Fresh Loaf

Last night’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, the premier event on the Democratic calendar, seemed in some ways a lifetime removed from last year’s confab. The ‘07 gathering had a surprisingly fun vibe to it – one guest explained that it was one night when all oppressed Democrats could gather in one room to party down and forget their many, many troubles.

The J-J Dinner last night seemed more businesslike. For starters, it took place in the drab, concrete-floored basement of the World Congress Center, rather than the well-appointed ballroom upstairs – presumably to accommodate a larger crowd. Also, this being an election year, there was more visible networking and campaigning, which likewise sapped the fun factor. Finally, Labor Commish Michael Thurmond did not repeat last year’s fabulous James Brown impression.

Even many of the speeches had a downbeat quality to them. Rep. Calvin Smyre, the minority caucus chairman, who’s served in the House some 33 years (!), memorialized longtime colleague Speaker Tom Murphy, who died a few weeks ago. And guest of honor, former Sen. Max Cleland, has come to be a living symbol of Democratic defeat at the hands of ruthless Republicans. He was introduced by a pretaped Sen. John Kerry, who has the unique ability to bring down any large gathering. Ex-Gov. Roy Barnes, however, had the best line of the night: “Max Cleland found out not all the enemies of democracy live in foreign countries.” Unfortunately, the Dems don’t have a viable challenger to GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss this year.

Also honored, in more upbeat fashion, was Rep. John Lewis, who received a warm intro from congressional colleague Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem.

Then the doors opened and Hillary supporters flooded in to crowd in front of the stage. There were also a healthy number of Obama sign-wavers in the audience as well, but – with John Edwards ending his campaign only hours earlier – the evening felt a bit lopsided with only one candidate there to speechify. (Word was the Obamites wanted to set up a live link for their candidate, but the Georgia Dems said no.)

Still, the J-J Dinner was clearly energizing to most of the attendees, who have good reason to picture their man – or woman – in the White House next year.

See more of Joeff Davis’ photos from the J-J Dinner after the jump.

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I’m celebrating Sen. John McCain’s victory in Florida last night.

With the win, McCain seemingly has a lock on the Republican presidential nomination. This means that, of the three remaining candidates (McCain, Clinton, Obama) with a realistic shot at the White House, not one supports the Bush policy of torturing prisoners or detaining them in perpetuity without access to courts.

Two of the Bush administration’s most shameful, profoundly un-American policies will end in January 2009.

It’s not everything, but it’s something.

It also makes you wonder, if they were looking for a viable excuse to get rid of the festival in the first place, and the drought made for the perfect scapegoat?

— Duane Moody wonders if the mayor’s decision to keep Pride out of Piedmont Park this year because of the drought might simply be a convenient excuse to thwart the GLBT community’s biggest annual party.

Duane may be on to something.

The mayor also told the Dogwood Festival people that they couldn’t have their festival in Piedmont Park. What color are Dogwood blossoms? WHITE! Think about it.

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The Speaker claims the Senate “shirked” its responsibilities today. I say we did exactly what we were sent here to do – to carefully and thoughtfully decide which actions benefit the people of Georgia.

— Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, blogging for Peach Pundit, calls B.S. on fellow Republican Speaker Glenn Richardson.

Long story short, the House voted yesterday to override 12 of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s vetoes from last year. The Senate is constitutionally required to “immediately consider” the House vetoes. Speaker Richardson is claiming “immediately consider” means vote now. Sen. Johnson says “immediately consider” means start reviewing it carefully.

CL’s Scott Henry explains more here.

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I think that shows the difference between Clinton and Obama. Bill & Hillary Clinton have displayed an interest in civil rights as well as the larger African-American community even when they weren’t running for office. Obama on the other hand, well…he needs the black vote…enough said.

— Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered thinks Clintonic interest in civil rights and African-Americans is sincere, but Obamanian interest is just political.

I wonder if he laughed when he wrote that, because I laughed when I read it.

Atlanta’s African-American leaders are impressed by Sen. Barack Obama’s ability to energize and inspire presidential primary voters.

“What I like about Barack Obama is that he’s energizing a population that is not typically energized. And that he is providing inspiration.”

— Mayor Shirley Franklin, endorsing Obama on V-103’s (WVEE-FM) “Frank and Wanda in the Morning” on Jan. 9.

“. . . I believe he gives Georgia Democrats our best chance of retaking the White House in 2008 and building the coalition necessary to bring change as President.”

— Rumored Atlanta mayoral candidate and state Sen. Kasim Reed, endorsing Obama on Jan. 7.

“Thank goodness for what Obama has been doing in Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s historic. He’s tapped into a part of the electorate looking for something different, something new.”

— Rep. John Lewis, speaking to the AJC on Jan. 8. Lewis has endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Sen. Hillary Clinton spent part of Thursday campaigning in a largely Latino neighborhood in Las Vegas. Polls indicate Clinton is doing well among voters. Perhaps it’s because she speaks in terms she thinks they’ll understand.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Clinton said unscrupulous lending leads to bad mortgages, which lead to foreclosures, which lead to people with nowhere to go and vacant neighborhoods that can go rapidly downhill.

“We treat these problems as if one is guacamole and one is chips, when … they both go together,” she said.

A new AJC poll shows Clinton and Obama running neck-and-neck ahead of Georgia’s Feb. 5 Democratic primary election. I predict the winner will be the first candidate who comes here and says something about how air quality and public transportation go together like biscuits and gravy.

Or chicken and waffles, depending on the neighborhood.

(Sombrero Hat tip to Alejandro Leal for teaching me how to say “cheap political pandering” in Spanish.)

The Drake Diner stops breakfast at 11. A diner! Further proof Iowa sucks.

— Shebinator, one of two local bloggers I know of who was actually in Iowa last night. If there were others, please educate me.

Shelby’s feelings about Iowa might be colored by the fact that his favorite Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden, dropped out of the race after his poor showing.

Or maybe Iowa just really, really sucks.

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The Clinton machine will do its best to slime Obama in the coming days, but — and I’ve been waiting to say this for years — their time has passed. The race is clearly defined now, and I don’t see voters opting for polarization over real change.

— ATLMalcontent on the perhaps fatally wounded candidacy of the senator he likes to call Hillbot.

Mr. Malcontent also lavished praise on Obama’s victory speech (which really was amazing), noting the similarities between Obama’s gift for rhetorical uplift and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s.

Sen. Clinton also evokes RFK’s memory, but not in the same way. Like RFK, Clinton is attempting to return her family to the White House via a carpetbagged New York Senate seat.

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It’s clear that the voters want change-now they have to look hard at Edwards and Obama and decide just what sort of change they really want.

— Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote was in Iowa last night. As you might have gathered from the order in which the names appear, she’s an Edwards supporter.

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Therefore, I support Mike Huckabee because he wants to get the federal government out of my pocket by endorsing the “Fair Tax”.

— The Oracle of Winder, posting at BuzzBrockway.com, supports Mike Huckabee for no other reason, he says, than because Huckabee supports the national sales tax scheme known as the Fair Tax.

You may recall in September 2007 that Osama bin Laden released a video in which he called the U.S. tax system “insane” and bragged that, under Islamic law, Americans would not have to pay it.

Expect to see Huckabee/bin Laden ‘08 yard signs popping up in Winder any day now.

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Rush spent most of the program bashing Huckabee, like most conservative pundits have taken to doing.

— Peach Pundit commenter John Konop, posting the blog’s Iowa caucus open thread, notes the Republican punditocracy’s failure to drive a wedge between Huckabee and Republican voters.

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The stupid and superstitious have spoken - they said “Give us the televangelist. GIVE US THE HUCKLEBERRY!”

Yeehaw!

— Peach Pundit commenter GodHatesTrash in the same open thread.

If you haven’t guessed, Peach Pundit’s open thread on Iowa is great, great reading.

CLINTON NABS LEWIS ENDORSEMENT AT PASCHAL’S: “I promise you eight years of shrill, robotic competence.”

(photo by Joeff Davis)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton stopped by Paschal’s restaurant in Castleberry Hill last Friday to pick up an important to-go order – the endorsement of 11-term incumbent and Civil Rights Movement hero Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. It’s not on the menu. I checked.

Lewis’ endorsement is a big blow to Sen. Barack Obama who, based on his frequent visits to and impressive fundraising in Atlanta, was likely counting on the city’s black political establishment to back him. According to reports, Obama lobbied hard for Lewis’ endorsement. If Clinton wins the Democratic primary here next year, consider last Friday’s endorsement one of the turning points in her campaign. If she doesn’t, I’ll go in Creative Loafing’s archives and erase all record of this and the previous sentence.

In addition to Lewis’ endorsement, Clinton also picked up a side order during her Georgia visit – the endorsement of Lewis’ congressional colleague Rep. David Scott.

Perhaps because he’s less popular, and was recently called one of the most corrupt members of Congress by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Scott’s endorsement got less attention.

Newt Gingrich is back, talking about a run for the presidency again. Here’s the strange thing: Some of what he says makes sense. And when Newt Gingrich becomes the voice of reason, it’s really time to get worried about things.

The part-time Georgian who left Congress in disgrace and went after President Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky incident — even as he himself was having an affair — is back and still making noise about running for president. Gingrich tells the National Journal:

“The most tempting thought about running next year is the idea of debating Senator Clinton. That would be fun. … She is actually much more centrist than MoveOn.org. She is much tougher on military affairs than [her party’s] Left. She is more rational, and I have very great respect for her as a hardworking professional. No Republican should think she is going to be easy to beat.”

He also throws a bomb at the Republican Party for not separating itself from the failed presidency of George W. Bush:

“I think [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy said it very well when he said of the Chirac administration, ‘We need a clean break.’ There is no excuse for not controlling the border. There is no excuse for New Orleans being the mess it is. I think we ought to say these things are not right. … There is nobody out there prepared to say, on the Democratic side, “If we don’t win in Iraq, here’s how big the mess is going to be,” with the exception of Joe Lieberman. There is nobody out there on the Republican side who is prepared to say, ‘You know, we are going to have to do it differently.’ I mean, ‘Stay the course’ is not a rational option.”

Will Newt run? Don’t be surprised.

Will Newt win? No. He’ll be the right’s version of Ralph Nader.

Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign co-chairman in Florida will apparently do anything to raise money for his boss.

State Rep. Bob Allen (R-Fla.) was arrested Wednesday after allegedly offering to give a cop a blowjob for $20.

$20!

It costs $2,300 just to shake Sen. Hillary Clinton’s hand!

According to the Florida House of Representatives website, the married father co-sponsored a bill in the Florida Legislature encouraging “education of parents & children regarding dangers of sexual solicitation & abuse.”

The same website also lists “water sports” as Allen’s recreational interest.

Vive La Différence!

NPR’s Robert Smith did a story today about (surprise, surprise) Hillary Clinton’s YouTube video, and decided to focus on my response as an example of the vulnerability candidates embrace in the vlogosphere (who, moi???)

— Shelby at Shelbinator.com had a funny cameo in a Clinton campaign video posted on YouTube.

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I remember the first time I read a personal blog. I found it so comforting to read about someone who had similar life experiences as me, who found the same things funny as I did, who had the balls to write exactly what he or she felt and not give a damn.

— Lori at Mingaling.net responds to this week’s CL cover story, in which I expressed disdain for some personal blogs.

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I went to The Oakhurst Laundry and Cleaners @ 6:45pm and was summarily banned from “getting stuff cleaned here anymore.”

— Clunky at ClunkyRobot.com writes about being banned from a dry cleaner. It’s an odd story.

4.5 presidential candidates are coming to Atlanta this week.

Why 4.5?

Newt acts like he’s running, but he hasn’t declared.

Check them out while you can. Georgia is solidly Republican, so the likelihood of seeing them in 2008 outside the doors of a high-dollar fundraiser event is pretty low.

In strictly nonpartisan, alphabetical order:

Hillary Clinton: Sat., May 19, 7 p.m., at the home of Michael Coles ($1,000 to get in)

John Edwards: Thurs., May 17, 5:15 p.m., Georgia World Congress Center (free)

Newt Gingrich: Fri., May 18, Borders bookstore in Buckhead at 4 p.m., GOP Convention at Gwinnett Civic Center at 7 p.m.

Rudy Giuliani: Wed., May 16, noon, Emerson Student Center at Oglethorpe University (free)

Mitt Romney: Fri., May 18, 3-3:30 p.m., Gwinnett Civic Center (free, for those in the convention hall)

From the website OpenSecrets.org, here are some of the notable Georgians who’ve donated to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s ‘08 presidential campaign. $2,300 is the maximum legal donation. On Tuesday, I listed some of the notable Georgians who’ve donated to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign.

To clarify, by “notable” I mean people whose names stand out to me when I look at the list. If I missed any significant names on the list, please let me know.

Michael Coles, $2,300 — Coles isn’t just the namesake of Kennesaw State University’s Coles College of Business; he is the CEO of Caribou Coffee. Clinton’s voting record is centrist, so don’t try to characterize Coles as just another Latte Liberal. Mocha Moderate is probably more accurate. Coles’ wife Donna also gave $2,300.

J. Allen Maines, $2,300 — Maines is a partner at the Atlanta office of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. In 2007, Maines was named a Super Lawyer by the legal trade publication Super Lawyers. His superpowers include producing billable hours while he sleeps and showers, and the ability to name every U.S. Supreme Court justice, living and dead, in ascending order of height. The previous sentence is a lie.

John R. Paddock, $2,300 — Paddock is a psychiatrist and an adjunct associate professor at Emory. He is the co-author of a 1999 research article titled “When guided visualization procedures may backfire: imagination inflation and predicting individual differences in suggestibility.” An amateur psychologist might wonder if Paddock is drawn to Clinton’s candidacy because she’s even more long-winded than he is.

Keith Mason, $2,300 — Mason was a White House staffer during that other Clinton’s presidency. He is now a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge, where one of his co-workers is Zell Miller. The company Christmas party is no doubt a hoot.

Mukesh Patel, $1,000 — Mukesh “Mike” Patel co-owns 14 hotels. He is also a member of MARTA’s board. Rumors that his donation to Clinton’s campaign arrived in the form of crumpled $1 bills and quarters have proven entirely unfounded.

There’s a new political action committee out there that might just actually do some good: Student Loan Justice. It’s a grassroots group that helped U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton create her proposed Student Borrower Bill of Rights. Sure, Congress just approved a measure that would cut interest rates on federally subsidized loans, but it doesn’t address any of the student-loan abuses.

The Clinton proposal would stop some of the abuse. The measure would, among other things, ban “school as lender” programs, where colleges urge students to use certain lenders because the schools get kickbacks — usually by getting university activities underwritten — from lending giants.

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