Author
Bookman: Eastman memo shows how close Georgia GOP chair came to enabling Trump coup
Eleven months after the election, and nine months after the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, we are only now beginning to understand how organized, intentional and dangerous the Trump coup attempt had been, and how dangerous it remains. Take, for example, the events of Dec. 14 at the Georgia State Capitol. On that date, Democratic electors […]
Bookman: GOP leaders should tell faithful to get vaccinated and quit their damn whining
Under current Georgia law, “No child shall be admitted to or attend any school or facility in this state unless the child shall first have submitted a certificate of immunization to the responsible official of the school or facility.” That, my friends, is a government vaccine mandate, and it has been on the books for […]
Bookman: Threats against nurses, school boards rage on as mainstream GOP stands by
In a press conference at the state Capitol this week, Georgia’s public health commissioner condemned a campaign of bullying, intimidation and threats directed at health care workers attempting to improve the state’s abysmal vaccination record against COVID- 19. “Many of our line workers are receiving threats, are receiving hostile emails, harassing emails,” Dr. Kathleen Toomey […]
Bookman: Top Trump DOJ official’s letter staked out Georgia as path to a coup
On Dec. 28, a top official in the Trump Department of Justice circulated an extraordinary, potentially history-altering letter to his colleagues, writing that “I see no valid downsides” to issuing the letter and proposing that they “get it out as soon as possible.” In that letter, reported this week by ABC News, Jeffrey Clark falsely […]
Bookman: Ralston’s Fulton elections letter a cynical way to stir mistrust
It takes a special kind of cynicism to piously bemoan declining faith in American elections while you actively feed and nurture that very same, destructive mistrust. It’s particularly special when you create that mistrust out of fantasies and lies, with absolutely no basis in fact. We got yet another example of that hypocrisy last week, […]
Bookman: Blame murder surge on pandemic-related rage and gun sales
The rising number of murders in the Atlanta metro region, some of them apparently random, has truly been alarming, and it’s important to try to grasp what its causes might be. If the phenomenon was local, then you might suspect that the causes and solutions are local as well. But it’s not. It’s occurring all […]
Bookman: Trump quits court battle but recklessly urges followers to fight
This week, Donald Trump was finally forced to admit the truth: He lost Georgia fair and square, the multiple lawsuits that he and the Georgia GOP filed to try to throw out the state’s 5 million presidential votes had been based on lies and fantasies, and the entire argument they tried to make had zero […]
Bookman: Hysteria over ‘critical race theory’ is to deny bigotry still with us
Prodded by Gov. Brian Kemp, the state Board of Education last week waded into the controversy over “critical race theory,” or more accurately, into a cartoon version of the theory that has been ginned up by Fox News and the conservative entertainment industry to keep its viewers in a state of racial panic. “The United […]
Bookman: Making Hice state election chief like handing safe keys to robber
Jody Hice poses a test of character and patriotism for Georgia Republicans. It’s a test that many of those voters proudly insist they will fail. At the moment, Hice remains a congressman, representing the state’s 10th Congressional District. In that role, he has been a prominent, vocal champion of the Big Lie about the 2020 […]
Bookman: Floodgates swing open for special-interest money during session
Let me introduce you to Jeff Mullis, chair of the Rules Committee in the Georgia state Senate and one of the most powerful people in Georgia politics. If you want a piece of legislation passed, you need to go through Mullis. As Rules chair, he pretty much decides if and when a bill gets a […]
Bookman: Carr chooses truth-telling over Republican’s Trump tribalism
Last week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr resigned as chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association, explaining that he had fundamental and irresolvable differences with the group’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Carr’s actions should be applauded, even by – especially by – Democrats. Across the country, only a relative […]
Bookman: GOP uses government power to cancel First Amendment
Last month, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian took the bold step of daring to criticize the actions of the Georgia General Assembly. As Bastian put it in a memo to Delta employees, Georgia had just enacted legislation “that could make it harder for many Georgians, particularly those in our Black and brown communities, to […]