So Glenn Richardson is out as Speaker of the House.  I’m not sure how many of the Metblog readers pay attention to this stuff, but it has been quite the drama-fest.  His ex-wife did the political equivalent of a finishing move last week when she accused him of:

• cheating on him with a lobbyist while pushing legislation for that lobbyist.  Because he could.
• threatening to abuse his role as speaker to protect his lobbyist girlfriend in case AGL fired her because of the affair
• using his attempted suicide to guilt his ex-wife into taking him back
• threatening to abuse his role as speaker to sic the GBI and State Patrol on her when she went out of town with her new boyfriend
• threatening to beat his ex-wife up

Wow.  I’m almost impressed.  You are that megalomaniac?  Well done!  You must get up very early in the morning.

Seriously though, anyone who ever watched this guy preside of the House of Representatives can’t be surprised that he turned out to be just as obsessive, power hungry, and unstable behind closed doors as he was in public.  I worked at the State Senate his first session as Speaker, and he regularly berated House members from the podium and then had to go and apologize for his lack of decorum.

I’m totally surprised at how a class act like Richardson ended up in this mess.  At least we didn’t end up with Jerry Keen (R-Disney World) as his replacement.

well, i voted. yet again. it seems like all i do these days is vote. a presidential election last year, then a senate run-off last year, then a mayoral election this year, then a mayoral run-off this year. it’s getting a tiny bit out of control.

at least i can assume that 2010 will not bring any run-offs as both johnny isakson and john lewis are pretty much assured at least 50 percent. that being said, can we do away with the run-off and just elect the person with the plurality after the first ballot?

it’s no secret i voted for mary norwood (although it was one of the least enthusiastic votes i have ever cast), so yes, in this instance, the lack of a run-off would have elected my candidate, and now, it appears, although a recount is imminent, that the run-off will elect her opponent, but look, i would support this either way.

it’s not that i dislike voting, it’s just that i am not sure what the point of the run-off is. it’s not like it’s the exact same electorate. some people vote in the run-off who didn’t in the previous election. a lot of people who voted in the general election never make it out to the run-off. so it isn’t about who most people support, but more about who can get people to go out and vote yet again.

i am all for people’s civic duty, but when we are voting over and over and over, and as ben mentioned for positions most people don’t even know what they do, it’s easy to see why people throw up their hands and don’t vote.

so i say kill the run-off.

i am sure i am wrong about this, so tell me why.

here it is, the obligatory get out and vote post.

as much as i hate run-off elections (probably a topic for another post or maybe i will let ben elaborate) we have them in georgia and today is municipal election run-off day.

they’re going on all over of course (ex. roswell has a run-off for mayor today) but the biggie is the city of atlanta run-off for mayor (atlantans are also voting for other offices today) between mary norwood and kasim reed.

they were <a href="“>monitoring turnout today at blog for democracy and the morning numbers looked solid. still plenty of time.

for poll location, sample ballots and more goodness head to the secretary of state web site.

go vote!!!