Author

Jay Bookman

Jay Bookman

Jay Bookman is a columnist at the Georgia Recorder, a media outlet of the States Newsroom. He covered Georgia and national politics for nearly 30 years for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, earning numerous national, regional and state journalism awards. He was awarded the National Headliner Award and the Walker Stone Award for outstanding editorial writing. He is also the author of "Caught in the Current," published by St. Martin's Press. The Florida Phoenix is part of the nonprofit States Newsroom.

COMMENTARY

Bookman: Potential indictments of former president not created equal

By: - March 23, 2023

Let me ask a question, purely theoretical: Should the justice system treat a former president of the United States just as it would treat any other American citizen? As long as it’s just theoretical, the obvious answer is yes, of course. As Americans, we have no kings, no untouchable royalty. We are all equal before […]

COMMENTARY

Bookman: Marjorie Taylor Greene ascends in GOP because of stupidity, not in spite of it

By: - March 4, 2023

Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot, and idiots, as a rule, aren’t interesting people. They aren’t interesting because their idiocy overshadows all other aspects of their personality. Greene is more an exemplar of that rule than an exception to it. Nonetheless, in their wisdom, the voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District have elected Greene as their […]

COMMENTARY

Fulton indictments coming in 2020 election probe, just not reeling big fish

By: - February 16, 2023

There will be indictments. They are coming at the federal level – you don’t subpoena a former vice president in a high-profile criminal case unless and until prosecutions are likely — and they are coming at the state level here in Georgia. At least, I think so. That prediction is not based on leaks. To […]

COMMENTARY

Bookman: Newt Gingrich is father of today’s compromise-is-surrender GOP politics

By: - February 3, 2023

In an NBC News poll last month, just 23% of Americans said they believe the country is headed in the right direction. Among Republicans, just 7% liked the way things are going. (Among Democrats it was 41%.) In any country with such deep discontent within a major faction, this one included, it shouldn’t be a […]

COMMENTARY

If Georgia GOP thinks life starts at conception, why allow ‘murder’ for six weeks?

By: - January 22, 2023

If you honestly, sincerely believe that human life begins at the moment that sperm is introduced to egg, certain conclusions flow logically from that starting point, including that abortion is murder and that banning abortion is a moral obligation on a par with banning slavery. I strongly disagree with that approach, but I understand it, […]

COMMENTARY

Georgia’s gift to Trump is a lump of coal in stocking

By: - December 18, 2022

When the history books about Donald Trump are written – and believe me, there will be many – Georgia will have earned a place of pride. It’s only a mild exaggeration to say that Georgia has been to Trump what Waterloo was to Napoleon, what Saratoga was to King George and his redcoats, what Gettysburg […]

COMMENTARY

Marjorie Taylor Greene moves in same circles as Trump’s anti-Semitic dinner guests

By: - December 2, 2022

We should talk a bit about Nick Fuentes, the far-right leader who recently dined with Donald Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago. News accounts have described Fuentes as an anti-Semite, but that does not fully capture the vileness of the man or the danger that Trump courts by giving him credibility. According to Fuentes, American […]

COMMENTARY

Walker’s backers likely prefer DeSantis over Trump on Senate campaign trail

By: - November 17, 2022

Donald Trump personally hand-selected Herschel Walker to be his candidate for U.S. senator, hoping that Walker would serve as the instrument through which Trump could reassert political dominance over Georgia and erase the embarrassment of his 2020 loss. So Trump wooed Walker, he flattered Walker, he publicly pressured Walker to pick up and move here […]

COMMENTARY

Top Republicans embrace Marjorie Taylor Greene’s violent rhetoric

By: - October 20, 2022

In a recent campaign video, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican from Georgia, likened Democrats to destructive feral hogs allowed to range free and destroy the American countryside. But Marjorie had a solution: As the camera followed her, she grabbed a rifle and climbed aboard a waiting helicopter, where she tracked down and shot a […]

COMMENTARY

Bookman: How much is too much for Herschel Walker’s ‘family-values’ voters?

By: - October 8, 2022

You can tell Herschel Walker was raised right. After all, only a gentleman would think to send a “Get well” card – hand-signed, from #34! — to the girlfriend whose abortion he had just financed. That’s classy, or as close to classy as you’re going to find in this mess. It is not classy to […]

COMMENTARY

National politics, career arcs explain why Georgia’s Kemp polls ahead of Abrams

By: - September 27, 2022

I follow polls. I study polls. I look to polls for insight into how people outside my immediate circle might be thinking about things. But no, I do not trust polls. If you trust something you put faith in it. Trust implies a readiness to make decisions based on what those polls tell you, and […]

COMMENTARY

Fulton County District Attorney builds 2020 election conspiracy story from bottom to top

By: - September 9, 2022

I don’t think Georgia is prepared for what’s coming its way. I don’t know how it could be, not with the most important and controversial trial in American history looming in its not-too-distant future. Now, maybe that trial will never happen. After months of investigative work into an alleged criminal conspiracy to interfere with and […]