Shepherd's Political Pie

There are many jobs these days that do not require a college degree. Stories like this one from CareerBuilder.com say that the field of top jobs that do not require a degree are strong and growing. There are also plenty of stories about wildly successful people like Bill Gates who became extremely wealthy and built multi-billion dollar companies without a piece of sheep skin hanging on their wall.

While you may be able to get many jobs without a four year degree, should “Governor” be one of them? After all, you can't run for Attorney General of Georgia unless you have a law degree. What's more, you generally can’t teach in a public school without a four year degree, no matter how talented you are. I bring up this point because in the race for Georgia Governor, there are at least two candidates on the Republican side who are applying for the State’s top job, but are hoping that the requirements don’t include a college degree.

Currently, the only Republican candidate for Governor with a college degree is John Oxendine, who double majored in Christianity and History at Mercer University before also earning his law degree at Mercer’s Law School. Oxendine's father, Judge James Oxendine, never expected to go to college, much less get a law degree. Growing up on a tobacco farm in North Carolina, an invitation to join the United States Army in Korea led the older Ox to be noticed for his athletic talent and a football scholarship to Ole Miss. After a short time in the pros, Oxendine went to John Marshall Law School at night while working during the day provide for his wife, John and his siblings. Watching his father work so hard on his education instilled those values in John at an early age.

Oxendine ran a successful law firm with his wife for several years before running for Insurance Commissioner in 1994 at the age of 32.

Oxendine brought several of his staff at his law firm in with him when he became Commissioner, along with a new Chief Deputy, his campaign manager, David Shafer. Shafer would leave a year later to run for Secretary of State.

Dealing with a Democrat Governor and legislature, Oxendine soon found his was forced to keep doing more with a decreasing budget.

While Lt. Governor Casey Cagle attended both Gainesville College and Georgia Southern University, an injury ended both his football and college career. By the age of 20 he was back home in Gainesville where he started a small tuxedo rental business. In 1994, at the age of 28, he was elected to the state senate.

Although she’s not officially in the race yet, Secretary of State Karen Handel is also rumored to be considering throwing her hat in the ring. Karen does not list attending a college in her bio and, if she did, she probably left to become Deputy Chief of Staff in the Bush-Quayle White House working directly for Mrs. Quayle. She became President and CEO of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, which is where I first met her, Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Perdue, Chairman of the Fulton County Commission and finally, Secretary of State.

Karen’s resume as an executive only rivals Oxendine’s on the Republican side. She has also been very successful in her roles and has been successful at each level. But does that experience negate the need to have a college degree?

One of the issues constantly on the minds of Georgia voters is education. I have heard from more than one elected official that, while it wasn’t an issue for their vote for Lt. Governor or Sec. of State, it is an issue while they make up their minds for Governor.

Most of Georgia’s Governors have had more than one degree. That holds true for even our current Governor, Dr. George E. “Sonny” Perdue, DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine).

As mentioned above, Oxendine holds the degree a large number of Georgia’s former Governors have also held, a JD.

In June of 2008, the AJC touched briefly on the point. In his article Jim Galloway makes the point in the article A possible degree of change in the 2010 race for governor, “Americans have a love-hate relationship with the people we choose to rule over us. We require that they be our equals in person, but our betters on paper. Even in Georgia, we prefer our political elite educated, so long as that education is covered up with blue jeans and a John Deere cap.”

One thing that Handel and Cagle have in common is a hard family life growing up. Handel left home at 17 while Cagle’s single mother worked two jobs to support her children.

Maybe a degree from the “School of Hard Knocks” is all Georgians will want for their next Chief Executive. If that's the case, then Handel and Cagle have earned their degree.

Be sure to vote in the poll found on the mirror site on whether you think a college degree is a requirement to be Governor.

I have decided that it’s time for me to add my two cents into the Governor’s race.

For me it really didn’t matter who else got into the race, I already knew I was going to support John Oxendine to be the next Governor of Georgia. I know John Oxendine very well, not as well as his close friends or family, but not too far from that level and close enough to really know the man’s strengths and weaknesses.

For over five years I worked for John Oxendine. What’s more, I didn’t have a desk job somewhere in the Department of Insurance where I only saw him pass through from time to time. I was his senior aide for most of those years. I traveled across the state with him; toured natural disaster areas with him; was with him when he met with and helped Katrina victims who ended up in Georgia after the hurricane; was there for the arrest of corrupt insurance agents he was prosecuting; watched him as he presented reward checks to those citizens who helped us catch and convict arsonists; stood with him as we looked over the dead bodies of children and adults who didn’t make it out of the house during a fire. There were also the trips to the Rotaries, Lions Clubs, Kiwanis meetings, and business councils.

There is a lot you can learn from a person, and about a person, spending all of those hours together. I have also watched a lot of elected officials in my day and, despite some of the eccentricities that people use to criticize Oxendine, very few of them show the dedication to the people they represent as he does. You see, many politicians I know would go to that Rotary Club meeting, meet the officers, give their speech, do the quick photo-op and leave. Ox would have to be the first one there to greet every member as they came in. He would also make sure he was there to tell them all, “good-bye” as well. He would also make sure he talked to every server and the staff as they cleared the tables and cleaned up.

I roll my eyes when someone tells me that Oxendine should not be governor because his voice is too high. The octave of his voice did not matter to the server who he took the time to pay as much attention to as the Club President. It did not matter to that bus boy who he gave his personal email address to so the bus boy could email him directly about the insurance problem his mother was having.

Oxendine has also been an innovator in this state. He pushed for a new era of customer service in state government the day he came in as Georgia’s first Republican Insurance Commission in 1995. He realized that people couldn’t always call with their insurance problems between 8:30AM - 4:00PM, so he started one of the state’s first flex work programs where he allowed employees to work four 10 hour days a week rather than five 8 hour days. That way, Oxendine had someone there to answer phones from 8:00AM – 7:00PM at night. DOI may still be the only state department, outside of emergency services, that stays open to 7:00PM.

As Governor, I know Oxendine will find ways to improve the great work Governor Perdue has started to make the rest of state government more receptive and responsive to their customers, the people of Georgia.

Oxendine also has a talent for finding innovative solutions to some of the issues that have gripped our state. The problem of rural healthcare had been an issue state leaders had talked about for years, but governors and legislators never could come up with a solution, so rural healthcare was put on the back burner.

Three years ago, Oxendine finally decided to do something about it. Partnering with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, private, public and university hospitals Oxendine started the Rural Telemedicine Initiative and, eventually, the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth. With $100 million in private funds for equipment and low interest loans for rural health centers, the goal is being reached that no one in Georgia is more than 30 minutes away from a medical specialist.

While I have heard from many people that Oxendine is a great Insurance Commissioner and should just keep doing what he’s doing, I respond that when you have someone who has time and again proven themselves in the small things, you eventually promote them or you lose them.

While I would be the first to concede that Oxendine has made some mistakes over the nearly 16 years he has been Commissioner, the people of Georgia have over and over again chosen to look at his successes. Through, at times, very still Democratic competition, Oxendine continues to be the state’s top vote getter every four years. He is usually the only Republican to win counties like Fulton, Richmond, Clarke, Liberty and Bibb, averages 10,000 – 20,000 more votes than other Republicans in counties like DeKalb and Clayton. In the last election, Oxendine won 154 of Georgia’s 159 counties. No other Democrat or Republican running opposed did so well.

I have no been happy with some of the early communications from his campaign, and I have let both his campaign know and Oxendine personally know. However, while some on Peach Pundit have called Oxendine “Georgia’s Dumbest Candidate” and “as dumb as an Ox” for some of those press releases, Oxendine’s governance paints a much different story.

While Oxendine and his only other announced opponent, Casey Cagle, have both raised over $1 million, Cagle leads and will probably continue to lead in the money race for a while. Both of them are restricted from fundraising during the legislative session and, as one lobbyist told me, anyone who lobbies at the legislature will be more likely to give to Cagle over Oxendine. Most of them have worked with Cagle during his years in the Senate and as Lt. Governor. Oxendine’s tenure and contacts across the state that he has built over the past 14 years will help him keep up, but if money were the end-all-be-all, then Reed would be Lt. Governor and Perdue would not have beaten Roy Barnes.

Speaking of Ralph Reed, let me put one popular rumor to rest once and for all. Ralph Reed did not scare Oxendine out of the race for Lt. Governor. Myself, a few of his other advisors, friends and family had more to do with Oxendine’s exit from that race. All of us were willing to support him if he continued on, but none of us thought the move was in his best interest. One thing I told him was with a Republican Governor and Speaker, it would be very difficult for him to find his voice while he was caught between the two of them. Cagle has shown my prediction was somewhat true.

As custom, I will state for the record that all though I did work for John Oxendine at the Department of Insurance for five years, it has been over a year since I have been on his payroll.

Because of state budget cuts, one charity in Jonesboro that works with children in low income areas, many from either broken or homes where at least one parent is incarcerated, has had their Local Assistance Grant put on hold, maybe indefinitely.

Jonesboro Lighthouse was founded by Rosalie Doggett, who herself dropped out of school in the 8th grade when she became pregnant with her first child. Before that, she had spent most of her childhood growing up in foster homes. Rather than using that as an excuse to fail, she was determined to succeed and now, at 42, she works with at risk children to make sure they stay on a path of success; staying involved in their community and staying in school. Lighthouse also provides a safe and supervised environment for children to go to after school, where they can work on and get help for their homework and be prepared for school the next day. They give incentives for extra reading and use the reading time as an opportunity to focus on vocabulary skills.

In addition, Lighthouse works to make sure that the parents of these children are active participants in the child's lives and know what their children are up to and the success or sturggles.

Looking at their needs, this may be a situation where we as individuals can stand up and help. Their list of needs are:

• 4 computers
• Computer Desks
• 2 love seats (can be gently used)
• Lots of puzzles
• Label maker
• A copier, printer, scanner
• First aid Kit
• Construction paper
• Gifts for the reading incentive closet
• Hats and scarf sets
• Footies
• Art and craft supplies
• Funds to help support the limited salaries they have

We all know people in our community, churches, civic groups, business organizations, political organizations, that may want to pitch in or even donate some of these items.

Please reply back to me if you can help or if you need more information. You can also reach Jonesboro Lighthouse at:

c/o Rosalie Doggett 145 S. McDonough Street, 13B Jonesboro, GA 30236 770-892-8102

Jonesboro Lighthouse is a nonprofit for tax purposes.

In 1997, in an episode of Seinfeld, Frank Constanza introduced the world to the eve before Christmas Eve celebration known as "Festivus."

As you may or may not remember, Festivus is celebrated on December 23 with a gathering of family and friends. There is the aluminum Festivus poll, the Airing of Grievances (usually during the Festivus meal), followed by the Feats of Strength and maybe, just maybe, if you are really lucky, a Festivus miracle or two.

Since you're already on "Shepherd's (Political) Pie", we'll count that as the meal so I can air a few grievances. Pass me the Aluminum Poll.

1. Bill Shipp.

It's time to go. You sound like a broken record of washed up liberalism. Barak Obama's win was not a triumph of the liberal left. It would have been a liberal victory if Obama had campaigned on a platform of higher taxes to pay for socialized health care, immediate pullout of troops in the Middle East, etc, etc.

No, instead the guy won promising tax cuts (we'll see if he lives up to the promises), is keeping Bush's war team in place and has picked Rick Warren to give the opening prayer at the Inauguration. Hardly the great liberal hope. If my suspensions prove out right, Obama will govern slightly left of center, like Bill Clinton after the 1994 GOP Revolution. The goal will be to act conservative enough to get past 2012 with slight nudges to the left and keep a Democrat Congress. We'll see a much bigger turn in 2013.

Your stream of conscious writing style should have been pounded out of you at UGA. Is it laziness or just the fact that after 50 years of writing, you've run out of anything meaningful to say.

We both spent our time on the Red and Black at the University, but come on, I don't feel a need to mention it in nearly every thing I write, and for me it was only 14 years ago, not 45.

Saying that Bryan Nichols escaping the death penalty is more proof as to why the death penalty should be eliminated is such a leap in logic that I have no idea how to respond except to be shocked that you actually put it in writing.

It's time to retire. Here's some advice...take up fishing. I hear we have some great new boat ramps in Georgia.

2. John McCain.

What can I say? No message. No strategy. And a a bunch of advisers who seemed like they wanted you to lose. From the day I first met you in 1998 and found out what an arrogant prick you actually were to all of your legislative plans that were designed to stick it to the American people our Constitution or both, what made you think that you deserved the White House?

Sure, I will agree you did so more than Obama did, but a war record didn't work with H.W. Bush against Clinton, with Dole against Clinton, with Kerry against Dubya. A great war record has to be part of the package, not THE whole package.

You can't stick it to your party for the past 20 years and expect them to come out to support you (though many like myself did and did it with all we had). The best move you made was to pick Sarah Palin, who gave you your only days in the lead in the polls, and then you cast her off after the election.

We know now it really wasn't your staff leaking to the media in the final days and right after the election, but you weren't exactly there to stick up for her. That offends me as a Southern gentleman on so many levels.

3. Saxby Chambliss.

Congratulations on making us all keep our lives on hold for an extra month because you listened to the Senate leadership over your own constituents. Your poll numbers started dropping the second you voted for the bailout. You can't screw your constituents and then expect them to love you for it. A nickel's worth of free advice, when something is going to pass by a vote of 75-25, vote against it if all of your constituents say, "No" to it.

Also, who does a bus tour in the final weeks of the campaign? Bus tours should be at the beginning to rally the troops. The fact you had to rally at the end showed that not even had you not gotten all of the GOP on board, that you didn't have most of the swing vote on board.

To top it all off, you have the audacity to refuse to allow Sue Everhart on stage? Sue Everhart was elected by the grassroots and the grassroots still consider her one of us. Refusing her was refusing all of us who made phone calls, waved signs in the cold, put family holidays on hold to help you. Sue Everhart didn't get you in a runoff, your votes in the Senate did. Are you forgetting the warm reception you got from the folks at the GAGOP convention who paid $50 to eat cold eggs with you? This wasn't exactly the common "riff-raff" that was booing you.

By the way, if I have to hear ONE MORE TIME how you and Johnny were frat brothers who went on panty raids together back at UGA, I may have to do something drastic like vote Democrat.

Guess what guys, you two might as well say you met at the yachting club. I have no tolerance for the over use of class warfare, but most of Georgia's voters were not in a fraternity, heck, most Republican voters were not in a fraternity. If you don't want to look like an elitist, don't use elitist rhetoric. Many people who weren't in the Greek system have a negative view of the Greek system.

I will expect the announcement of your retirement from the senate sometime after the 2012 election to give your replacement a 2 year start.

4. George W. Bush.

While I believe history will judge you much kinder than the current polls would suggest, what the Hell happened?

What happened to limited government? Did you not realize that in our system of checks and balances the President was supposed to restrain Congress and visa versa? Our Constitutional system was not written with parties in mind so it looks at the system as if there was only one party in control.

I have misplaced a lot of things, but there was no excuse to misplacing your veto pen longer than Hillary misplaced the Rose Law Firm billing records!

While you get to retire to Crawford and spend the rest of your life giving speeches at $150,000 a pop, we’re left for the next several years cleaning up your mess.

You also may have killed any chance of Jeb being on a Presidential ticket. I have done some mean things to my little brother, but man, that’s just cruel!

5. The Mainstream Media.

Congratulations. I have officially stopped watching the news. I don’t really mind if a journalist is partisan, but if he/she is, at least don’t pretend to be a journalist.

Write columns, don’t host interviews. Don’t accept the anchor chair. Don’t claim to be unbiased.

Reading through the Media Research Center’s best media quotes of the year has reminded me just how obsessed the media was with Obama. It was embarrassing. I expect this kind of blind devotion from the subscribers of 17 Magazine, not seasoned political “journalists.”

Here is a sampling of some of MRC’s picks:

Chris Matthews: “I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often….And that is an objective assessment.”

Time’s Nancy Gibbs in the November 17 cover story: “Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope."

David Wright on ABC’s Nightline: "Today, the audacity of hope had its rendezvous with destiny....Obama is now an adopted son of Camelot. His candidacy blessed not just by the Lion of the Senate, patriarch of the clan, but by JFK’s daughter."

With grievances aired, it's now time for the Feats of Strength.

We'll start off with:

1. Sue Everhart.

None of the "establishment" gave Sue a chance of success. Many of them have abandoned her and would not help her with fundraising. Still, since she became Chair in 2007, she's raised an astounding $10 million.

She has also travelled the state, taking the message directly to the grassroots. There isn't a group Sue will not visit and will not talk to help grow the Georgia Republican Party.

2. Clint Murphy.

You need to win a state with no money and not even a visit by the candidate, send in a hard headed, sometimes hot-tempered, Irishman like Clint Murphy.

The fact he likes to go by the moniker of “Bull Moose” says all there is to say about him. The man picked up John McCain and threw him across the Georgia finish line. Now that was a feat of strength!

3. Sarah Palin.

She was my pick for veep long before most people this side of Juneau had ever heard of her. She will be my pick for President in 2012.

Like Clint Murphy, the feat of strength involved the heavy lifting of a Presidential Campaign. For a brief couple of days, Sarah Palin held of the Obama Campaign Juggernaut and sent the liberals into full blown panic mode.

She also pumped up Tina Fey’s career and made the actress, well known to SNL fans, a household name.

The best example of the treat Sarah poses for the left is best illustrated in the fact that someone tried to torch her church. But tactics like that didn’t work in the South during the Civil Rights movement and won’t keep the first woman president out of the White House.

With Grievances Aired and Feats of Strength displayed, it’s now time to bid farewell to Festivus 2008.

Happy Festivus everyone!

T/P to Bayham for reminding me that today was the sacred day.

What I haven’t made that clear on this blog is that in addition to the political work I do, holding down a full time job and trying to be at least a decent husband, I also decided three years ago to that I wanted to get a law degree, so three nights a week I spend several hours in class at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School.

The school has had its ups and downs, but has survived now 75 years to produce some of the top lawyers in the state (and one talk radio host by the name of Neal Boortz).

A couple of weeks ago, as this semester started to wind down, it was once again time to register for classes. One elective that caught my attention was “Civil Liberties.”

The course sounded interesting, though I assumed it would be geared more towards the far left. Being one that never shies away from a good fight, the only concern I had was the course would require me to register as a lobbyist for the Georgia legislature. The issue I had with that is my current employer does not allow me to lobby for outside entities. However I figured I would check with the professor. If the lobbying work was benign enough, I though there may be a chance that work might okay it.

I emailed Kathleen Burch, our former Dean of Students, who is teaching the class. Her response was shocking, even by liberal academia standards. She replied:

“I think the biggest concern is whether… you would have a conflict of interest with the ACLU. I am copying Chara Jackson, the Legal Director for the ACLU, for her input. Because the class will be working on the ACLU's legislative agenda, the ACLU has the final say in conflicts of interest.”

So let me get this right, the class will be working on the ACLU’s legislative agenda? For a grade? For credit towards completing their legal education?

I’m sorry, but if I am going to pay nearly $3,000 to take a class (tuition of just shy of $1,000 a credit hour), it’s not going to be for the “honor” of lobbying for the American Civil Liberties Union, or anyone else for that matter. I thought lobbyists get paid to lobby, not the other way around.

I also wonder what would be the prospects of getting a class organized that would allow law students to pay for the right to lobby on behalf of, oh, let’s say, the American Center for Law and Justice or the Cato Institute. I’m sure there is some right-of-center organization that students could lobby for, though it might pit one group of JMLS students against another group, but won’t that eventually happen in a few years in court rooms across Georgia after graduation?

I was discussing the issue with a friend of mine who used work with the Southeastern Legal Foundation, another good possibility for law students who may be a little more on the right. He said, “I guess I’m becoming too jaded about how the Left always worms its way into seemingly everything!”

At 32 years old, it probably shouldn’t be surprising to me that things like this go on in academia. At this point I should only be able to fain shock like Claude Raines in Casablanca when he said, “I’m shocked, SHOCKED to find that gambling is going on in here!” shortly before he has handed his gambling winnings.

But liberalism and the law typically go hand-in-hand. Lawyers contribute millions more to the Democrats than the Republicans. Bigger government means more laws, more regulations, more and more complex legal structures, i.e. more work for lawyers. Corporations that stumbled across those regulations and slip-up have the deep pockets to pay big tort judgments. Lawyers get the benefit and give those extra attorney’s fees to Democrat candidates who fight against tort reform.

Still, I have not become jaded by the degree liberal organizations have brazenly wormed their way into academia, or any area of society for that matter. Learning their tactics was part of the reason I was interested in taking the class in the first place. By learning how the left operates and by exposing those tactics, the right has a chance to stand its ground.

At least knowing this will give me ample time to let my friends in the legislature know why the ACLU has about 20 or so extra lobbyists running around, most of them just trying to get 3 more credit hours on their way to a JD.