Dawggone silly
Rome News-Tribune
Posted 10-16-06

NORMALLY, about this time in an election year, the big-dog candidates are more interested in blasting back at their opponents than in barking about a newspaper headline. That Georgia's governor recently took affront at an Atlanta paper's rather clever play on words, instead of his opponent's ads about Florida land deals and special tax breaks, seems to indicate he believes the polls saying he can't lose.

It may betray some other things, too. The governor's short temper, his love for playing to the peanut gallery, his talent for grabbing center stage in a political arena that is increasingly becoming more "show biz" than about fixing the state's problems.

The headline in question, which set the former 12th-string or so University of Georgia quarterback off, was about the University of Tennessee spanking his alma mater 51-33 in Sanford Stadium itself, in a game that the Bulldogs has been widely expected to win by everyone not wearing orange. It was on the sports page and read: "Dogs get put in their place."

Which is true, as it was in "their place" that they got mangled and lost their previous undefeated status.

AS PRACTITIONERS of the same headline-writing trade, our judgment: Good headline. Certainly, if the outcome had been different, the governor wouldn't have yelped at "Orange crushed."

Frankly, Gov. Sonny Perdawg momentarily forgot that he's not head of the Bulldog Nation but of a State of Georgia that includes a considerable number of citizens of the Yellowjacket Nation, the Shorter Hawks Nation and others who took no affront and, indeed, may have rather enjoyed the headline.

While the governor (his last name is actually Perdue) made a point of saying the hot letter to the editor he sent was entirely personal and not official, it sure strayed from a simple display of football colors in addressing a paper that did not endorse him the last time round (neither, for the record, did this one).

"From the front page to the business page and now to the sports page, it is as if [the paper] gleefully awaits lousy news about all things Georgia and pounces with their poison pens whenever bad things happen to the good people of our state," he fumed.

Hardly. The secrecy-prone governor doesn't like some of the "hard news" that appears from time to time, but most newspapers — and Atlanta's is no exception — overflow with good, positive stuff. In fact, if there were disappointment at the loss it was probably exaggerated by the same paper earlier touting UGA as a possible national championship candidate.

Nonetheless, this may be what all this is really about. His disdain for the Atlanta paper specifically, and all of the press in general because it fails to routinely cheerlead his policies, is largely behind his efforts to dim sunshine and limit access to certain public information. The less the people know, the less that can be criticized. For all his self-made image of a tough exterior, Perdue has a thin skin.

ONE ALMOST has to feel kind of sorry for Perdue's opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who has largely been sticking to issues, proposals and past scandals instead of holding press conferences while wearing a "Buzz" suit to respond to this sort of campaign upstaging. Apparently, politics is no longer about feeding the voters red meat but instead about giving them comedy routines.

Between stunts like this one and the governor's slick TV ads in which he uses his wife generously (maybe she should be running the state as his "Sonny Do" list is what she wants, plus she's the one acting shocked that Taylor is criticizing her husband) it's no wonder this popularity contest doesn't seem like a fair fight.

It's no surprise that "American Idol" might top "Dateline" in the ratings.

By the way, former quarterback Perdue really knows how to run with the ball. The next day, on a "sports talk" radio show, he took on the host, John Kincade, who was trying to put this into proper perspective.

"Now, governor, one of the things you said in your note - you said other cities celebrate the successes and mourn the losses of local businesses, individuals and sports teams. I gotta tell you, growing up in Philadelphia, that's not the case about the sports teams. New York papers, Boston papers, Chicago papers, major markets — when their teams do poorly, pro or college — they're getting killed."

THE GOVERNOR: "Hey, Kincade. I think we're getting a diagnosis here. You grew up in Philadelphia?"

Kincade: "Yes, sir."

The governor: "OK. That explains a lot of things."

Geez! For a politician Perdue sure is good at burning bridges behind him that he might want to cross at a later date.

This continuing diversion of politics into being about fun and games instead of about issues and leadership qualities serves the public poorly. Just how far this has gone is further revealed by this: Perdue and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger share the same media guy, the Los Angeles Times recently reported - and the same ad themes and even images. Schwarzenegger's ran first, hence in the identical "education" scene the classroom Perdue vows to turn around is actually in California, not Georgia.

In the newspaper business this used to be called "boilerplate." Now politics has it, too, perhaps revealing that candidates and their handlers have run out of new ideas.

Of course, in the newspaper business in the past, the Atlanta newspaper editor's response to a perfectly sound bit of headline writing would not have been: "Georgia can't win every game, and we can't get every headline just right. Fortunately, our avid readers, including the governor, help keep us straight."

HOW BORING politics now threatens to become! Journalism, too.