Architect of GOP takeover of the Ga. Legislature -- Gov. Perdue -- was one of the biggest winners of past legislative sessions. - Say what??

In one of my very first posts on this blog -- it was done on 8-3-04 -- I described Dick Pettys of the Associated Press as "one knowledgeable guy on Georgia history and politics."

In a 11-3-04 post I further wrote about him as follows:

Dick Pettys has covered Georgia government and politics since 1970, and from having gotten to know him this summer, I can tell you that with respect to Georgia politics, Mr. Pettys has been there and done that.

Mr. Pettys has done his usual fine job of reporting on the just completed legislative session, and my opinion of him reminds high, very high.

But I take issue with this seasoned and knowledgeable writer in his 4-2-05 AP article describing Gov. Sonny Perdue as "one of the biggest winners when the first GOP-led Legislature in more than a century adjourned last week."

He notes that Perdue "finally secured the ethics reform bill that had twice before been denied him when Democrats ran the House."

No one will take issue with Mr. Pettys' statement that "[d]octors and insurance companies, also big winners, got the malpractice reform legislation they had been seeking. Social conservatives, joining them in the plus column, got a waiting period for women considering abortion."

But Perdue the biggest winner. Compared with whom, I must ask?

I have to agree with what Pettys also wrote about what the minority leader and another observations that follows:

"'This session was great for Democrats because it defined who we are," said Rep. DuBose Porter of Dublin, the House Democratic leader. "Georgia Democrats are for open government, protecting property rights, children's health care and protecting the HOPE scholarship.'

"Democrats, in fact, won a few rounds during the session when they helped defeat some bills that already had attracted wide criticism in the press for fostering government secrecy.

"However, other bills choking off public access to records won final approval, and despite vigorous efforts, the Democrats could not block legislation requiring voters to show photo ID before being permitted to cast a vote."

Maybe what Pettys means is the following that he reported:

"Perdue, meanwhile, passed 19 of the 20 bills he proposed."

I am going to have to do my own math. Off the top of my head I come up with HB 218, the governor's faith-based amendment and the attempt to curtail HOPE that did not make it.

But back to the main topic -- the governor's ethics bills.

This legislative session the faith-based amendment and ethics were the two centerpieces of Perdue’s legislative agenda.

He lost on one, and the jury is most certainly still out on the second.

Rather than being the biggest winner, I think Mark Taylor and Cathy Cox are elated with the political ammunition that the just concluded legislative session provides them.

In today's AJC Jim Galloway, co-author of the Political Insider, writes:

"Not all Republicans are happy about the trend [of the GOP becoming identified as the party of secrecy in government]. 'It's disappointing to see the number of these things,' said Bob Irvin, the former House minority leader.

"'Republicans have — much more quickly than I thought they would — have fallen into the trap of being the 'ins,' 'said Irvin, who left the Legislature in 2002.

"And while battered throughout most of the session, Democrats left the state Capitol feeling they had been handed an issue that could make voters suspicious of the new guys in charge."

Galloway also wrote:

"And so the ethics bill joined four other Republican-sponsored measures in the three-month session that could curtail the public's right to find out what their governments are up to. Two passed. One disintegrated. And another was placed in limbo.

"But from Gov. Sonny Perdue on down, Republican leaders promised Friday they're not done with the issue of secrecy."

As the political pundits and talking heads analyze things, it may turn out that Mr. Pettys is right about Gov. Perdue being one of the biggest winners of the past legislative session. But for now I am sticking with the opinion of minority leader Rep. DuBose Porter.