Does Nathan Deal do ANYTHING unless it has a political value to him?

Let's say you are Nathan Deal's campaign manager, and his opponent in the election is Jimmy Carter's grandson.    Wouldn't it be a great idea to exploit the past criticism and strained relationship between grandfather Carter and those in the Jewish community who resent Carter's support for the Palestinians, which many interpret as his being anti-Zionist, if not outright anti-Israel?

In my opinion, President Carter is not anti-Jewish;  but he does see the plight of the people of Palestine as a problem of human rights and fairness, and he has not shied away from offending some Israelis who believe anything they do is justified, because they would not do anything unless it was justified.

So, if you're Deal's campaign manager, one way to do exploit this tension would be to arrange a trip to Israel -- let's call it a trade expedition to drum up trade between Israel and Georgia.   Then you could have Deal visit all the important holy sites, have talks with important Israeli leaders, even visit with important American Jewish leaders who will be visiting Israel at the same time.    Great opportunity !!!

And wouldn't it be great too if you could get former Emory history professor Ken Stein to go along?    Stein, a staunch Zionist defender, famously broke with Carter some years back for just the reasons mentioned above.

Well, the news this week is all about Gov. Deal's leading a trade mission to Israel -- and Ken Stein is going along, and everything mentioned above is scheduled to happen, including the visiting Americans.

Wooo -heeee.    How do you spell Politics?   Exploit the anti-Carter tensions among Jewish voters and make yourself look like the greatest friend Israel ever had.

I am so cynical about this man Nathan Deal.   In my view, he probably couldn't do anything right at this point.   But this just seems so blatantly exploitive -- and it seems worse because it is fanning the flames of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for crass political gain.   

Deal did something ever worse in the 2010 governor's race.   He trashed opponent Karen Handell for having made a contribution to the Youth Pride Center that supports GLBT teens, making derogatory remarks about what goes on at Youth Pride.    By doing that, he created even more risk for these teens and their excellent community center by fanning the flames of homophobia.

This man is despicable, in my opinion.    Not to mention his ethical problems and his attempts to quash any investigation of those problems.

Ralph