That Was Then…

originally published March 19, 2008

Just when it looked like Gov. Sonny Perdue and House Speaker Glenn Richardson might have run out of things to fight about in the waning days of the legislative session, along came the issue of Sunday package sales of beer and wine.

Sunday sales are once again in play because a House committee has added the provision to a bill that would legalize beer sales on Sunday at the new stadium in Gwinnett County where the Atlanta Braves will place one of their minor league teams. Pro-alcohol lawmakers figured that if it’s okay to sell suds on Sunday at a baseball game or at a restaurant, what’s the harm if a grocery store sells the stuff as well?

According to the governor, there’s plenty of harm. Perdue told reporters last week that he looks unfavorably upon the Sunday package sales bill, an indication that he will veto the measure should it ever cross his desk.

“I think it’s the wrong thing to do and I think it’s the wrong time to do it,” Perdue said. “I haven’t supported this in the past, I don’t now.”

That touched off another clash with Richardson, who’s been seething at Sonny ever since the governor vetoed a tax break last year that the speaker favored.

“The governor does not get the final vote, the General Assembly does, and if we vote on something and he vetoes it, especially something like this where he has absolutely no ground to stand on, then we’ll come in here… in January and override the veto,” Richardson said.

”It would be one thing if you had a moral position that there should be no sales on Sunday, but once you say you’re okay with Sunday sales at a Braves game or Sunday sales in limousines, which is what [Perdue] said, I don’t know how you have a moral ground,” Richardson added.

Richardson is making a mistake here when he assumes that Perdue takes a consistent position on issues. The governor is actually one of the biggest flip-floppers since John Kerry, and if Perdue should veto the Sunday sales bill for the reasons he gave to reporters, it won’t be the first time he has taken a contradictory position on a volatile political issue. (When asked why he opposed Sunday package sales, Perdue said, “I think six days is plenty [of time] to gather up. You’ve got refrigerators. You’ve got different stores open. I think we need a little relief on Sunday.” (Perdue, who’s a non-drinking Baptist, is saying that he wants the government to impose his personal religious preferences on all Georgians when it comes to the issue of buying alcoholic beverages on Sundays. But that’s very different from past statements where Perdue has opposed government interference into personal decisions and the idea of Georgia becoming a “nanny state.” (In 2005, for example, the General Assembly passed a bill that prohibited smoking in many restaurants and other public places. At the bill signing ceremony, Perdue criticized the legislation because he thought it represented too much government intrusion into what is ultimately a personal matter. (We don’t want or need government to mandate for us what we eat or drink, or how much exercise we get, or whether we engage in dangerous activities, from skydiving to smoking,” Perdue said before signing the no-smoking bill. (I’m concerned about what I refer to as a growing nanny government,” Perdue said on that same occasion. “We really just want government to leave us alone. We want to make our own choices even if they’re the wrong ones.”

For good measure, Perdue added, “when you start legislating these kinds of issues for people, limiting their choices, it really begins to concern me because of the whole issue of government intrusion.“ (Of course, that was then… this is now.

When the state uses its authority to prevent you from smoking in a public place, then it’s being a nanny government and that’s wrong, according to our governor, three years ago. But when the state tells you not to buy beer and wine in a grocery store on Sunday, even when Sunday sales of alcohol have been legal for years at ball parks and restaurants, then that’s just fine, according to our governor now.

There’s a word for that kind of thing: hypocrisy. It’s a word our governor should be very familiar with.

Tom Crawford

Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news site at www.gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia.