CASEY & GLENN: THE NEW A-TEAM?
Bill Shipp

This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson have joined forces to rescue Grady Hospital from financial collapse.

It may not be a flawless marriage. Richardson may not be Cagle's type. Still, the new alliance could be a starting place for reintroducing state government to the idea of supporting the commonweal of Georgia.

Richardson's plan to reinvigorate Grady with an add-on phone tax doesn't sound like such a hot idea. It would set a terrible precedent, and phone service is already costly enough. But give the speaker credit. At least he is focusing on creative solutions to the Grady disaster and not on other things, as he has been wont to do.

Fixing Grady is bound to stir a hornet's nest. Any mention of "reconstituting" Grady's governing board is already being labeled in some quarters as a racist plot to rid the board of African-American members from DeKalb and Fulton.

However, as new buddies Cagle and Richardson will tell you, there is no point in funneling millions into Grady if the giant facility does not have competent and experienced management.

If our top legislative leaders are really in the mood to reconstitute boards, they ought to take a look at overhauling MARTA when they finish with Grady. MARTA is in dire need of being reshaped as a statewide or regional transportation agency to join the battle to reduce congestion. Glenn and Casey, working together, could accomplish much. They could override Gov. Lame Duck's stupid vetoes. They could start recognizing some 21stcentury realities about Georgia and the rest of the South.

An old friend and retired Fortune 500 executive has just returned from a drive across the South. He observed in an email last week:

"I am witness to the fact that the Bible Belt is now the Gambling Belt. Shreveport looks like a mini-Atlanta except that most of the skyscrapers are casinos. Billboards out in the country advertise 'Truck Stop and Casino' at the next exit. Georgia, on the other hand, only offers naked women at our interstate exits.

"The gamblers laid siege to Vicksburg and have won. I went in one casino and found a lot of old fat people stuffing their pension money into neon gizmos. It has to be just a matter of time before Georgia falls. It is time to dust off your casino-in-Hancock County column or 'how to save Underground Atlanta, assure the future of the HOPE scholarship and save Atlanta's convention business all in one fell swoop.'"

Whoa! Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have known for years that a mainstay of Atlanta's tourist business has been strip joints and other purveyors of "adult entertainment." We also know the principal reason Georgia does not have casinos or pari-mutuel betting: A few years back, high-powered lobbyists from Alabama invaded our Capitol to spend bundles on keeping the Legislature from approving a gambling measure that might let Georgia suckers get trimmed at home instead of going to Alabama.

Of course, the Legislature at the time cloaked itself in moral rhetoric and denied that the boys from Birmingham influenced their decision to ban gambling - except, of course, the Georgia lottery. In 2005 Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour made restoring his state's heavily damaged casinos among his highest priorities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. That was hardly a coincidence. Barbour needed to get his state's most profitable industry and biggest private employer up and running again. The time may not be ripe for revisiting gambling in Georgia. It might spoil Glenn and Casey's honeymoon. Yet, as my friend says, big-time gambling beyond the lottery is bound to reach Georgia sooner or later. The day will arrive when you and I will drive South on I- 75 and see a sign at the Perry exit that says: "Harold's Hot-Hot Casino just ahead: Slots and Blackjack - and Naked Women, too. Don't miss it." Georgia will once again lead the Old South.

Before we get to that point, however, let's make Grady workable again, and perhaps MARTA too.

You can reach Bill Shipp at P.O. Box 440755, Kennesaw, GA 30160.