It's safe to say that Republican

legislators, particularly those in the state House of Representatives,

are not a bunch of happy campers these days. They're outraged, in fact,

at the Democrats retaining control of the General Assembly, and their

anger was on full display during the party caucus last week.

"I'm mad and I'm ready

to fight," said Rep. John Wiles (R-Marietta). "We have to fight

the governor on this. They call us a loyal opposition, but I don't want

to be loyal anymore I want to fight them."

"There will be wars,"

said Rep. Jeff Williams (R-Snellville). "With a go-along, get-along

attitude on the part of leadership, we lose every time."

"They have gone beyond

decency," said Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta) in describing Democratic

legislators.

Cooper, Wiles and Williams

were just a few of many Republicans who made similar vows to fight the

Democrats every step of the way during the upcoming legislative session.

They said the battle will start at the subcommittee level and be carried

to the House floor on every initiative proposed by Gov. Roy Barnes and

the Democrats.

It promises to be a nasty confrontation.

"It's mean, and we'd better get mean too, or we're going to keep

losing races," said Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta), who urged

House Republicans to emulate the tactics of the late Lee Atwater, the

hatchetman for George Bush the elder in the 1988 presidential race.

"It's the legacy of Newt

Gingrich," said a veteran Capitol lobbyist, dismayed at the prospect

of having to deal with such hostile factions.

This Republican anger is rooted

in their failures of the last two election cycles. The GOP leadership

and its cheerleaders in the media have been predicting a Republican takeover

of state government since the late 1980s, but it just hasn't happened.

Republicans actually lost House seats in 1998 and 2000, although they

did pick up two on Senate side this year. As political control continues

to elude them, they've gotten more and more frustrated.

Legislative Republicans will

be not only an angrier group but a harder-edged group as well in the upcoming

session. Several moderate GOP lawmakers were ousted in the primary elections

out Minority Leader Bob Irvin (R-Atlanta) in favor of the more conservative

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Sharpsburg). This means there will be fewer

GOP legislators who might be willing to compromise with the Democrats

on issues like water, education and the state flag.

If the House Republicans live

up to their fighting words and the Senate Republicans continue to stand

united under Minority Leader Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), we could be seeing

a smaller-scale version of the partisan wars that have gridlocked Congress

for the past decade.

"We're going to make a

clear distinction of what we think are differences," said House Minority

Whip Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs). "I see a more outspoken caucus

right now."

The first battle between Democrats

and Republicans has already started the Nov. 28 runoff election between

Rep. Randy Sauder (D-Smyrna) and Republican Ginger Collins. Sauder switched

from the Republican Party to the Democrats earlier this year, and GOP

lawmakers almost foam at the mouth in their hatred of him (although Republicans

don't seem to get quite so upset when a legislator jumps from the Democrat

to the Republican side). Whichever party prevails in this runoff will

get a psychological boost going into the session.

Democrats, of course, have

the ultimate card to play: a majority of the seats in both chambers even

if Sauder loses the runoff. They will need to hold their members together

more than ever, because it looks like all of the controversial issues

will come down to a straight party-line vote.

"We're going to have a

tough session," said Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus), chairman of

the House Democratic Caucus. "We've got to be ready for it."

Buckle your seat belts, folks.

It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Impressive numbers . . .

It now looks like the general

election voter turnout in Georgia was a fraction above 66 percent, which

is much higher than the 61 percent initially projected by Secretary of

State Cathy Cox. That's the highest state turnout in all but one of the

presidential election years since 1980. The lone exception was 1992, when

just over 73 percent of Georgia's eligible voters cast ballots.

[Tom Crawford is editor of

www.capitolimpact.com, an Internet news site that covers state government

and politics in Georgia.] Copyright 2000 by Capitolimpact.com.