About 30 Georgia lawmakers are reportedly circulating a petition to impeach Attorney General Thurbert Baker for refusing to file a lawsuit against Obamacare. It would require a majority vote in the House and a two-thirds vote in the Senate, so it’s unlikely to succeed, but since crossover day is Friday, the upside is that such an effort could prevent the General Assembly from passing any more bills this year.
Meanwhile, on the other side of aisle, the Democratic Party of Georgia filed an open-records request today asking for any written communications between the governor’s office and various conservative organizations, apparently seeking to discover Perdue’s request is part of a concerted national effort.
”Georgia citizens have a right to know about Perdue’s motivations for overturning legislation that will assist 1.7 million uninsured state residents from obtaining affordable health insurance,” said (Chairwoman Jane) Kidd. “We believe that Perdue is pursuing this strategy as a purely political calculation, and ignoring the needs of 2.6 million children in Georgia who are protected from insurance denial due to pre-existing conditions by this legislation.”
The request also includes “any documents analyzing the costs, including attorneys’ fees, that would be incurred by the State of Georgia in a lawsuit challenging the federal health care legislation.” Kidd contends that the pursuit of this strategy wastes taxpayer money.
“We have a record budget deficit in Georgia, and our Governor is attempting to spend additional money to fight a battle against health insurance for our most vulnerable citizens,” said Kidd. “So we are requesting the documents that indicate how much this legal witch hunt will cost our citizens.”
Back on the GOP side, Perdue said at a news conference today that he will proceed with the lawsuit without Baker. From the Associated Press:
Gov. Sonny Perdue says he plans to appoint a special attorney general to sue the federal government over the new federal health care overhaul law.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Perdue said he plans to assemble a team of pro bono lawyers to file the suit.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker on Wednesday declined the governor’s request to sue.
Perdue said Georgia probably will not join with other states which have filed suit.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who appeared with Perdue, said he believes
voters will show their disagreement with the bill in November. Both expressed strong disapproval for threats being made against Democrats who voted for the bill.
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So, can you tell us who the
So, can you tell us who the 30 dingbats are?
I second that, who are the
I second that, who are the leaders of this impeachment drive? Last I checked, AG Baker is well within his authority to pursue or not pursue this lawsuit at his discretion.
Ugh
Somehow Baker's lawsuit refusal lead to someone arguing that women shouldn't have the right to vote on another blog...and the proponent claimed to be female. I lost about 20 precious IQ points today as a result of reading that thread. Oh Internet, why won't you let me slap people across TCP/IP yet?
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Appparently it wasn't a teachable moment --
Gov. Sonny has been down this road before, and the Ga. Supremes done told him that Thurbert is the state's lawyer, and t'aint too much the bald guy can do about it. Going to be some real procedural problems with some pro bono private lawyers filing anything on behalf of the State of Georgia.
I know it's probably not consistent with his incipient megalomania, but being Governor is not synonymous with being the State of Georgia.