The Daily Report has the list of folks who turned in questionnaires to the Judicial Nominating Committee.

If you haven’t already voted in this online poll, please do so.

I am sure that SA’s readers will make the right choice.

The AJC has this report.

You can vote here.

The AJC has this report.

I thought this news story might be of interest to SA’s readers.

And you can follow the ever-growing list of nominees here.

(You can read the relevant text below the fold) (more…)

If you are attending the convention as a delgate or an alternate, and interested in helping out with Karen Handel’s gubernatorial campaign, please shoot me an email.

This guy.

Seriously.

Change we can believe in?

The Macon Telegraph has nice article on Judge Griffin Bell this morning, which includes some of my thoughts on the life of this great man:

“We’ve lost a real hero. We’ve really lost somebody who helped shape the modern-day South,” said Stephen Dillard, a Macon attorney who in 2003 wrote an essay on Bell for the book, “Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia.” . . . .

“He did the right thing in a very difficult time,” said Dillard, who wrote the Bell essay. “He was having to enforce the Supreme Court rulings on civil rights . . . [and] go back to the some of the places where he grew up and say, ‘It’s legal. It’s what’s required by law and it’s the moral thing to do.’ … Nowadays we think it’s no big deal. Then it was an extremely trying time. You had people standing in doorways.” . . . .

Dillard said Bell should be celebrated as “the quintessential Southern gentleman.”

“He epitomized everything that was right and good about the South. … It’s what America is all about, that you could have someone rise up to the heights that he rose to, solely on merit. This is a guy who grew up with nothing and ended up being one of the most powerful people in the United States. And more importantly, he used that power for the common good.”

Update: I’ll be on the Kenny B. and Charles E. Richardson show this morning at 7:30 a.m. discussing the life of Judge Bell.

Griffin Bell was a truly great man, and he will be dearly missed by his family and friends.

I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Judge Bell while working on an essay about his tenure on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which you can read here. I cannot even begin to describe what a generous and warm person he was during our brief time together. Indeed, one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received about my writing was from Judge Bell, who loved the essay I had written about him.

The United States has lost a great patriot, and the South has lost one of her modern-day heroes. 

Please take a moment today to say a prayer for Judge Bell’s family and friends. 

God Bless you Judge Bell. Requiescat in pace.

(Image Credit)

Update: Here are some other personal reflections on Judge Bell’s amazing life and tremendous legacy.

The Macon Telegraph has this report.

Saxby by 6%.

Oh, and for my fellow Georgians, if you are still not convinced that Saxby is far and away the better of the two remaining candidates, then please watch this informative video.

Update: You can monitor the results here.

Update II: Saxby by 15%. Now that’s a first-class beatdown, folks.

You know, Sully has said some far out things in the past, but this may just be one of his craziest conclusions: Bob Barr’s Libertarian candidacy, coupled with Obama choosing Sam Nunn as his running mate, might just allow Obama to carry Georgia this November. (more…)

Look out DeKalb County! It appears ex-Dallas police chief Terrell Bolton may be headed to your police department (rather dramatic site, don’t you think?). This guy is heap big recycled trouble. Here’s a morsel from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution……

DeKalb Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones said Thursday he was aware of the Dallas controversies before he interviewed Bolton and three other finalists recently.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Jones said. “I wanted to know everything about everyone before I interviewed them.”

Jones said that the Dallas controversies apparently were politically motivated, but he said more “fact-finding” will be done before he makes a decision.

Well, alrighty then.

I suspect that the Mac Collins’s camp is pleased with the nasty weather here in Macon today, which almost certainly increases his chances of taking out Jim Marshall.

In case you missed them, my predictions for the House and Senate are here (along with my endorsements for the Georgia campaign races).

And now, here are my predictions for the Georgia races: (more…)

I’ll be on Miss Martha’s radio show tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. discussing a poll recently conducted by the Federalist Society here in Georgia. So, tune in if you get a chance.

Quin makes some excellent points.

Like I said below, I had a difficult time with the Collins-Marshall race; but at the end of the day, I just couldn’t bring myself to vote for a man who will almost certainly cast a vote for Speaker Pelosi.

On the national level, my guess is that the dems will win the House, but it won’t be 1994 redux. After the dust settles, I predict the dems will have a single-digit-seat advantage. As for the Senate, the Republicans will retain the majority by a margin of 52-48. FWIW, here are my predictions for the key Senate races:

Steele upsets Cardin in Maryland (due in large part to endorsements from several African-American leaders/groups)

Talent beats McCaskill by less than a percentage point (the GOP firewall saves the day in MO)

Burns defeats Tester (the old man just barely survives)

Menendez edges past Kean (NJ just loves corrupt politicos)

Brown sends DeWine packing (Ohio is a nasty environment for the GOP right now)

Casey beats Santorum (the dullard son beats out one of the GOP’s best and brightest)

Whitehouse defeats Chafee (dem over RINO)

Corker barely defeats Ford (despite a heck of a campaign by Ford)

Webb takes out Allen (a lot of SA fans are going to have to toss their ”Allen in ‘08″ bumperstickers)

In Georgia, the fedster endorses the following candidates: (more…)

If you live in Georgia, you owe it to yourself and your fellow citizens to watch the recent debate between Justice Carol Hunstein and Mike Wiggins, which was sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club.

When you’re done watching the debate, please let me know in the comments section which candidate you believe comes across as having the better judicial temperament.

takes a nasty turn for the worse.

You can read Mike Wiggins’s response here, and read the AJC’s take here.

Update: The left-leaning Daily Report has the latest on the race, along with a link to the Wiggins response ad.

Courtesy of my pal, Tripp Self.*

*My father-in-law, Joe McDaniel, does the voice-over for the first one. 

Macon, Jawja.

While I doubt Sonny will beat Taylor by 19 percentage points, I do think that he’ll win by double digits; and in Georgia that’s a landslide, folks.

Oh, and if you haven’t had a chance to see some of Sonny’s campaign ads, you can do so here. They are very effective, and well suited to Georgia’s more “down home” political environment.

I just spent the last 10 minutes reading GQ’s takedown of Ralph Reed. It is, in a word: devastating. And if I had read this piece before the election, I would not have voted for Reed or supported him in any way.

So, mea culpa. I am ashamed that I believed anything Ralph Reed ever said.

You’re in my prayers, Ralph; but I will never trust you again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go take a really long shower.

(LvMike)

They told me that they were gonna beat Ralph big time and they did it.  Pretty impressive stuff against a very talented fellow.  This just goes to show you how ugly the Abramoff thing has been.  The Reed career appears to have been short-circuited, possibly permanently.

A couple of things come to mind.  First off, the guys running the Cagle campaign were old Ralph operatives.  Ralph’s old guys apparently didn’t like Ralph very much.  I know some were disillusioned by his willingness to work for most favored nation trade status for China, but I think it probably goes deeper than that.  I think there was some serious personal stuff going on, too.

Second, I have to wonder where Reed goes from here.  He was going to walk into the Lt. Gov’s office and then just move down the street to Sonny’s house when he finished his second term.  And from there — who knows — maybe a shot at the presidency.  That’s all in a pile of ashes now.  I don’t suppose the future looks too bright for Reed’s consulting business, either.  Why not hire the guys who beat him instead?

I’m not happy at all to see Reed go down like this.  I preferred Cagle because people I trusted preferred him, but he had a golden age when he topped all the Christian politicos in modern American history because he was super-bright and super-articulate.  I hope there’s a second act of some kind for him, both personally and politically.  If he were a lefty, a place at Harvard would be waiting for him!

Go Hank go!

And while I reluctantly supported Reed, part of me is relieved that he lost.

It’s time to do some deep reflecting, Ralph. You’re a man who has been blessed with great gifts, but somewhere along the line you lost your way. Here’s hoping that you find your way back, brother.

You can watch the results as they come in here.