Joey Kennedy

Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes a column each week for the Alabama Political Reporter. You can email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.

News

Put Christ back in Christian

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter “Put Christ back in Christian.” Gosh, I wish I’d have come up with that. I didn’t. The author is lost to me, but I saw it sometime this week on social media somewhere. “Put Christ back in Christian.” Whew. That’s strong stuff, folks. It may have come from those … Continued

November 18, 2015

Hug a veteran, really hard

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter I was ready to go to Canada. Well, I thought so, anyway. I didn’t want to go to Vietnam, that’s for sure. I was conflicted, though. I thought, I should serve my country if called. But I don’t know if that was a war that was worth calling our … Continued

November 11, 2015

Debating the debates of the debaters

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter OK. I’m probably biased. I come at this from the left. I’m giving that up at the outset. But it’s like two different presidential elections out there. You have the Democrats, generally calm in their debates, constructive, mostly sane. And you have the Republicans, about as whacky as grown … Continued

November 4, 2015

What should I write about?

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Well, I confess. I don’t know what to write about this week. I could write about Gov. Robert Bentley’s divorce settlement. Everybody knows about that already, and what can I say? A 50-year marriage on the rocks for . . . what? Well, we really still don’t know, and … Continued

October 7, 2015

It’s time, Mike Hubbard, to quit.

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Back in 2008, I covered the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul for the newspaper I worked for then. Mike Hubbard was chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, not yet Speaker of the Alabama House. As part of the swag delegates receive at such events was a medal with … Continued

September 30, 2015

So who’s really politically incorrect?

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter As if the corruption cloud raining on Mike Hubbard isn’t enough . . . as if the unanswered questions surrounding Gov. Robert Bentley’s destroyed 50-year-marriage isn’t enough . . . Along comes Jim Zeigler, Alabama’s state auditor. Yeah, it would be fair to ask how Zeigler ever was … Continued

September 23, 2015

I now pronounce you … nothing.

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Well, I guess same-sex marriage did destroy traditional marriage. At least in Alabama, where homophobic probate judges refuse to sign marriage licenses for men who love men and women who love women. The Supreme Court of the United States leaves little doubt: Same-sex marriage is the law of the … Continued

September 16, 2015

Awesome success, at failure

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter One truth we’ve learned about Alabama lawmakers in 2015 after a regular session and a special session to write a state General Fund Budget (SGF): They’re very successful. Successful. At failure. They couldn’t fail any better. After passing an unworkable SGF in the regular session that Gov. Robert Bentley … Continued

September 9, 2015

Important if true

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter One of my great editors from my newspaper days, Wendell Givens (God rest his soul), once showed me a copy of an old newspaper, probably from the Civil War era. The newspaper had a sensational headline in a large font across the top. Underneath was a smaller deck, but … Continued

September 2, 2015

Going to School on State Budgets

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Gov. Robert Bentley and the Alabama Legislature have pretty much shown they can’t write a state General Fund Budget that’ll wash. In truth, they haven’t done much better on the state Education Budget, either — though at least one of those passed the regular session. Lawmakers just finished an … Continued

August 26, 2015