Smaller towns get all the fun

With the end of the month coming up, I'm hoping for some more fun news from Washington.

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No, not D.C. The politicians drained all the fun out of that place along with the swamps the city is built on.

I'm talking Washington, Ga., just down the road from here, part of our 10th Congressional District.

A recent story in The News-Reporter, Washington's weekly, is the funniest thing I've read in a small-town Georgia paper since the Sylvania Telephone reported on a man arrested while riding a bicycle in a woman's blouse and miniskirt - with no underwear. Eww.

Headlined "Washington drug dealers get wake-up call as police interrupt 'check day' trafficking," the story said drug dealers often bring in large quantities of drugs for sale to customers as their monthly "government assistance" checks arrive.

And you thought that money was for rent and diapers.

An informer told police that a dealer had brought 10 pounds of marijuana from Atlanta for a big night. The dealer already was on probation, so the cops had an agreement to search his home at any time.

Sure enough, Washington cops seized more than two pounds of pot and arrested the dealer, Taurus Crew. But here's the funny part:

"As Crew was being booked into the law enforcement center, the cell phone that he had been using kept ringing, (Lt. J.D.) Nelson said. 'We had people calling wanting a pound or two of weed all night.'"

The cops were happy to oblige, and busted several more that evening.

Ah, life in small-town America.

Take a walk

From the slightly larger town of Savannah came word over the weekend that state Sen. Regina Thomas is stepping down to run against fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. John Barrow in the 12th District congressional race.

That could set up an interesting contest. Two Republicans - one a former Savannah radio talk-show host, the other a former staffer for the late Charlie Norwood - already are duking it out for the right to face Barrow in the fall.

Now Barrow will have to face a well-known black lawmaker in a Democratic primary, which might make his re-election a little harder than he's anticipating. Those two Republicans must be thrilled.

And while we're talking about congressional races, Barry Fleming kicked off his "Road to qualifying" tour of the 10th Congressional District this week with, among other things, a big campaign rally out at Bill Kulke's riverfront farm in Evans. Most of the week was to be spent in a driving tour of stops all through the district.

This comes a couple of weeks after incumbent Republican Paul Broun boarded a recreational vehicle to tour the 10th.

Fleming's campaign this past week also boasted about his fund-raising success, while Broun touted a Washington (as in D.C.) fund-raiser with support of all of Georgia's Republican congressional delegation.

So, if they're going to brag about all their campaign money and drive all over the district at a time of hideously high gas prices, here is a suggestion, free of charge, to the Democrat in the race.

If Bobby Saxon wants to get some mileage - no pun intended - out of these activities, he should seek the spotlight by taking his own tour of the 10th District.

On foot.

He could criticize the two Republicans for their gas-guzzling tours and raise a little money with shoeleather appeal. He's a captain in the National Guard and an Iraq veteran, so he's certainly fit enough for such a march.

Of course, he's still a distant underdog come November, but he'd at least get his name in the paper.

Unless he's upstaged by another big drug bust up in Washington, anyway.

Barry L. Paschal is publisher of The Columbia County News-Times. E-mail comments to barry.paschal at newstimesonline.com.