Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

May 2, 2008

Riley: ‘Never Run’ Again

Filed under: Misc. AL Politics — Danny @ 11:11 am

Gov. Bob Riley says, “I will never run for another office.” Jennifer Foster has that and more from the annual dinner of the Lee County Republicans last night.

Some had speculated Riley might eventually run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Shelby. And of course, people do change their minds.

Share This

27 Comments »

  1. he may hope for an appointment in a possible mccain admin.

    Comment by DLoius — May 2, 2008 @ 12:21 pm

  2. YAY!!!!! Best news I’ve heard all day.

    Comment by JP — May 2, 2008 @ 1:13 pm

  3. What republicans voted to protect the double dippers or failed to vote? I’m getting mixed information. I think this is THE vote for any republican. Does anyone have a vote count?

    Comment by tax payer — May 2, 2008 @ 1:48 pm

  4. Tax payer, the previous post has a link (the first one) that takes you right to it.

    Comment by Danny — May 2, 2008 @ 1:58 pm

  5. Ms. Foster needs to acquire a dictionary and discover the correct meaning of the word, “impeccable.”

    Riley’s billion dollar tax hike plan hardly qualifies as “impeccable” when discussing conservative credentials.

    Comment by Scorpius — May 2, 2008 @ 2:02 pm

  6. Thanks for the help with the vote count. My GOP friends are telling me that the REAL vote was the BIR. Do you have that vote count?

    Comment by Tax payer — May 2, 2008 @ 2:09 pm

  7. I am not sure how much I would make of the vote for the BIR. That is the vote that allows a bill to be considered ahead of the budget. Generally, people who are for the bill will vote for the BIR, and people who are against it will vote against the BIR, but that is not always the case.

    Some people will on occasion vote for the BIR so the bill may be introduced and discussed even though they may be opposed to it.

    But the vote on the BIR is here.

    BTW, if you learn your way around Alison I think you’ll be glad for it.

    Comment by Danny — May 2, 2008 @ 2:23 pm

  8. I think the cloture vote was just as significant.

    Comment by Mike Ball — May 2, 2008 @ 2:31 pm

  9. Looking at the BIR vote it seems that five republicans (Collier, Galliher, Greeson, Oden and Ward) voted FOR the double dipping bill. I can’t understand why they would do that. At this rate the democrats will ALWAYS control the legislature. Does anyone have the inside on this vote? Am I missing something?
    I think Riley and Byrne need to meet with those guys. They better meet with the senate before they take a vote… AMAZING!

    Comment by Real GOPer — May 2, 2008 @ 2:53 pm

  10. The BIR is the vote.

    Comment by BIR — May 2, 2008 @ 2:56 pm

  11. Some Republicans voted to cloture their own caucus?? I don’t really care about whatever BIR vote was there couldn’t the Republicans have stopped it by just filibustering all day if all of their folks stuck together on the cloture vote?

    Comment by Anonymous — May 2, 2008 @ 3:29 pm

  12. Rep. Ball is right…. cloture was THE vote.

    Comment by happydays — May 2, 2008 @ 3:30 pm

  13. I had some of my GOP insider friends tell me that Gov Riley is looking to cut a deal on this bill in exchange for some other legislation he wants passed. That cannot be true and I am hoping it is just political misinformation from some one closely tied with the Democrats. Any info anyone?

    Comment by GOPmom — May 2, 2008 @ 3:38 pm

  14. Gov. Riley is against double dipping in any form and will always oppose legislation like this. YOu are just hearing from Democrats who are drinking too much of AEA’s kool aid.

    Comment by Anonymous — May 2, 2008 @ 3:40 pm

  15. I believe those 5 republicans would be affected by the bill. Galliher and Greeson work for the two year college system. Ward works for a chamber of commerce I believe or possibly a community, one or the other. Not sure what jobs COllier and Oden have, but I would believe it affects their jobs also.

    Comment by William Wyatt Wallace — May 2, 2008 @ 3:42 pm

  16. Oden is a loan officer at Eva Bank

    Comment by dan t — May 2, 2008 @ 3:47 pm

  17. Oden follows Greeson

    Comment by BIR — May 2, 2008 @ 3:52 pm

  18. And unlike his 41 House colleagues, the 12 in the Senate, and the Governor, he is not a complete and total hypocrite.

    Comment by Collier was a Trooper — May 2, 2008 @ 4:22 pm

  19. Why did so many Republicans just not vote on the BIR? I agree with the comment above that it seems to me who voted to cut off the debate seems to be the biggest vote except of course for the final bill itself.

    Comment by Anonymous — May 2, 2008 @ 4:23 pm

  20. Of course its hard not to notice that no one has mentioned all the Democrats that voted for this bill on final passage.

    Comment by Anonymous — May 2, 2008 @ 4:32 pm

  21. good point #20 - there may be some rogue republicans who hubbert has in his back pocket, but the dems are in the majority on this vote to let the corruption continue - if only the public could remember this at the polls…

    Comment by Anonymous — May 2, 2008 @ 9:56 pm

  22. #20, I posted a comment answering many of these questions and addressing your point about the Ds who votes for the bill. I don’t know what happened to it, though; I e-mailed Danny to see if he can help. Stay tuned.

    Comment by Jennifer Foster — May 2, 2008 @ 10:13 pm

  23. In the report of the Repub love-in in Lee County, Riley is quoted as gushing over Rep. Bridges. He could be replaced by an empty seat and never be missed.

    And does Jennifer Foster work for the O-A News or the GOP? Hard to tell which from reading what she writes. For some strange reason, I was under the impression that journalists are supposed to at least give the appearance of objectivity.

    She does not pass this test.

    Comment by LA — May 2, 2008 @ 10:36 pm

  24. Jennifer Foster sees this as an informal interview for one of the three big papers in the state.

    Comment by Anonymous — May 3, 2008 @ 3:06 am

  25. Hey guys, here are the comments I tried to post last night:

    Hey everyone,

    Regarding the jobs held by the five Republican legislators who voted for cloture, here’s the info I have:

    Collier is the executive director of the Alabama Safety Institute; I have been told he is a former state trooper.

    Galliher is director of business and industry training for Calhoun County at Gadsden State Community College.

    Treadaway is a Birmingham police sergeant.

    Oden’s bio says he is the CFO of Delta Discount Corporation, which is identified in a telephone directory listing as a “remodeling and reconstruction contractor” in Vinemont.

    Greeson is the headscratcher. His bio says he “works as a farmer and insurance agent.” But according to the Birmingham News, Greeson also works at Northeast Alabama CC and Athens University. The News had an interesting editorial back in February on Greeson’s comments about the scrutiny he has drawn. Check it out here: http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1204017331105950.xml&coll=2.

    I think it’s important to note that four Democrats — Laird, McDaniel, Newton and Thigpen — crossed party lines to oppose the bill on final passage.

    Also, as I mentioned in my column tomorrow in the Opelika-Auburn News, 12 legislators voted “present.”

    Finally, as for BIR vs. cloture votes, I have heard it both ways. Obviously both are important; you can’t bring a bill up without one, and you can’t pass it without the other. I went with the final passage vote because it is the bottom line for the public.

    Comment by Jennifer Foster — May 3, 2008 @ 1:00 pm

  26. #23, neither; I am a freelance writer. The OA News picked up my blog this week to accompany the column I’ve written for them for more than a year. You might be interested to read some of those columns and some of the things on my blog. Republicans think I’m a Democrat; Democrats think I work for the GOP. I don’t mind either because it’s a good indication of fairness. I am a big believer in objectivity; I wrote about it in my column last year when MSNBC published a report about an investigation that revealed the contributions journalists had made to federal candidates over recent years. As for what I wrote about Riley, I went to the dinner the other night to cover it for the blog. Of course it was a “Repub love-in;” it was a GOP fundraiser, after all. My goal was to accurately portray the feeling in the room. If your comments are any indication, my report was spot-on.

    #24, I’m not sure what you mean. I covered it for my blog because there were lots of local officials there.

    Thanks!

    Comment by Jennifer Foster — May 3, 2008 @ 1:28 pm

  27. For those interested… Jennifer Foster intended to include a link in comment #25, but the blog’s spam filter wouldn’t let her. I have edited comment #25 so that it appears as she intended (with the url).

    Comment by Danny — May 3, 2008 @ 10:08 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress

Close
E-mail It