Marietta Daily Journal<\/p>\n
February 22, 2015<\/p>\n
GOP listening to big biz, not voters<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIf we continue to allow illegal immigrants access to all these services, we will be flooded.” <\/em>\u2014 Future Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle on driver\u2019s licenses and other public benefits going to illegal aliens in Georgia, at a March 2004 Georgia Chamber of Commerce \u201cEggs and Issues\u201d Breakfast speech.<\/p>\n Welcome to the Establishment Republicans\u2019 \u201cNew Georgia\u201d \u2014 brought to us by what can only be described as \u201cparty uber alles\u201d sycophants who would rather ensure a welcome at the next GOP barbecue, breakfast or produce boil than risk being ostracized for noting the obvious. <\/p>\n Not for the first time \u2014 or the last \u2014 we note that control of the Georgia government has been sold to Big Business led by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and Big Ag with the complicit news suppression of Big Media. Anyone who doubts that fact needs to actually spend some time under the Gold Dome during the legislative session. <\/p>\n Far too many modern-day Republican faithful need to look up the term \u201cuseful idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n The GOP has now had control of the Peach State for more than a decade since Cagle \u2014 who plans on being Gov. Cagle \u2014 offered his \u201ctrust me, I\u2019m a conservative\u201d quote on being \u201cflooded.\u201d In that time several state laws intended to deter illegal immigration have been implemented and then ignored by Georgia\u2019s elected leaders \u2014 with the lack of enforcement then ignored by the \u201cwatchdog\u201d press.<\/p>\n These days, only the bravest in government voluntarily mention the crime of illegal immigration or protecting our jobs, driver\u2019s licenses and other public benefits from illegal aliens.<\/p>\n While the Dunwoody-based Atlanta newspaper and the NPR\/GPTV crowd (apologies for my repetition) have done a stunningly efficient job of keeping a lid on \u201ctoo much information,\u201d Georgia has issued driver\u2019s licenses and public benefits to about 15,000 \u201cvictims of borders\u201d since 2012. <\/p>\n The bold effort from Attorney General Sam Olens\u2019 office in joining the Texas-originated, 26-state lawsuit challenging Obama\u2019s latest executive amnesty decree offers the chance to stop at least 170,000 more illegals from legally getting in the \u201cme too\u201d benefit line. <\/p>\n More? In November, when Obama announced his latest amnesty, GOP Gov. Nathan Deal remarked for the record that he had \u201creservations.\u201d It is up to the reader to decide if that language is stronger that being \u201cmiffed.\u201d<\/p>\n By now, many readers may have heard about Columbus state Sen. Josh McKoon\u2019s legislation (SB 6) that would at least stop all illegals from accessing a Georgia driver\u2019s license. On orders from the real bosses in Georgia, the game of \u201ckill this bill \u2014 and do it quietly!\u201d by GOP Senate leadership goes like this: either smother the bill in the Public Safety Committee or bottle it up in the GOP-led Rules Committee until after Day 30 so that it cannot possibly see a floor vote by the full Senate this year. <\/p>\n When asked about his bill by McKoon, the Cagle-appointed GOP Chairman of the Public Service Committee, where Cagle assigned SB 6, reportedly explained that its future didn\u2019t look too good. It seems many of his south Georgia campaign funders are growers who have illegal aliens working as foremen \u2014 and they need driver\u2019s licenses to get to their illegally obtained jobs. Get it?<\/p>\n Because of the danger of voter memory of the exercise, a public, recorded, full-Senate vote on SB 6 would result in passage by a large margin. As president of the Senate, Cagle will not allow that to happen unless he is forced into submission by public pressure and seeing more than half the Republican caucus publicly support the bill by actually signing on as co-sponsors.<\/p>\n And that is as close as we are likely to get to seeing which Republican state Senators are really pro-enforcement and which are more worried about the Chamber of Commerce donors than the voters they swore to protect.<\/p>\n As I write this, the 12 co-signers on McKoon\u2019s bill are Sens. Mike Crane, Steve Gooch, William Ligon, Bill Heath, PK Martin, Greg Kirk, Bruce Thompson, Marty Harbin, Frank Ginn, Michael Williams, Judson Hill and Hunter Hill (the latter two of Cobb). There are 38 Republican state Senators.<\/p>\n For the curious: There are no bills to stop illegal aliens from getting a driver\u2019s license in the GOP-majority state House.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n D.A. King is president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society. He is not member of any political party. Twitter: @DAKDIS<\/p>\n