georgia Legislature marked "Peanut Butter and Jelly Day" at the state Capitol. A peanut mascot was there, along with pageant queens - but where was the "fair and balanced" coverage here? GPB's "Lawmakers" never interviewed anyone representing Smuckers jelly.

+ Instant Message to the Atlanta Hawks: Nice try with that spin, talking about having a 20-win season. Trouble is, you don't play college basketball -- you're in the N.B.A.

Your PayPal donations can build a better blog, and keep it independent-minded. To make a donation, offer a story tip or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post a reply.

BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 5567 (+ 168, 3.1%)

If you quote from this in public somewhere, please be polite enough to let me know.

© 2003-06 Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.