Elaborating on Email Rule No. 1 from "the" Emailing 101 Textbook by Baxter & Galloway. -- And parenthetically Rep. Chuck Sims, Part X.

Thursday I was in Atlanta at an economic development seminar. I had left my notebook here, and with a full day, didn't get to read my hard copy of ajc until last last night. Thus I was late seeing the ajc article about college textbooks costing Georgia students in excess of $800 a year. With a daughter at UGA, I can't say I was shocked to read what I been hearing Sally -- finances are her department -- complain about for several years.

Part of the solution, at least for things to think about when emailing, let's call it Emailing 101, can be found by reading the ajc's PI.

In Rep. Chuck Sims, Part VI, 11-11-04 post, we reviewed lesson no. 1 about emailing from the Baxter & Galloway Textbook on Emailing.

Lesson No. 1: Think about your legacy each time you tap out an e-mail.

This PI told us that less than a month before Rep. Sims swore fealty to the GOP for the sake of getting things done in his rural district, he was a fervent Democrat. And not just a fervent Democrat, but a fervent Just For Kerry Democrat.

The email that may become Rep. Sims' legacy requested Kerry bumper stickers from Kristin Oblander.

The PI notes that Sims sent the email to Ms. Oblander, and that Kahn was the one who provided Sims' e-mail to the PI. Reading between the lines, Ms. Oblander did not want to be the one pulling the trigger on Chuck herself, and thus she forwarded the email to the Party Chair Bobby Kahn who most happy to provide the damaging email to the PI, noting about Chuck in the process, "He's versatile."

Why do I describe the email as damaging and note that it may indeed become his legacy?

Remember the 11-13-04 post entitled "Rep. Chuck Sims et al., Part VII. -- Newt's advice to Newt, Jr. on party switchers: If you can't beat, join 'em. And then they'll beat you" reviewing the new GOP rules.

There we reviewed the advice that the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives gave to the Speaker-elect of the Georgia House of Representatives, which advice resulted in state Speaker Glenn Richardson having a change in attitude and welcoming party switchers.

Newt's advice to Richardson: Take all you can get, and if you don't like them, beat them in the primary.

This new GOP rule, at least in the abstract, makes sense; even the Governor was a party switcher, and he's worked out, at least so far.

But almost every rule has its exception -- some stated, some implied -- and we suspect that Newt meant for Richardson to understand there was an implicit exception to the rule of "Take all you can get, and if you don't like them, beat them in the primary."

The exception, take anything but a fervent John Flipflop Kerry Democrat. You know to start with that that you don't and won't like 'em.

But in Richardson's defense, he did not learn about Rep. Sims being disqualified until after the fact, I mean switch. Had he known it before, I suspect he would have known Chuck had his fingers crossed when he swore fealty to the GOP, and may have just said thanks but no thanks Chuck.

In the 11-11-04 post noted above, I wrote: "Take note Representatives Sims, Moseley and Houston: Big Brother is watching you."

But for poor Chuck, the script already may be written.