A prelude to an post-article by a GOP consultant & attorney partly entitled: "Does our Emperor Governor have any clothes?"

Andy Peters is a staff writer with The Macon Telegraph. When he is writing about politics, he is on his own zone, writing about something of which he is among the best in Georgia.

Andy begins with a firm understanding and grasp of the issues. He does his research, very thorough research, which might take only a line or two to share with his readers, but took him hours to research and compile (I witnessed this in his background research and predictions on which state House and Senate races would be won and lost in 2004, and felt honored when he quoted me in an August 16, 2004 article entitled "'Georgia Democrats face steep climb to reclaim Senate majority" in which Andy accurately predicted what occurred on November 2. ).

Because of Andy's reputation around the state in the field of journalism for thoroughness and objective reporting, he enjoys an edge in his field of having the top political consultants and experts take his calls, knowing that he will report their comments in their proper context, and respect that comments made off the record remain such.And finally, despite all of the foregoing, if you can't write, much of it is for naught. Andy can write, and can report things straight and to the point.

For the above reasons, I try to never miss one of Andy's articles. I came across one of them on September 26, 2004 entitled "'Blogs' wielding influence on news, campaigns." In that article I learned about a Republican blog by the name of Confessions of a Political Junkie written by Erick-Woods Erickson, a Macon lawyer.

I wanted to give Andy Peters credit for my coming across this writer who has an interesting background -- he practices law and writes a political blog (go figure). In addition to practicing law, in 2004 he began doing some political consulting, and says that last year he served as campaign manager or consultant for several races.

Perhaps you recall my 2-27-05 post entitled "A look at our competition & how it operates." You know the old adage "keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Thus just as I try to keep up with the Philistines are up to, I also look at Mr. Erickson's blog every few days or so along with a couple of others who also are of the Republican persuasion.

I am going to share one of his posts with you, but wanted to give you this background first.

Finally, let me give credit to the post that follows to Greg Greene (who publishes the Green[e]house Effect blog), who pointed it out on the Blog for Democracy. But for his pointing it out, it might have been several days before I read Mr. Erickson's blog. Thanks Greg and the Blog for Democracy.