5 SEP 06: BOTTOM OF THE HILL
Labor Day is the unofficial start of election-year campaign season. At least for Democrats it is. I'm surprised Republicans haven't passed a bill creating a holiday for National Entrepreneurs' Day.
With nine weeks left before Election Day, we might as well get the campaign chase underway -- so we have this e-mail, which reached us several days ago:
....Please let your readers know that Sanford Bishop has just been ranked DEAD LAST out of 437 congressmen for legislative effectiveness. This is according to www.congress.org . Please encourage your readers to check out this website. Unfortuanately it also lists the Georgia Congressional delegation dead last at 50th in the nation.
Keep up the good work....
Thanks,
Dave
This comes from Dave Eversman, whose book was advertised here in recent weeks - and who challenged Rep. Sanford Bishop for Congress a few years ago. It's nice to know some losing candidates don't hold any bitterness....
I admittedly was a bit reluctant to call up the Congress.org web site. After all, there's a web site with "White House" in its name which actually is filled with pornography. The last thing I wanted to find was fake nude pictures of Cynthia McKinney or Richard Shelby.
But don't worry, Congress.org is a safe web site - and filled with political news and information. It's operated by a company called "Capitol Advantage" - which sounds like it ought to be lobbying lawmakers for road projects or something.
Congress.org keeps "power rankings" of state delegations, as well as individual lawmakers. When we checked the web site Monday, Georgia's delegation indeed ranked 50th among the states -- which apparently means it's the least powerful of all. Yeah, but just wait until the Northern All-Stars tour Washington....
The power rankings of Congress.org are based on 15 different factors. They include a lawmaker's position in Congress, success in passing bills, and "actions taken to influence the legislative agenda." So apparently you have to make a certain number of phone calls a day....
(Has any political science ever done a study, on whether "power ties" make a difference in these rankings?)
But from what I found at Congress.org, the web page listing Georgia lawmakers and their individual rankings do NOT show Rep. Sanford Bishop "dead last out of 437 Congressmen." For one thing, the House only has 435 members -- so would he even rank below the non-voting delegate from Puerto Rico?
The power ranking page I saw had Rep. Sanford Bishop at number 247 overall. That happens to put him above two other Columbus-area members of Congress -- and Lynn Westmoreland and Phil Gingrey are both Republicans. Perhaps that's because Bishop has been in Congress longer. Or perhaps he knows how to get on his knees and beg to the right committee chairs.
Georgia's first-term U.S. Senators also placed low on the power rankings. Saxby Chambliss is 64th out of 100 Senators, while Johnny Isakson is 84th. The man who once ran as "Rock the Boat Johnny" apparently is learning it's better to row the boat first.
By comparison, Alabama lawmakers do much better in the power rankings. Congress.org puts them 20th among the states, with both Senators in the top half of the table. Critics at local web sites would argue it's because of the "pork-barrel spending" they bring back home -- but then, that spending could be called repaying my tax dollars with interest.
It turns out one of our area lawmakers is almost in the top ten percent of the House "power rankings." Rep. Terry Everett, whose district includes Barbour County, places 46th. I guess that explains why the four-laning of U.S. 431 suddenly stopped for years at the Russell County line.
E-MAIL UPDATE: We have one more message, only this is less political and a bit more bizarre:
Hello Richard,
Sometime last week there was an article in the Ledger about the father of Richard Davis coming to town. If you remember this was the Ft. Benning soldier who was stabbed to death a few years ago. The article reported that Lanny Davis was here to see Judge Peters to ask for his sons remains to be returned. We were talking about this at work and someone said that Judge Peters wasn't the judge on the trial so we were wondering why he was the one being asked?? It is a sad thing that these people still don't have their sons remains.
Daves
You raise a good question, and I don't have a good immediate answer. Perhaps the family believes Bobby Peters has extra clout, as a former Columbus Mayor. Perhaps he's simply the best-known name among local judges - although Haywood Turner could be on the verge of changing that.
Now for other items from a light Labor Day lineup:
+ Jordan High School had holiday classes, because it's still making up days lost in August to construction work. Did anyone bother trying to bring in a member of the construction team, to give a lecture on how important Labor Day is?
+ The annual Muscular Dystrophy Telethon on WRBL brought more than $244,000 in Columbus pledges. Considering the studio took two days to prepare for that telethon, perhaps Katie Couric can be asked to present the local news from New York today and tomorrow.
(Isn't life strange like that? WRBL begged for hours, to raise $244,000 in donations - while over on another channel, Tiger Woods earned three times that much by simply playing four rounds of golf.)
+ Instant Message to the checkout woman at the downtown Phenix City Piggly Wiggly: You saw the people behind me buying beans and potato salad, and concluded they had a Labor Day barbecue planned. Did you ever figure out what I was planning - with a half-gallon of milk and a bag of corn chips?
People across metro Columbus and around the world read this blog every day. To advertise to them, offer a story tip or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.
BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 8210 (+ 217, 2.7%)
If you mention this blog in public, please be polite enough to let me know.
© 2003-06 Richard Burkard, all rights reserved.