On Background

A New Glenn Richardson Emerges - But Is It Permanent?

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(1/13/09) One Glenn Richardson got re-elected Speaker of the Georgia House on Monday without a single voice in opposition – not even from minority Democrats. But it wasn’t the same Glenn Richardson who led his House this time last year to override 12 of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s vetoes, or the same Glenn Richardson who at the close of last year’s session taunted Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to “stand up and be a man.”

Maybe the best way to describe it is to say that what we saw from the Speaker’s podium was a more patient Richardson. A Richardson who, compared to previous sessions, wasn’t in that much of a rush to cut Democrats off on the floor. A Richardson who was willing – whether seriously or not – to publicly entertain the thought of making a Democrat one of his House hawks. A Richardson who has indicated that the small band of hardy GOP souls who voted against him in the Caucus in November won't be punished. At least not all of them.

Tom Murphy, who in some ways has been a model for Richardson, went through phases like this, too, sometimes explaining that his doctor had warned him to chill out more because of his blood pressure. From what I could tell, it didn’t make him any less effective, at least for the period that it lasted.

Murphy had the luxury of being able to take that step because he was secure in his position. He survived an early attempt to topple him, as Richardson now has done, and so life in the House could proceed in an orderly and predictable fashion – something that makes life much easier for legislators, lobbyists and the news reporters who follow them. Maybe that will happen now.

Folks who attended a House GOP Caucus meeting back in the fall reported coming away with the impression that there was, indeed, a new Glenn Richardson. One more comfortable with himself, his circumstances in life and his position. One more willing to let ideas percolate up from the bottom instead of filtering down from the top.

So maybe this is a permanent change. Or maybe, after he and Cagle get to mixing it up over transportation, tax assessment freezes, budget cuts and the sundry other issues this session will deal with, we’ll see it as a temporary phase.

Whichever it proves to be, Monday’s opening of the House was about as dull as last year’s was breathtaking. That may not be a bad thing, given the problems this Legislature must deal with.