Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is everything that is wrong with our elected officials.
Forget Trump. Forget What's-Her-Name Pelosi. Forget CNN and Fox.
Never mind the mainstream media or whatever the opposite of the mainstream media is.
Pick something, and I'll bet you Cagle is worse.
Jay GreesonCagle, as most of you already know, overstepped his bounds and is trying to blackmail Delta into making up with the NRA.
After Delta, which is based in Atlanta, employs 80,000 around the world and generates more than $5 billion in earnings a year, let it be known the previous discounts it gave the NRA were no longer valid and asked the NRA to remove the airline from its corporate partners list on the website, Cagle went nuts.
Cagle took to Twitter because, hey, apparently every time an outraged Republican gets flummoxed, the universal tonic must be tweeting something stupid. Under that umbrella, Cagle is aces.
Here's his social media post: "I will kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA. Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back."
If it's possible, for just a moment, to take the emotion of this debated issue out of the equation, let's review the facts.
First, before you start slinging the "liberal media" stone, please know that I have voted Republican all my life, grew up in Cobb County, Ga., - arguably the most conservative county in the country - and my mom was president of the Cobb County Republican Women.
Next, let's remember conservatives more than anything should be driven politically by being pro- business. At least that's what I have always believed.
More than anything else, Cagle is showing terrible leadership, and his behavior underscores why government needs an overhaul.
And if you are pro-Trump, then by definition you must be anti-Cagle in this matter.
Please follow along:
Trump won in large part on the drum-banging political march of draining the swamp. It's a novel concept to be sure (also one that has not really transpired, but certainly an interesting notion of breaking down the barriers in our federal government by getting rid of lifelong politicians).
A big part of the drainage would attack special interest groups such as the National Rifle Association.
So Cagle, more than anything else, proves himself to be a pocketed, bought-and-paid-for-representative putting the interests of a big-time lobbying group ahead of Georgia citizens, taxpayers and private business.
Hey Casey, if you want to examine the merits of tax breaks for private companies, well, do it. There likely are already too many out there, as pocket-lining phonies like you have bent over backward (and maybe forward) for various high- financing power players.
But Cagle elected to play politics and did so for the worst possible reason.
He is a puppet. He is a faux conservative. He is a straw man owned by a special interest group to the point he would potentially cost his state billions because a specific company does something he does not agree with. In short, Casey Cagle is everything wrong with politics, and worse yet, he's among the frontrunners to be the next governor of Georgia.
Sure, he doubled-down on his stance and is now saying that Delta is attacking all law-abiding gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment.
Again, can someone please explain this to Cagle using small words and colorful pictures?
Delta decided to part ways with the NRA, and Cagle got bent out of shape because he's been bought and paid for.
And personally, as a conservative, gun-owning supporter of the Second Amendment, actions such as Cagle's are one of the biggest reasons our country is in this big of a mess.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.