Let's go back to those days of "the land of cotton, Old times there are not forgotten." - GOP's hawks remind the Dean of orders from Big Brother.

This week Bill Shipp writes:

Despite overblown generalities and time-filling platitudes, Gov. Sonny Perdue made one item abundantly clear in his State of the State speech last week: This is indeed a new day in Georgia government.

Gone is the high-flown rhetoric of exponentially improving public schools, of reducing class size and measuring teacher competence.

Gone are promises of vastly improved transportation systems; of new initiatives to protect the environment, repair the healthcare system, stop the burdensome flow of illegal aliens - or that time-tested favorite: giving property owners more tax breaks.

Instead, Georgians heard less ambitious strategies: plans to use the Internet to improve teacher certification, offer advanced high school courses and sell off surplus state goods. (The governor told us the state sold an old fire truck on eBay for nearly $5,000.) We heard again of hopes to pass an amendment to allow more state dollars for worthy church-sponsored projects. We learned again of proposals to shorten drivers' license lines and hire more GBI lab technicians and child-welfare workers. And, oh, by the way, our "less government" governor wants to increase state spending by more than $1 billion.

In past years, many items discussed by Perdue in his statewide speech would have been better suited for short press releases: reducing the motor pool, inventorying state property, etc. Of course, these are fine ideas, but probably not what many citizens expected to hear from their governor as he articulated his vision in a signature State of the State assessment.

To say Perdue's speech was disappointing would be unfair. It was vintage Perdue - few big ideas, lots of talk about government process and plenty of inspiring adjectives about the future.

On the other hand, Perdue's speech paired with Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor's televised answer to the Republican address marked the beginning of what may be one of the meanest and most entertaining races for governor in years. Of course, the contest won't start officially for another year, but the first real shots were fired last week.

Taylor hit back hard at Perdue, declaring the Republican governor had left "Georgia in limbo - trapped between the Georgia that was and the Georgia that should be."

[Taylor's remarks are reproduced in a 01-13-05 post entitled "Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor did a good job in his Response to the Governor's 'State of the State' address Wednesday night."]

While Perdue promised the state would never return to the bad old past, Taylor gloried in the 1990s when Georgia "saw creation of the HOPE scholarship and pre-k, our higher education system joined the ranks of the best, our teacher pay jumped to the highest levels in the South." He also reminded Georgians of a series of major tax breaks enacted by Democrats in the 1990s.

The body language and atmospherics of the Perdue administration versus those of Mark Taylor's Democrats were in more startling contrast than the words of the rival factions.

Members of the GOP leadership have conveyed the message that they are now the growling lead dogs of the Gold Dome. Dissent will not be tolerated. Tradition is not worth preserving. Most Democrats appeared cowed and submissive.

Taylor, elected statewide, was unceremoniously denied the customary role of the lieutenant governor in introducing the governor. Taylor was not even allowed to sit on the dais. Instead, Republican House Speaker Glenn Richardson of Dallas took charge.

Even as Perdue, with his great big grin, rolled out bundles of unbridled optimism, a feeling of intimidation, even bullying, permeated the proceedings.

Perdue's call for shorter legislative sessions drew a big laugh and a round of applause. The governor never quite got around to discussing the changes in the legislature's rules that effectively make the General Assembly little more than a redundant rubber-stamp agency.

Under the watchful and unsmiling eye of Perdue, Speaker Richardson has rammed through new House rules, which sound like Orwellian orders from Big Brother.

Here's a sample of new plans for conducting the people's business:

• Speaker Richardson has designated several House members as "hawks," a roaming SWAT team of "at large" lawmakers charged with quelling dissent and killing any legislation frowned upon by Richardson or Perdue. The "hawks" will be able to vote on any business pending before any committee, effectively giving the speaker absolute power to kill any bill or silence debate at committee level.

The speaker can single-handedly remove any legislator from any committee for any reason, or no reason. If a renegade Republican (for instance, one who may sound like an overeager environmentalist) bucks Richardson or Perdue, the speaker can simply delete the nonconformist from his plum committee assignment.

• The speaker's best buddy (and onetime legal client), House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart of Powder Springs, also has authority to obliterate any bill or quash any amendment. Thus, Ehrhart becomes the second most powerful member of the House.

• Both the House and Senate have adopted rules that will make amending legislation all but impossible without the leadership's blessings.

In his opening days as speaker, Richardson promised to give Georgia "more efficient legislators." If Richardson's rules are enforced, Georgia will have the most efficient state House in the republic. Just two people can handle most of the work. And Glenn and Earl will still have time for a round of golf at least three days a week while the General Assembly twiddles its collective thumbs and waits for the adjournment gavel.
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I have two observations about the Dean's tell it like it column.

1. The Dean writes: "Most Democrats appeared cowed and submissive."

In fairness, perhaps the Dean should have said "many" rather than "most" Democrats appeared cowed and submissive.

2. The Dean writes: "Under the watchful and unsmiling eye of Perdue, Speaker Richardson has rammed through new House rules, which sound like Orwellian orders from Big Brother."

In my 01-11-05 post entitled "The British are coming! The British are coming! - Should we get our guns (won't work with these hawks), consult Machiavelli, or just read 1984 again," I wrote:

"The Political Insider article did not adequately prepare us for what was coming. And who would have known. Some were expected. Others, let's just say that to have been adequately prepared, rather than reading the Political Insider, I should have been reading George Orwell's 1984."

In that post I intentionally deferred describing the new state House rules as being reminiscent of The Third Reich out of deference and my expectation that the Dean would describe them as such.

For while my generation learned about The Third Reich's assault on Western civilization secondhand from our parents and from textbooks, novels and movies, Bill Shipp as a young man learned about such firsthand on a daily basis from the press and watching newreels produced by the Office of War Information before and after movies prior to doing his own tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Europe.

But while the Dean limits his comparison to Orwell and Big Brother, I dare say he agrees that The Third Reich does indeed comes to mind.

And one more thing.

Today on The Georgia Gang Jeff Dickerson made an excellent observation about the impact of the new unheard roles of "hawks." How, he asks, is a conscientious committee member going to feel when -- after having attended many lengthly committee hearings and heard hours of testimony from witnesses -- at voting time a hawk swooms in and votes, never having attended session one nor having listened to a single committee witness.

In agreement with such Mr. Dickerson's assessment and the flawed idea of hawks: Bill Shipp and Dick Williams. Only Phil Kent expressed support of the idea.