Wednesday 3/29/2006 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1143628662184120.xml&coll=2 – Senate committee passes bill to add “unborn persons” to those who can be victims of assault, murder, etc.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1143627869184120.xml&coll=2 – Immigrant advocates rally in Birmingham for reform.

http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1143627929184120.xml&coll=2 – Editorial on Roy Moore’s opposition to proposal to register farm animals.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1143627729184100.xml&coll=3 – Senate slows action yesterday to avoid eminent domain measure, today likely last day bill could move.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060329/NEWS02/603290330/1009 – Deadly force measure gains House approval, now to Governor for signature.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/APN/603280974 – Parker aide announces campaign for Supreme Court seat, will focus on incumbent’s decision to remove Roy Moore from Chief Justice position.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060329/labor.shtml – Business, labor agree to increase in unemployment benefits.

FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:

EDITORIALS

Searching for voters

In our opinion
03-29-2006

So far this campaign season has generated about as much interest as a good grass-growing contest. With the primaries a little over two months away, most of the candidates are yet to find that elusive issue that will excite the public.

Conventional wisdom says that gubernatorial candidate Lucy Baxley, who is currently lieutenant governor, will wait until the legislative session is over so she can point to what she has done and what Republicans kept her from doing, then use that to focus the spotlight on her campaign. However, this has been a session with more consensus than controversy, which does not give Baxley much to work with.

This also leaves Baxley’s Democratic opponent with little to say about the lieutenant governor, but in a campaign where his own conduct will sooner or later be an issue, former governor Don Siegelman has other fish to fry. Faced with well-publicized legal troubles, he is doing all he can to blame his problems on the man he hopes to be running against in the fall.

But Siegelman’s assertion that the criminal charges he faces were brought by the "wife of Bob Riley’s campaign manager" simply does not hold water. True, U. S. Attorney Leura Garrett Canary is the wife of prominent Republican Bill Canary, but Mrs. Canary withdrew from the case nearly four years ago, and though Mr. Canary is a close friend of the governor, he is has no official role in the Riley campaign.

You can always tell that an assertion is falling flat when the person doing the asserting says that the charge is "technically correct" — which is what the Siegelman campaign is doing here. It would be better for us all if candidates would just stick with the "correct" and avoid the technicalities.

Meanwhile, defrocked chief justice Roy Moore, unable to generate much excitement with his high-minded refusal to accept PAC money (has any been offered?), drifted off into conspiracy theories when he wondered at the "strange coincidence" that mad cow disease was discovered in the state just when legislators were considering setting up an animal-identification system. (Did he also notice that Alabama debated making the peach our state fruit just when Georgia was getting a new auto plant and we weren’t?).

Maybe Moore is trying to patch up things with anti-identification small farmers whom the candidate said last week were not capable of casting an intelligent ballot on the issue of constitutional reform. Or maybe he is just exhibiting signs of another malady — hoof-in-mouth disease.

Perhaps we need a politician-tracking system.

As for Riley …

In our opinion
03-29-2006

Running well ahead in the polls, with the economy booming and unemployment lower than it has been in years, the governor has been able to relax a bit, visit troops in the field and do little things that will remind his core supporters that he is the man who can bring their enemies to bay.

Now, Republicans would like to defeat Don Siegelman and Lucy Baxley. But what they really want is a candidate who can clip the wings of the most powerful Democrat in Montgomery — Paul Hubbert, head of the Alabama Education Association.

For years, the GOP has demonized Hubbert, pointed to him as the roadblock standing in the way of all their party wants to do. In the process, Republicans have made the teacher lobbyist an issue in every campaign they wage. (Strangely, the Democrats have not been able to do the same with ALFA, which has stymied so many of that party’s plans. Could campaign contributions have anything to do with this?)

So it follows that if a candidate wants to win the GOP nomination, that candidate has to convince Republican voters that he or she is the one to take on Hubbert.

Which is what Riley is doing.

Out on the campaign trail, the governor seldom mentions Roy Moore ("my opponent" he calls him). Instead, he castigates Hubbert. And the Republican faithful love it.

Meanwhile, the head of AEA goes about his business. Over the years, he has been attacked by the leaders of both parties — Wallace, James, Folsom and now Riley. He’s the perfect enemy, one a candidate can go after but really can’t do anything about.

Hubbert might be the key to Riley’s renomination, and maybe even his re-election.