The Hotel Georgia

I promised you a focus on Georgia this week. Here’s one you may not have been expecting. Truth be told, I don’t drink a lot. I’m on the short side, and my husband, Bob, has always characterized me as a cheap date when it comes to alcohol. But I do enjoy a refreshing drink at the end of a long day, so I was happy when Bob handed me a “Hotel Georgia” last Friday night.

So many of you have asked for his recipe, that I convinced him to share:

2 oz gin

3/4 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz orgeat syrup

4 drops orange blossom water

1 egg white

“Dry shake” (no ice) for about 20 seconds to emulsify egg white then shake with ice and pour into chilled glass (and, for my friends who don’t drink, also quite good with a little 7UP instead of gin!)

That’s all there is to it. Very nice!

More from Georgia: Today, the district judge who ordered Lindsey Graham to appear and testify in the Fulton County DA’s investigation (before the 11th Circuit threw a monkey wrench into those proceedings) has set a briefing schedule for reconsidering issues that the appellate court ordered her to.

For those of you who (like me) often think courts move at a glacial pace, the Judge set an expedited briefing schedule, giving Graham until Wednesday, the 24th to file his brief. The Fulton County DA has until the 29th to respond, and any reply from Graham (the “moving” party, i.e. Graham who seeks to quash the subpoena against him, gets a final reply after their opponent sets forth their arguments) is due on August 31. This sort of briefing schedule is unusual, usually reserved for emergencies like a death penalty appeal or an injunction request in a case where a failure to act promptly will irreparably damage one of the parties.

The Judge ordered Graham to specify the lines of questioning he believes are barred by the speech and debate clause, which provides that members of Congress “for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” Specifically, she tells Graham to address whether informal inquiries are protected, or whether an inquiry, say, to Georgia officials about counting absentee ballots, must come from a more formal source like a committee. The judge cites dueling precedent here for Graham to consider:

• a case from the 10th Circuit involving Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, where the court ruled that speech or debate immunity doesn’t extend to informal information gathering by a member

• An older case from the Virgin Islands that suggests fact finding is sufficiently important to merit protection

The Judge has been fairly clear so far in her view of these issues and I don’t expect that to change here. While some lines of inquiry the DA wants to pursue could be disallowed, where Graham is fairly a fact witness acting outside the scope of speech or debate immunity, she will order him to testify.

The real wild card is the 11th Circuit. They too could set an expedited briefing schedule and render a decision by late September. The DA could argue it’s important to do so given the nature of the case. The panel’s views on the speech or debate issue are unknown. Expect a prompt and well-reasoned decision from the district judge shortly after the briefing is completed on August 31. I expect the appeal to proceed more slowly, but would love to be surprised.

We’re in this together.