Page 6 - Thurbert Baker News Today

State of georgia. georgias republican governor sonny purdue wanted very badly to get in on the frivolous anti-health reform action, but his attorney general, thurbert baker refused. telling the governor in a letter, quote, considering the states severe budgetary crisis with education and law enforcement being cut deeply, i cannot justify a decision to initiate expensive and time consuming litigation that i believe has no legal merit. in short, this litigation is likely to fail and will consume s...

Money. we could have our lawyers off engaged in other areas that are going to be critical to the budget of this state, to talk about teachers and education. any of those areas where we could have our lawyers applied would be a better use of the employees and the staff. but im not aware of any way that you can do this without there being some inherent cost. >> me, neither, and im not a lawyer. mr. baker, let me also ask you about something that broke today that was new in this whole debate, thats...

Conclusion. that, given the broad expansive powers of the federal government and its ability to enact laws, especially in this area, areas that impact interstate and intrastate commerce, that they came away with the same idea and the conclusion that i did. that there is no basis for moving in this direction. you know, so now theyre going to move forward and try and assist the federal government in defending against these lawsuits. they must have came to the same conclusion that i did. >> mr. thu...

Mr. baker is also running for the democratic nomination of governor in his state. mr. attorney general thank you very much for coming on the show. >> glad to be here. thank you. >> the move on republicans to impeach you seems fairly symbolic. there are just a few days left in the legislative session. but even if it is just symbolic, whats your reaction to this? >> very surprising. you know, ive been the attorney general in this state for 13 years. i would have never thought that there would be a...

This is not a matter of being afraid of one person or the other. what ive been required do as the attorney general is to talk about the law, to give my best legal opinion. thats what weve done here and thats what were going to continue to do. i would not relent from my position. >> good for you. you know if you had you said were afraid that would had been a hell of a news story. thank you very much. thurbert baker from the state of georgia. thanks for coming up "hardball." the late-night comed...

The governor announced last week since the real attorney general in his state refused to sue the government over health reform, he intended to appoint a special attorney general just to file that lawsuit. but now it looks like republicans in the state house have one-upped even that move by georgias governor. a republican legislator has introduced a resolution to impeach georgias attorney general. to be clear, they want to impeach thurbert baker because he says he doesnt want to waste taxpayers m...

Even consider joining their efforts to defend the bill. >> well, the oregon attorney general has not reached out to me. but i can almost understand whats going on. that governor and that attorney general looked at the same constitution that i looked at. they came away with the same conclusion. that, given the broad expansive powers of the federal government and its ability to enact laws, especially in this area, areas that impact interstate and intrastate commerce, that they came away with the s...

Absolutely correct. and you know this effort to impeach me here in this state because ive told this state what the law is and really told the truth, its something that well talk about. im sure others will talk about as well. but weve done it for all of the right reasons. weve given our best legal advice. thats what the people of georgia elected me to do. thats what im going to continue to do and i cannot be intimtated die threats of impeachment. >> so youre not afraid of the governor? youre not ...

What ive been required do as the attorney general is to talk about the law, to give my best legal opinion. thats what weve done here and thats what were going to continue to do. i would not relent from my position. >> good for you. you know, if you had said you were afraid, that would have been a hell of a news story. thank you very much. thurbert baker from the state of georgia. thanks for coming up "hardball." up next, the late-night comedians go to town on the republican partys approval of ...

The governors request on both legal and fiscal grounds. didnt want to waste the taxpayers money, he said. now republicans, some of them in the georgia state legislature down there are calling for the attorney general to be impeached. georgia attorney general thurbert baker joins us. general, thanks so much for joining us. is it impeachable? i was looking at the law down there whereas refusing to failure to perform its constitutional and statutory duties. are your critics saying that you failed t...