Opinion by The Arrowflinger
The Butler did it – he did it a lot!
Just when we thought Georgia and Columbia County politics could not get more absurd, along came District One Commissioner Doug Duncan’s star-studded – oops, embarrassing word choice there – star-crossed Georgia state-level endorsers. You wouldn’t trust them in an outhouse with a muzzle on, from Johnny Isakson (more later) down the line to Ben Harbin (more on him later, too). All lined up behind this guy:
Perhaps the most innovative scoundrel on that list did something never seen before in Georgia, but first, some background is in order. In a December 2009 post, the Peach Pundit wrote:
Georgia Speaker Glenn Richardson two weeks ago announced he had tried to commit suicide. The Speaker went through a very messy divorce. His best friends were all killed in one day in a plane crash together. He had undertaken an affair with a lobbyist that did not work out well. He admitted to suffering severe depression. People were willing to give him a second chance.
But then his ex-wife spoke out. She had the text messages and voicemails of a belligerent Speaker threatening to use his power to destroy her. What’s more, additional revelations into the Speaker’s affair showed that he might have used his power to help his mistress’s company — Atlanta Gas Light — get some sweet legislation passed.
While many had wanted to give the Speaker the benefit of the doubt, his ex-wife’s television interview and the new revelations sealed the deal. He had to go.
Under Georgia law, when the Speaker prematurely leaves office, the Speaker Pro Tempore automatically becomes Speaker until an election can be called within the House of Representatives. That election must happen in around 100 days.
Meeting in back rooms, late into the night, and with the Governor, a deal was hammered out…
Over in Carrolton, a young, diminutive Georgia House member, Mark Butler, had enough time watching the Speaker’s sexual antics and the firestorm that consumed Glenn Richardson, and plotted a “safer sex” option – he had an affair with a state-paid lobbyist!
In a December 2009 post, Tom Crawford of the Georgia Report picked up where Erick Erickson left off – the resignation of Speaker Richardson – continuing down the trail of the Butler who did it:
The disclosures kept coming. A Carrollton newspaper and an Atlanta TV station reported that Rep. Mark Butler (R-Carrollton) had an affair that lasted more than two years with a woman who worked as a lobbyist for the University of West Georgia.
When Butler learned that his girlfriend’s job had been eliminated, he got on the phone with a university official and warned him that he, “had ticked off a whole political party,” by dismissing the lobbyist. (In fairness to Butler, he was unmarried during his relationship with the university lobbyist.)
(Since Crawford’s death, Georgia Report is no longer published and the domain is now up for sale.)
Now, this old Arrowflinger was simply floored by that! Imagine it! Over in Augusta, they have a Congressman fully prepared and versed by his kin folks to BYOB – Bailout Your Own Bank – and now in the Labor Commissioner’s office we have Mark Butler, endorser of Doug Duncan, doing another BYOB – Bring Your Own Booty. In both cases, Georgia taxpayers got to pay for the pleasure!
Maybe Doug Duncan and his pal, Columbia County District 3 Commissioner Trey Allen, compatriots at the same temporary labor and placement firm, can get a county or state contract to supply their political brethren with risk-free babes. We are sure Mark Butler can grease the skids at the Labor Department.
Whew! And just think! Doug Duncan is running ads branding opponent Pam Tucker as “Drama” when his Butler is a past master of drama.
-AF
Last episode in this Series – Doug Duncan Proxy’s Attack on Women
Next in Series – Paying the TPole Tax the Harbin Way