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Published Monday, February 06, 2012 in Opinion

'If this is what politics has come to in Georgia, then this is a sad day'

Editorial

(Editor's note: Today's guest editorial is from the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.)

•••

Our editorial on the need for an independent ethics commission -- i.e., one not appointed by and answerable to the Georgia Legislature -- concluded that "if the General Assembly still wants a role in the ethics process, then enacting some limits on what they can take from lobbyists would be a good start."

As the late Gilda Radner's ditzy "Saturday Night Live" character Emily Litella might say: Never mind.

Response to the idea of capping lobbyist "generosity" such as "educational" meals, trips and sporting events in exchange for political "access" seems to have fallen somewhere between negligible and laughable on the legislative response meter.

Citizen groups from across the political spectrum are calling on the honorables of the Georgia General Assembly to show some good faith with their constituents, especially at a time of steep budget cuts and sanctimonious political lip service about fiscal austerity. Every state that borders Georgia has at least a token ban or limit on lobbyist gifts. Georgia has none.

We're not talking a bread-and-water regimen here. Legislation proposed by Rep. Tommy Smith, R-Nicholls, would limit lobbyist and PAC spending on a lawmaker to $100 and out-of-town travel at $500 per event. Transportation costs would be, as they are now, unlimited.

There was not one single GOP co-sponsor. Not one. Democrats likewise scattered to the four winds, as Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, was the lone member of her party's House caucus to support it.

Kay Godwin of Georgia Conservatives in Action spoke for a lot of Georgians, conservative and otherwise, when she said: "If this is what politics has come to in Georgia, then this is a sad day."

Maybe this is where true nonpartisanship begins -- with an unlikely alliance of politically and ideologically disparate people, united in disgust at official contempt for the voting rabble.

Godwin's organization wants this legislation. So does the Georgia Alliance for Ethics Reform. So do Common Cause, Georgia Watch, the Georgia Tea Party Patriots, the state Christian Coalition and Georgia Right to Life. You couldn't get those groups to agree on a lunch menu, but they agree on this: A state where special-interest greasing of politicians is a virtual blank check is an embarrassment and a disgrace.

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