Getting reacquainted on TV with Galloway & Crawford, a/k/a Prime Time Politics, tonight at 7:00 and 11:00 on GPB Television.

Last week I happened to stumble upon a new program for me, Prime Time Politics, on Georgia Public Television at 7:00 (described on GPB Television's Web site as a "Discussion and analysis of politics and current affairs"). Doing a little checking, I found out that I had missed about 4 episodes on the preceding Tuesday nights.

I won't miss anymore. Regulars include Jim Galloway of the ajc's Political Insider and Tom Crawford of Georgia Report (formerly Capitol Impact), and last Tuesday they were joined by Blake Aued of the Athens Banner Herald and Nancy Parrish of WSB.

In a 3-3-08 post entitled "Some friends I miss, pros I miss seeing, & other rambling thoughts about The Georgia Gang from someone in South Georgia, part of the Other Georgia," I wrote in part:

In a 10-04-06 post I shared a comment that Doug Monroe (formerly a columnist with the Atlanta Magazine, Creative Loafing and the AJC, and presently in New York and sorely missed here in Georgia) had made to a 10-03-06 post about his having had lunch with "political columnists Bill Shipp and Tom Crawford."

Doug kindly commented that "one of the subjects at lunch was how much we enjoy your blog [Cracker Squire]!"

I noted in the 10-04-06 post:

I really appreciate Doug pointing this out to me. As my readers know, Doug was in the presence of two of my favorites and without question Georgia's best of the best.

Of course Bill Shipp is Georgia's Dean of Politics and Journalism.

Tom Crawford is editor of Capitol Impact and covers politics for Georgia Trend Magazine. For those of you who might not know, Capitol Impact is a subscription service taken by many state government officials. I have had more than one such official tell me that such official's daily routine begins by reading Capitol Impact.

Tom also has appeared on The Georgia Gang when one of the regulars is not there.

Things have changed a bit since I did the above post.

First and foremost, and unfortunately for the show itself, Bill Shipp has ceased being a regular on The Georgia Gang. (But you can read his columns in your local newspaper and keep up with what's happening in Georgia and also catch his columns on Bill Shipp Online.)

Also, Tom Crawford no longer appears as a substitute for one of the regulars, his last appearance having been almost four years ago. (But you can read his weekly columns in Flagpole Magazine under the Capitol Impact link, and read his monthly pieces in Georgia Trend by subscribing as I do or seeing them at Georgia Trend and clicking on the table of contents link.)

And although the politically knowledgeable and informed Jim Galloway of the AJC's Political Insider filled in for one of the regulars a month or so ago, it had been a year plus since he had done so. (Jim Galloway is one prolific writer who can turn out a story on a dime. I would venture to opine that the Political Insider that he writes with Washington based Bob Kemper has more online readers than any other political piece in Georgia.)

I very much miss hearing Bill Shipp weekly and also hearing informed journalists Tom Crawford and Jim Galloway from time to time.

There is one thing that has not changed since the above noted post was written in 2006. Although I might be old-school, I still consider without question Bill Shipp to be the Dean of Georgia Politics and Journalism. When he was a regular on The Georgia Gang, I rarely missed a show. Alas, he’s now off and two of the regulars are professional lobbyists who spend much of their time shilling their causes.

The good days are here again, and tonight I will enjoy for the second week in a row getting reacquainted with Galloway & Crawford at 7:00 on Georgia Public Television (and if you miss it, catch it at 11:00 p.m).

And I do wish this duo would help promote this informative and now especially timely show. I should have known about it, and didn't have a clue it was on until stumbling upon it while channel surfing.