Andre Walker of Georgia Politics Unfiltered has been digging into the Congressional Record of one Nathan Deal to investigate claims from the Barnes camp that “Nathan Deal voted to increase his Congressional pay six times.” Indeed, this claim is on the roy2010.com website, as you can see from the screen capture at the bottom of this post.
His results:
Prior to Deal’s election, Congress passed the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, which included a provision that automatically raised the salaries of Representatives and Senators unless they specifically vote to reject the pay increase. President George H.W. Bush signed the bill into law November 30, 1989.
A report from the Congressional Research Service said that between 1990 and 2009, Congress voted to reject its automatic pay raise six times [Brudnick, Ida A. (2009-1-9). Salaries of Members of Congress: Congressional Votes, 1990-2009. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved on 2010-10-22.]. Nathan Deal was among those lawmakers voting against a congressional salary increase between 1993 and 1998 [H.R. 920 (1993), Vote #54; H.R. 4539 (1994), Vote #247; H.R. 2020 (1995), Vote #534; H.R. 3610 (1996), Vote #455; H.R. 2378 (1997), Vote #474; H.R. 4104 (1998), Vote #293 & #494; H.R. 4328 (1998), Vote #538].
From 1999 until 2007, Congress did not vote on language rejecting their automatic raise. Under the provisions of the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, since Congress did not reject their pay increase, they received it automatically.
In 2007, Congress voted to delay its pay increase until February of that year. Nathan Deal voted against that legislation [H.J.Res. 102 (2006), Vote #540].
However, Deal introduced the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 (H.R. 500), which included language that would cut the pay of members of Congress every year the federal government runs a budget deficit. Deal’s Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 languished in committee.
Links to much of the above are on Andre’s site.
What it boils down to is that Nathan Deal actually voted AGAINST a Congressional pay increase SEVEN times – and simply failed to vote against the automatic increase TEN times. But he never actively voted FOR a pay increase.
So Roy Barnes was, in fact, caught LYING -even though Nathan’s Congressional pay increased more times than Barnes said it did, it wasn’t because Deal voted on it, either way.
Wendesday, Atlanta’s 11 Alive reported that Roy Barnes was using some edited footage in a campaign commercial. The video was from the Temple Debate, where Roy, Nathan Deal, and John Monds had a very spirited debate. After the debate, Nathan Deal made a hasty exit, with a handful of reporters – and a Democratic Party videographer – hot on his heels.
The situation alone was bad enough, but someone in the Barnes campaign decided it would be a smart idea to embellish the video adding extra voices with unrelated questions. All of the actual questions shouted at Deal seemed to revolve around one of his latest controversies – that he used his Congressional office to lobby the Attorney General for a favorable ruling related to his business at Gainesville Salvage and Disposal. While this is the same company as the long-known story of his using his good buddy Lt Governor Casey Cagle to strong arm Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham into trying to keep his no-bid State contract, the lobbying of the Attorney General was for a separate business venture – a landfill adjacent to the GSD property.
The Barnes camp, in their edit, added a narrator – no problem there – and at least one to two new voices asking unrelated questions such as “What are you hiding?” – more of a problem there. The added voices make it seem much more frenzied than the situation actually was – after all, these reporters are professionals. They also emphasize points from Roy campaign, which is one reason they immediately draw suspicion. (Another reason is, as many have noted, that they are clearly dubbed in.)
As expected, the GOP is calling for Barnes’ head over this – and yet giving themselves and Nathan a pass when they embellish things to make ROY look worse than he is. No surprise that the GOP would be hypocrites. None at all. But neither am I downplaying that Barnes made an error here – as I noted above, the original video was bad enough, and I have no problem with the narration making it worse. I DO have a problem with the extra “reporter” voices, I simply feel that this is no worse than the embellishments Nathan Deal is just as guilty of using against Roy Barnes.
At the end of the day, there is one way to send a STRONG message that you are tired of this kind of politics – vote for the one man in this race who hasn’t engaged in it: John Monds.
For your viewing pleasure, here is both the original video and the Barnes ad in question: [See the Videos]
One thing I find interesting about this Governor election is that I have YET to see ANYONE take a serious look at one of the things that should be the best source of both things to promote about Roy Barnes and things to attack him on – his record while in the Georgia General Assembly and as Governor.
Sure, you hear Republicans talk about how “bad” he was – even though Republicrat Sonny Perdue was ranked WORSE than Roy Barnes by the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute with regards to their fiscal policies. But when you ask a Republican for specifics, typically the only thing they can actually name is the Flag issue.
It is now 15 days from when polls close in this race, and I really don’t have time to go into this with the depth that it truly deserves, but for anyone who is interested, here is The Record of The King, as far back as LEGIS is able to give it (beginning in January 1995, at the beginning of his second term as a State Representative after having spent 8 terms in the State Senate and having lost the Democratic Primary for Governor in 1990 to Zell Miller). [Show the links!]
Earlier today, Roy Barnes released an ad accusing Nathan Deal of working to dismantle Georgia’s rape shield law, which would have forced women in Georgia to defend their clothing and sexual histories in rape trials, had it been successful.
The bill in question was 1991′s SB 51, which Barnes claims was written by Nathan Deal while he was President Pro Tem of the Georgia Senate.
Now, the Georgia General Assembly is notorious for their record keeping. Virtually anything you need can be found online on LEGIS – but only if it happened in 1995 or later, when Deal was already in Congress.
That said, just because it isn’t online doesn’t mean the documents don’t exist – and I am actively on the case of getting them. These are serious allegations, and either Deal or Barnes is innocent here, but not both. Once we get the LEGIS level history of this bill, we will know one way or the other.
For now, the target is 1991′s SB 51. That will tell all in this case.
Jim Galloway has a brief post last night showing that King Roy certainly has a bit of a humorous side.
In it, he writes that apparently the King ran into Austin Scott last night in Perry before both were debating in their respective races. Barnes proceeded to “grab Scott and turn him to mug for a photographer” saying “Turn around here. We’ll ruin your reputation.”
There’s two ways to take this, and I’m sure the Republicans will seize it to try to use as some kind of attack on Roy. As the title of this post says, I see it as the King having a little fun with a man who was a junior member of the minority Party when the King was on the throne.
Given the animosity and on-edge emotions that are prevalent among most in these last three weeks before the election, I thought this was a brief bit of levity that I’d share to lighten the mood. I LIKE people with a bit of humor – it helps keep us (somewhat) sane.
But because they WERE there to work, here’s a news article from the host of the debate, Macon’s 13WMAZ. I may watch it this weekend, or I may spend most of the weekend playing Fallout 3. We’ll see.
Roy Barnes has a track record as governor. The fact that he lost his bid for reelection eight years ago is pretty telling, but even more telling is the fact that he seems to lack consistency in his own opinions on how a campaign can be run. During the run-off between current nominee Nathan Deal and Karen Handel, Barnes said: Continue reading Roy Barnes: Inconsistency abounds
All three have been in various news items recently, but there are three news items in particular I want to draw your attention to, in case you missed them:
1) Many Republicans have been claiming Roy Barnes supports illegal immigration. PolitiFact Ga recently gave that claim a “LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE” designation and said that it was absolutely ludicrous. So hopefully those Republicans that still have a shred of dignity left will drop this one, but that leads us into item 2…
2) Apparently, Nathan Deal has paid more than $120K of campaign donations into a company he owns. For the record, this is a company that is a subsidiary of the company at the center of Nathan’s $weetheart deal with the State that he maid MILLIONS of dollars on. This, on top of the recent revelation that he hid nearly $5 million in debt from EXTREMELY poor business decisions. At this point, there truly is no way an honest, ethical person can support this man without a MASSIVE heaping of delusion. He is now officially WORSE than John Oxendine.
3) John Monds was campaigning in Albany yesterday, attending Albany City Commissioner John Howard’s monthly “Town Hall”. I was working yesterday, but Tom was there and the quote in the Herald was spot on: ““The purpose of government is to protect our rights,” Monds said. “Government doesn’t create jobs, business does. Government should get out of the way.”
Jason has a GREAT post about Republican scare tactics related to one Roy Barnes over on his site (and yes, I liked his title so much I largely borrowed it, so I’m giving him credit here).
Here’s a sample, I encourage you to go there to read the rest. (emphasis mine)
The “pseudo-crisis[es]” Jace is talking about is the “King Roy” meme and worries about redistricting.
The “King Roy” meme is just ridiculous. Republicans held the minority during his term as Governor from 1999 to 2003, so I’m sure the Republicans that were in the legislature at the time remember unpleasant fights over legislative issue. That stuff happens, especially when your party isn’t in control. [Continue Reading]
This press release was just forwarded to me by another member of the local media. In it, former governor and gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes is touting his support from several elected officials here in the Albany area. The list, however, runs like a Who’s Who of Bad Government in Albany. The release and comments after the jump. Continue reading Roy Barnes backed by the worst of Albany leadership.
