Shaking the 'M-word'

Creative Loafing ^ | June 24, 2004 | SCOTT HENRY

[Veritas_est]

Shaking the 'M-word' Can Johnny Isakson out-conservative the conservatives?

BY SCOTT HENRY

In the summer of 1990, just after losing the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to Zell Miller, then-state Sen. Roy Barnes was making the obligatory bury-the-hatchet speech to endorse his former primary opponent. Joining Miller in the Marietta Square, Barnes attacked GOP nominee for governor Johnny Isakson on his home turf with the most damning charge he could muster -- accusing the east Cobb Republican of being "more liberal than Zell."

Just another example of how, if you wait long enough, nearly every statement made in the heat of a political campaign can later be turned into a punch line.

It's also a reminder of the ironic dilemma in which Isakson -- now the perceived front-runner for the GOP nomination for Miller's U.S. Senate seat -- finds himself.

Widely regarded as the most reasonable, amiable and downright likable Republican lawmaker in Georgia during the long years in which Democrats ruled the political roost, Isakson has found that those qualities aren't exactly selling points among the post-Newt, ditto-headed, conservative hard-liners who control his party these days.

In a political climate in which the Republican "mainstream" is in danger of flowing off the edge of the world, both his primary opponents -- U.S. Rep. Mac Collins and ex-pizza executive Herman Cain -- have taken turns tarring Isakson not with the deadly "L-word," but with the "M-word."

With our country engaged in a global war on terrorism, Collins explains in his stump speeches, "This is no time to send a moderate to the U.S. Senate." Likewise, Cain begins his typical address by praising Isakson as a nice guy who simply isn't a "true conservative."

And so, in recent months, Georgians have been treated to the sorry spectacle of Isakson trying to paint himself as every bit the right-wing meathead as Collins and Cain.

For instance, his campaign website boasts that he supports the appointment of conservative federal judges, making careful use of fundamentalist, anti-abortion code words in explaining that he "strongly support(s) President Bush's view that we need to create a culture of life in America." He has a new TV spot devoted to touting his 26 years of teaching sixth-grade Sunday school classes. On the campaign trail, he's taken to calling Bush's failing Iraq adventure "the ultimate war between good and evil."

But the most embarrassing moment of political pandering had to be when Isakson proclaimed to an auditorium of party faithfuls at the state GOP convention that George W. Bush is "the best president the United States has ever had." Ouch, truly painful.

And yet, anyone who's followed Isakson's congressional career should have noticed his immediate and unquestionable swing to the right following his 1999 election to Newt Gingrich's old House seat.

As soon as he crossed the Beltway, it seemed Isakson began voting in lockstep with the GOP majority, supporting many of the party's more extreme policy positions. The list of his partisan votes is extensive: reviving the "Star Wars" missile defense plan, pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, allowing school prayer during the war on terror, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to drilling, adding a constitutional amendment against flag desecration, posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings, giving tax money to "faith-based initiatives," and so on.

Even though he belongs to the Republican Main Street Partnership, a dwindling group of GOP centrists, Isakson recently co-sponsored the House bill for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. His response to 9/11 was to sponsor a resolution allowing schools to display the words "God bless America." And despite his self-professed commitment to fiscal responsibility in government, he was among the horde of GOP lemmings who voted to make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.

One of his longtime Georgia Senate colleagues says the joke among old-timers each time Isakson helps rubber-stamp a far-right Bush policy goes something like: "This never would've happened if Johnny Isakson were alive."

One of the competing theories to explain Isakson's rightward swerve in Congress holds that, like Miller before him, Isakson has become more conservative with age. But it seems somehow unlikely, for example, that the same legislator who went out on a limb in 1994 to condemn his home county's notorious anti-gay resolution would have swung so far in the other direction that he feels compelled to help lead the charge to block gay marriage.

Isakson told CL as recently as June 19 that his voting record between the Georgia General Assembly and Congress has been consistent. It's just that he's had more opportunities to support conservative legislation in Washington than he had in the Democratic-controlled Statehouse. He plays down his reputation as a consensus-builder and a deal-broker, instead saying, "I'm known for getting things done."

A more compelling theory, offered by a fellow Cobb legislator, is that Isakson recognizes the political necessity of satisfying his right-wing Republicans.

"Johnny's had problems with statewide primaries before," the lawmaker observes. "He's voting more to the right so that he wouldn't have to re-fight his primary every time."

Isakson lost a 1996 U.S. Senate primary to businessman Guy Millner, whose main political asset seemed to be his hard-line anti-abortion stance. The abortion issue seems to be the one area where Isakson is holding to his moderate beliefs.

He now claims to back a pro-life agenda, but his record is at odds with that assertion. Although he helped pass the recent "partial-birth" abortion ban, Isakson has long been known as pro-choice. Cain has been hammering Isakson almost daily over his congressional votes in favor of the RU-486 abortion pill, and against Bush's restoration of the so-called "Mexico City Policy" to deny foreign aid to family-planning clinics that provide abortion advice.

Most recently, Isakson supported a failed amendment that would have allowed abortions at U.S. military bases abroad. As Cain sneers in his current TV ad: "Sounds like the old Johnny, the pro-choice Johnny, is back."

Sounds good to us.

[Veritas_est]

"Sounds like the old Johnny, the pro-choice Johnny, is back." Sounds good to us.

Well it doesn't sound "good" to me, but it does sound correct.

[Veritas_est]

PING

[Old Professer]

Funny thing: the middle of the road is dead center, appropriately named for those caught standing there, while the mainstream is the current deepest in the fast-flowing current where one can easily be drowned or swept away.

[Dan from Michigan]

Moderate=middle of the road...and only two things are in the middle of the road...

A yellow stripe

roadkill...

[Maurice Tift]

... among the post-Newt, ditto-headed, conservative hard-liners

Hey.... they're talking about me now!

[SAJ]

Don't know how Georgia politics go these days, but I will guarantee anyone on my life that my late uncle, Georgia Tech class of 1939, the poorest cracker anyone's ever met as a boy, would support Mr. Cain with every fibre of his being.

They're two of a pair, both DID the American dream by their own efforts, and we haven't enough good men like them.

[NewLand]

((((( THE OFFICIAL HERMAN CAIN PING LIST )))))

FReepMail me if you want to be ON or OFF this list

Go Herman Go! Pray for Herman Cain!

Click Here for the Herman Cain for US Senate Web Site

Click Here to see Herman Cain's Campaign Commercials

Click Here to Speak Up on the Cain Blog Spot

[NewLand]

"Isakson trying to paint himself as every bit the right-wing meathead as Collins and Cain."

It's still amazes me what these liberals can get away with...imagine the reaction if Fred Barnes called Maxine Waters a "left wing meathead"?

They have lots of hate in their hearts...

[NewLand]

Here is a copy of an email letter I just sent to Creative Loafing:

Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 6:45 AM
To: 'ken.edelstein@creativeloafing.com'; 'scott.henry@creativeloafing.com'
Cc: 'scott.walsey@creativeloafing.com'; 'CEO@creativeloafing.com'
Subject: Shaking the 'M-word'

It still amazes me the amount of hatred that liberals like yourselves have for anyone with different viewpoints than your own.

In the above mentioned attack article, the statement is made that “Georgians have been treated to the sorry spectacle of Isakson trying to paint himself as every bit the right-wing meathead as Collins and Cain.”

Imagine if a conservative columnist or commentator on Fox News had referred to Maxine Waters or Sheila Jackson Lee or Ted Kennedy or John Kerry as “left wing meatheads”. How many apologies and resignations would be demanded by the sensitive, caring left wing?

The double standards that liberals try and maintain, while cramming their own ideologies down everyone’s throats, has worn thin on the American public, especially here in GA and equally so in FL.

Please keep it up…since the Clinton dominated hate-machine came into national prominence, the Republican Party has won the American voter’s confidence in ever increasing majorities, and have since been voted into the leadership positions nationwide for:

-State Houses
-State Senates
-Governorships
-US Congress
-US Senate
-President and Vice President

None of the above was republican majorities prior to 1992. Thanks again. It’s “men” like you leading the charge, to borrow a term used by Mr. Henry, like a horde of lemmings, into irrelevancy.

[Atlantian]

Creative Loafing is Atlanta's alternative newspaper, an ultra-liberal rag. Years ago Neal Boortz wrote a weekly column for it but that didn't last very long. CL's staff couldn't stand the light of truth.

[JohnnyZ]

Great article! If Creative Loafing knows anything, it's liberals.

Widely regarded as the most reasonable, amiable and downright likable Republican lawmaker in Georgia during the long years in which Democrats ruled the political roost

Johnny "Go along to get along" Isakson

[SAJ]

Thanks for the info. A liberal rag, indeed, emphasis on RAG! BTW, is there still a weekly called Buckhead Atlanta in publication? My great aunt wrote for them in the 1970s, but I haven't visited since 1979 and am that far out of touch with things in your fair city.

[Atlantian]

I've never heard of BA, but I don't live in Buckhead.

BTW, a few days ago the AJC reported that in the '04 elections 50% of Dem voters in GA will be black, up from 24% in 1990.

In today's paper Joseph Lowery, past president of SCLC, said, "The real challenge is to white people who believe in fairness and justice and progress to stop running away from us. The Democratic Party is hemorrhaging white voters."

And what will Lowery say when blacks also start leaving the Dem. party in GA? A Cain victory would surely do that.

[FreedomPoster]

I just saw a campaign ad for Dylan Glenn, and he looked very impressive (which I guess you would expect in a high-$ TV ad). Does anyone from the GA 8th Congressional District know how he's running?

[Atlantian]

I just received the GA Right to Life newsletter today. GRTL endorsed three candidates in the 8th District, Mike Crotts, Dylan Glenn and Lynn Westmoreland. Glad to see so many pro-life candidates. But it will be hard to choose among them.

[legacy]

Hi. Just wanted to follow up on the American Dream - Mac is in that group too. With no college degree, but with lots of hard work and common sense, he started his own trucking company at the age of 18 (was joined the next year in his efforts by his high school sweetheart when they married). Now it's a statewide, multi-million dollar company run by his son. His upbringing focused on family, faith and freedom. Now he has 4 children and 11 grandchildren, all who share in love of country. I used to work for Mac before our children were born, and believe me, he is a hard worker for the people of Georgia and doesn't back down when standing up for the people. I like to say he's a work horse, not a show horse.

[legacy]

Hi. Just wanted to follow up on the American Dream - Mac is in that group too. With no college degree, but with lots of hard work and common sense, he started his own trucking company at the age of 18 (was joined the next year in his efforts by his high school sweetheart when they married). Now it's a statewide, multi-million dollar company run by his son. His upbringing focused on family, faith and freedom. Now he has 4 children and 11 grandchildren, all who share in love of country. I used to work for Mac before our children were born, and believe me, he is a hard worker for the people of Georgia and doesn't back down when standing up for the people. I like to say he's a work horse, not a show horse.