Barnes: State’s current leaders are ‘petty’
October 11, 2007 at 1:53 pm by Ken Edelstein in NewsCheck out former Gov. Roy Barnes’ eloquent column in this week’s Creative Loafing “Secession” cover package, lamenting the not-too-distant past when:
The Atlanta region and the state were long and deep in leadership, and it paid off with huge dividends. Cigar-chomping Tom Murphy could laugh about Atlanta folks, but he was shrewd enough to understand that multimillion-dollar investments had to be made by the state in such facilities as the World Congress Center. In the ebb and flow of politics and reality, everyone cussed Atlanta but understood that for Georgia to prosper, and produce extra money to spend out in the state, Atlanta had to prosper.
Barnes’ criticism of the current “petty politics of petty politicians” can be taken as sour grapes. Fair enough. It’s gotta be difficult to watch Sonny Perdue petulantly misgovern Georgia after having lost an election to him.
But I’m impressed by Barnes’ honesty and optimism. The former reminds me that he’s vowed never to run for public office again; the latter makes me think he’s one of the few people who could pull the state out of it’s current rut.
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