Things are quiet out there, real quiet. - A potpourri of nothing much: Psoriasis & athlete's foot risks; John Barrow; House map; & Jim Marshall.

The last couple of days have been quiet, real quiet. But there have been a couple of "nothing to write home about" things, such as . . .

• Remember our parody in the 1-29-05 post announcing that:

"A bill introduced Friday in the Georgia Legislature would require doctors to tell women seeking an abortion that the procedure increases the risk of acne, athlete's foot and psoriasis — claims heretofore unheard of."

Yesterday the ajc reported that a requirement that doctors tell women seeking abortions that the medical procedure includes the risk of cancer, a claim disputed by many physicians, has been removed from a bill pending in the General Assembly. If (read when) this bill is passed, doctors will determine the risks associated with any medical procedure, and so inform the patient.

• Remember the advice given to Congressman John Barrow that he should pack lightly when heading to Washington following his election to represent the 12th Congressional District.

Yesterday UGA's Red and Black ran a story entitled "Redistricting may hurt Barrow."

I think it would be a fair statement to say that not only does the student newspaper have a firm grasp on the obvious; indeed, it has a strangling hold.

The newspaper quoted UGA professor and political pundit Charles Bullock as saying "With either of these maps [House or Senate], John Barrow, the congressman here, is the big loser."

• I've read over the past couple of days that conventional wisdom, prior to this past week, was that the Legislature would not tackle redistricting.

I consider my thinking generally to be in line with conventional thinking and such, but this statement made me reflect back on my 11-5-04 post-election post entitled:

"Republicans should learn lessons Democrats taught. -- If you don't believe an attempt at redistricting is coming, you must believe in the tooth fairy."

• And speaking of conventional, my checking around yesterday leads me to conclude that conventional thinking now is that the General Assembly ends up with the Senate plan rather than the House (or Franklin) plan.

It is, after all, as reported in a Thursday post, the map of choice, having been agreed to by all seven of Georgia's Republican congressmen and have been under review by them since December 2004.

In this case, I am going against what I perceive as conventional thinking.

For Republicans, there is no question that the House map designed by state Rep. Franklin is better for the Republicans as a group rather than individually. As noted by the Thursday post, under this map nine of the 13 congressional districts went for Bush by at least 60 percent.

Nine of our 13 being this red is heavy-duty stuff, real heavy-duty. And sure the Department of Justice must approve it as it must any redistricting plan, but I think it would be approved and approved quickly just as would the Senate plan if this one is selected.

Bottom line. I see the Legislature adopting the House version, with the tweaking that was reported in the Thursday post of putting Tom Price and Nathan Deal in different districts; John Barrow and Charlie Norwood in different districts (both of these adjustments required only minor revisions); but leaving Lynn Westmoreland and Jim Marshall in the same district (plus of course some additional adjustments reflecting horse-trading and personal choices that will require minor revisions a bit here and bit there).

• And speaking of Democratic Congressman Jim Marshall, why are the Republicans pinging on him so much? My call is that they are not; he is just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong party in power.

What can he do about it? Not much, unless we recall what Sen. Chambliss did after the Democrats redistricted him out of a congressional seat the second time. The second time he ran for U.S. senator.

In this case no U.S. senate race is on the horizon. Anything else? Maybe. I think it is at least conceivable that if either of the proposed redistricting plans become law (and I mean as modified, etc., but with Marshall remaining in a district with Westmoreland), that Marshall may decide to turn his sights from Washington to Atlanta.

For governor? No, it is a bit too late for that, although as a longtime friend and big admirer of Congressman Jim Marshall, I can assure you he would make a hellava governor. But that Democratic train has already left the station, and I feel confident that Jim Marshall would recognize as much.

That leaves . . . .

Because I am good friends with Congressman Marshall and talk with him from time to time, I must emphasize that all of this is pure speculation and conjecture on my part. I have not talked with him about this, and if I had, I would not be discussing it, unless he desired such talk to be discussed, and in that case, I would not say I had talked with him.

And I would not discuss it if I felt doing so would affect him negatively in any way. Jim was just reelected by a very comfortable and healthy margin (a higher margin than Bush received), and I know he will be in good shape to hold onto his congressional seat in 2006 if this is what he does, changed as his district will be under either plan.

(For the what's its worth department, I was in the "tried to get Jim Marshall to run for U.S. Senate camp" last summer. In case you can't tell, I like and have a tremendous amount of respect I have for Jim Marshall, and personally hopes he keeps representing all of Georgia in Washington.)

Nov. 2, 2004 sure changed a lot of things, and we must make sure that 2006 brings change again.