As everyone has read or heard by now an incident occurred at a Republican gathering over the weekend. It wasn’t pretty and everyone has an opinion about what should have happened, but I have to agree with Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens. It should have never happened.
On Monday General Olens was the guest speaker at the Georgia Center Right Coalition. As always Olens was on top of the details of what seemed like fifty issues that his office deals with on a daily basis from the water wars between the states to the Affordable Care Act. To say that he was intimately familiar with the facts and issues would be an understatement.
Attorneys General don’t get there by being sloppy or misinformed, they get there by being good at interpreting the constitution. That is their job. But on Monday Olens strayed from the law and spoke from his heart to the group of 20 or so Center-Right attendees. The issue…transparency and politics.
The incident in question occurred when a blogger attending a private Republican function was escorted from the event against her will for video-taping the speakers. This is done quite regularly and most of the time it’s done to try and catch a candidate “screwing up” in a speech or question and answer session. The hope is to get something to use later in an ad like the one used against Mitt Romney talking about the “forty-seven percent of Americans…” and you know the rest. It blew up on Romney and was a major contributor to him losing his bid for the presidency. These sneak attacks by the opposition are hated and the truth is both sides do it. The issue is why do we care?
Attorney General Olens made a great point when he asked that question. If we are speaking to a group of Republicans why should we care if someone records it? If we are speaking to a group of donors why should we care? The answer is we shouldn’t because we should expect that the “gotcha” crowd is there and the truth and facts are not disputable. But the real reason is why would a candidate be afraid that ALL of his or her words might “leak” out? Elected officials are there to represent ALL of their constituents, not just those in his or her party. General Olens was quick to say “I asked for this job” and my expectation is to “not say something that I will regret and I won’t do that if I’m being honest and thinking before I speak.” Transparency is a must in government. There can’t be secret negotiations or meetings held out of the public eye with the exception being matters of safety and those having to do with personnel issues. The glare of a campaign does not represent a high security meeting. I know it was on private property and the property owner has a right to ask that a person be removed but is this the signal Republicans want to send to Georgians in an election year as the state appears to be trending “purple?” I don’t think so and neither does Sam Olens. The issue is being able to adequately represent your thoughts and desires without name calling or bad mouthing the other side. Pointing out the factual differences between “us” and “them” is appropriate and necessary. If both sides stick to that the voters win and isn’t that what it’s all about? Sam Olens understands this…nice job Sam!
