Progressive challenger Regina Thomas(*)(GA12)(*)debated incumbent BushDemocrat John Barrow in a debate on Georgia Public TV and attacked him for supporting Bush's warrantless wiretapping, according to the Savannah Morning News:

The Democratic primary challenger to U.S. Rep. John Barrow accused him of dragging his feet on reducing gas prices and supporting illegal wiretapping of Americans during a televised debate Tuesday.

State Sen. Regina Thomas of Savannah called herself the "true Democrat" in her race against Barrow, a two-term incumbent in the 12th Congressional District.

"The incumbent has always voted with Bush and the Republicans, and look at where we are," Thomas said in a dig at Barrow's support for President Bush's signature tax cuts and his votes against setting timetables for withdrawal from Iraq...

Much of the debate, broadcast live from Atlanta on Georgia Public Television, focused on rising gas prices.

Barrow said he supports streamlining the process for permitting new oil refineries and halting government oil purchases to be placed into U.S. strategic reserves. He also supported funding for alternative fuels such as ethanol.

Thomas said she favored repealing federal subsidies for oil companies and giving the money back to consumers hit hard by $4-a-gallon gas. She said Barrow has had plenty of time in office to have taken action.

"This gas crisis did not just come about," Thomas said. "Being in Congress for four years and still talking about what you're going do, it should have already been done."

Thomas also attacked Barrow for his recent vote favoring passage on an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, intended to balance privacy rights while protecting the U.S. against attacks.

Thomas said the legislation gave telecommunications companies immunity from prosecution for illegal wiretapping of American citizens. Barrow denied that's what the act does.

"It gives the intelligence community the tools they need to follow up and track the bad guys while protecting the civil rights we're all about in the first place," he said.

Thomas called Barrow's answer "smoke and mirrors" and insisted the legislation "will still allow the government to violate the right to privacy of American citizens."

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You go, Regina! Her gutsy performance makes me even prouder Thomas was the first candidate we endorsed this year. Thanks to your generosity, we have raised nearly $25,000 for Thomas, more than half of her total on Actblue!

Howie Klein has more:

Regina and Barrow will face off again tonight in Statesboro. Last Sunday Regina addressed the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials and asked, pointedly, "Did we send a Democrat to Congress four years ago, or did we send a Republican?"

Barrow always assumed he would be attacked from the right so he protected that flank by voting for Bush's regressive tax policies that help the wealthy and hurt working families and he has been one of Bush's most stalwart Iraq occupation supports among Democrats. Two weeks ago he was key to helping his Telecom campaign contributors avoid the justice system by joining with Republicans to grant them retroactive immunity, in effect preventing them from ever having to face a judge and jury for crimes they have been accused of.

Barrow has taken a great deal of money from these very same companies and refused to recuse himself from voting on their issues. There is no way to define that as anything but bribery and corruption.

"When we send people to Congress, if people tell us they are a Democrat or a Republican, we expect them to act that way," Regina reminded journalists at the forum. Barrows excuse for his vote is that Steny Hoyer, another recipient of huge Telecom bribes, also voted that way.

"The government can spy on people. It can wiretap them without them knowing it," explained Regina. Government officials "are violating the Fourth Amendment's (constitutional) right to privacy. They are using terrorism as an excuse so they can find out what people are ... saying."

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Exactly right.



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