On one hand is a candidate who relies heavily on campaign contributions from individuals within the industry regulated by the commissioner's office. And with a history of other sleazy acts that you conveniently whitewash. On the other is a candidate whose serious ethics lapse a decade ago is cause for equal or greater concern. Only for known Republican apologists looking for ways out of bowing to reason and endorsing solid Democrats over assclowns.

Consumers rely on the commissioner to ensure that insurance is both affordable and available in Georgia. Right. Too bad that Georgia, under the wise and prudent leadership of John Oxendine, has the highest car insurance rates in the southeast, to say nothing of those other trivialities such as health insurance. It's a pocketbook issue that requires a balancing act to protect consumers from being charged too much while permitting auto and home insurers to charge enough to keep them doing business in the state. Oooh, the poor insurance industry! Next thing we know, we'll be hearing about the desperate struggles of the jackals and charlatans of the pharmaceutical industry... Besides regulating Wait, is there regulation going on here? insurance companies, the commissioner's office oversees Except when malicious fools like Oxendine do the supposed “overseeing”... small-loan firms and the fire marshal's office.

John Oxendine, the Republican incumbent, was first elected to the office in 1994. AFTER he switched parties because Zell Miller decided Oxendine shouldn't run for Labor Commissioner. Party switch on principles? Fine. Party switch because of some beef with your leadership? Traitor. Apparently Jim Wooten trusts traitors... His experience and knowledge of the industry work in his favor. Oh yeah, they work in his favor, every time he cashes an HMO check to fund his campaigns. Too bad they don't work in OUR favor. So does his crackdown on health insurers that are slow to pay claims. WHOOP-DE-DO. Someone give the man a medal!

However, he has also defended the state's often predatory small-loan companies , which saddle consumers with effective annual interest that can exceed 100 percent. No big deal, right? So we are apparently to believe, since Wooten immediately proceeds to other business... While serving as commissioner, Oxendine has wrecked two state vehicles and ordered a third, even though Georgia purchasing officials warned him not to because of a budget crunch. Oxendine has never taken any real responsibility for these incidents, just like the assclown he is. Wooten neglects to mention that these weren't just any state vehicles - these were luxury bling-mobiles that could not be justified for ANY state employee under any circumstances whatsoever. We're supposed to TRUST someone who lavishly appropriated scarce state funds to satisfy his juvenile desire to ride around in a real police car and flash the blue lights and make the sirens go “wooo wooo wooo”? Oxendine needs to be in a playroom with some Hot Wheels cars, not running Georgia's insurance industry. He also has been cited by the state attorney general for misuse of the emergency lights and siren on his vehicle. That same report, issued by Sonny Perdue-appointed James Sehorn, accused Oxendine of misusing state funds and forced Oxendine to repay those funds. Of course, Saint Oxendine denied wrongdoing. (As fire marshal, the lights and siren come with the job; Oxendine gave up the emergency equipment several years ago. By “gave up” you mean “was stripped of”, right? Oxendine has no shame whatsoever and must be forcibly punished for his abuses.)

Oxendine's opponent is Democrat Guy Drexinger, an attorney and accountant who advises small businesses. He's making his first run at public office. He is bright and sincere With the unspoken subtext being “But we hate him anyway!”. You can easily imagine Wooten's glee at having a convenient excuse for endorsing his anointed Republican in this race., but whatever skills and ideas Drexinger might bring to the commissioner's office are overshadowed by his failure in 1995 to disclosure a fraudulent scheme by a legal client. HAHAHA, says Wooten. With Drexinger's knowledge, the client obtained a bank loan guaranteed by the Small Business Administration while illegally concealing a side agreement for another loan. After the scheme was discovered, Drexinger's law license was temporarily suspended, he lost his real estate license and was reprimanded by the state Board of Accountancy. All true. Does it outweigh the fact that John Oxendine abuses and misuses his power of office every single day he drags his sorry ass into his cushy state-funded chair? You be the judge.

To his credit, Drexinger freely acknowledges his mistakes and appears contrite about the poor choices he made. Too bad Oxendine has never done so. This is the same mentality that presumably allows Wooten to continue to ride on the Glorious Wrecking Machine known as the Bush administration – if you don't admit that maybe perhaps just possibly one or two things that you did were in fact ABSURDLY STUPID to the point that a small child on a remote mountain in Tibet could figure it out, and that EVERYONE ELSE KNOWS how STUPID the stunts you pulled were, then there's nothing to apologize for and all is forgiven. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the facts. Fact #1 being that Jim Wooten (I'm admittedly assuming that Wooten, a known source of rightist spew, is primarily behind this travesty of an endorsement) is idiotically wrong yet again. Because the ability to trust an elected official is so important, John Oxendine is the more acceptable choice. As long as you want to continue paying exorbitant insurance premiums because the traitorous lying unscrupulous reptile allegedly regulating those premiums is on a transparent mission to pay off like a busted slot machine to the serpentine insurance industry agents funding his campaigns. Thanks Jim!