http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
Old Kip-a-rooney is just one in a long, dishonorable line of Republican hypocrites who want to harass the poor for the crimes of which they themselves are guilty. Rep. Kip Smith is one of the sponsors of HB 464, which would require random welfare recipients in Georgia to be drug tested. (By the way, his father is DOT Commissioner and former state lawmaker Vance Smith, so you know he made it the hard way.)
It’s comical, how predictable this was, huh? From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Republican state Rep. Kip Smith was arrested early Friday morning in Buckhead and charged with DUI, according to an Atlanta police report obtained by Channel 2 Action News.
Smith, a 29-year-old lawmaker from Columbus, was pulled over after leaving Hal’s restaurant on Old Ivy Road and allegedly running a red light while traveling southbound on Peachtree Road, the police report said.
Efforts to contact Smith were unsuccessful Friday night.
Atlanta police Officer Z.A. Kramer, who was following the lawmaker’s 1998 gold four-door Jaguar XJ8, said the traffic light had just turned red when Smith went through the intersection at Pharr Road.
Kramer said he informed Smith, who was traveling alone, why he was stopped, and the lawmaker told him he didn’t realize the light was red.
“I observed the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Mr. Smith’s breath,” Kramer said in his report. “He advised me he was a state representative and gave the name ‘Kip Smith.’”
Smith, whose given name is John Andrew Smith, first told the officer he had not consumed any alcoholic beverages.
“I asked him again, and he stated he had consumed a single beer at Hal’s. I noticed also that Mr. Smith’s eyes were watery, and I asked him to exit the vehicle, which he did,” Kramer said in the report.
Smith told the officer he’d had the beer 45 minutes earlier, and the officer asked him to blow into a hand-held “intoximeter”. The officer said the lawmaker refused, stating he would prefer to go to a clinic or the hospital to get tested.
The officer told Smith that was done only after an arrest, and that Smith had not been placed under arrest, but Smith “seemed to be having a difficult time understanding what I was trying to explain to him,” the officer said in the report.
The officer said Smith finally agreed to blow into the device. The report stated that Smith blew a .091., which is above the legal limit of .08.
Great point- a legislator who wants taxpayer money spent more wisely by having welfare recipients tested for drugs gets in his personal life a ticket for driving drunk. This obviously means his point about using public money is wrong, since in his private life on his own time he got caught drunk. Public is the same thing as private, right? What is mine is yours, and what is yours is yours? Isn’t that the saying?
Who reads this kind of junk?
@Conservative Teacher: He was driving drunk on *public* roads, which are paid for by taxpayer money and policed using taxpayer money. There’s nothing “private” about his drinking.
Nice try, though.
The drug testing theory was tried in Florida recently. It turns out that it cost the state more because it didn’t really take anyone off the rolls and the state had to reimburse all folks with a negative test the cost.
The drug testing theory is just another way to promote stereotypes of the poor as criminal.
A Conservative Teacher, isn’t the point here that being preached to by any Republican about morality is pretty much the same thing as Hitler telling us that we should all listen to his wonderful plan for population control? In other words before the Republican’s try to enlighten and save the rest of us, shouldn’t they first become perfect themselves? Or is their slogan “Do as I say and not as I do?” Isn’t that hypocritical? It’s like when the Republicans tell us that abortion is wrong and then tell us that they would like to kill and then piss on the “evil doesr.” Isn’t that sheeer nonsense?
His “private” drinking and then driving on public roads endangered EVERYONE else who might have been in close proximity on those roads. He could have caused an accident and hurt many others. His “private” drinking wasn’t being done in the privacy of his home.
Actions have consequences.
A Conservative Teacher and shootthemall, are you both in the “we’re spending too much” camp? How about the money pit that is Guantanamo? We spend about $140 million taxpayer dollars each year to keep Guantanamo open. That’s $811,000 dollars per prisoner, per year. Isn’t there a cheaper and better way to handle these so-called “bad guys?” Not according to the Zionists like Democrats Carl Levin and Chuck Schumer who refuse to allow Obama to close the place down. You two folks agree with Carl and Chuck and the NDAA don’t you?
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Hell, it would be cheaper to install them permanently on a nice Italian cruise ship.