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Peaches and Prunes
Gary Reese
Editor

August 05 2011

Peaches and Prunes is a quick review of those who were the formidable political haymakers in Georgia politics over the past week. Peaches go out to those whose words or actions brought credit to themselves. Prunes go out to those who may have misstepped.

…Speculation runs rampant about the White House’s apparent reluctance to challenge Georgia’s “House Bill 87,” the new illegal immigration enforcement law. Some say the feds are suing Alabama and not Georgia because our state, unlike our neighbor to the west, is “in play” for Obama’s reelection and his team doesn’t want to stir up Georgia voters.

We don’t buy it. Georgians opposed to Obama already are motivated to vote against him. If the president has any hope of bagging Georgia’s electoral votes in 2012, he must ignite passion in his own base before he can even think about wooing independent voters. That base prominently includes Latinos. So why wouldn’t he steam full ahead with a high-profile suit? It’s not like Georgians don’t know of the Obama administration’s opposition to states taking on immigration enforcement themselves.

Likely the absence so far of legal action against Georgia owes more to State Rep. Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City). In piecing together HB 87, Ramsey reportedly wrote repeated revisions of the legislation. In part that was to make the bill as failsafe as possible against just the kind of federal lawsuit that is now targeting Alabama. Be you for or against more stringent immigration laws, you have to credit Ramsey’s thoroughness. … A Peach. …”