Fiddling while Rome burns, planning bass fishing tournaments while Grady is turning into salt . . .

James Salzer writes in the AJC:

On a sunny afternoon in early July, Gov. Sonny Perdue's staff was preparing for a news conference scheduled for the next morning. The governor's topic: a proposed bass fishing tournament on Lake Lanier.

At the same time, one floor above Perdue's Capitol office, House Speaker Glenn Richardson was meeting with reporters to discuss the brewing crisis at Grady Hospital. Richardson declared that the state needed to step in to keep the public hospital open, becoming the first high-ranking state official to get publicly involved in Grady's problems.

The contrast between a governor whose big proposal during the 2007 legislative session was a fishing tourism program called "Go Fish" and a speaker vowing to save a vital public hospital was not lost on some lawmakers who have complained about a lack of leadership from Perdue's office.

Rep. Jeanette Jamieson (D-Toccoa), who served as a floor leader for Gov. Zell Miller during the 1990s, said it's unusual for a speaker to take the lead on so many issues.

"This speaker is well-intended, but as any other speaker would tell you, the first thing you do is look after the House and the second thing is limit the number of issues you're associated with," she said. "He can't cure the entire world.

"The question becomes, what's wrong on the second floor?" she said, referring to the governor's office. "My question would be, since he [Perdue] won his second term, what is his administrative package for his second term?"

Matt Towery, a former Republican lawmaker who runs the Internet media and polling firm InsiderAdvantage, said . . . :

"Generally, the governor sets the agenda, and that didn't happen this session," he said. "[Richardson] is trying to fill a vacuum."