Whenever anyone talks about cutting or controlling budgets, the naysayers conjure up an image of soup lines and desperation. I’m more in the paraphrased Lee Iacocca club of, “You can cut 5% out of anything and not hurt operations.”

I know living in the 9th District of Georgia is like living in New York City. Before you throw something at me, let me explain. The 9th is a strong GOP district. No Democrat stands a chance. Conversely, in the New York City area, they are strong Democrat districts and no Republican stands a chance.

I was hosting Morning Talk with Martha Zoller and Andy Maddox was my cohost that morning. Andy’s brother worked in the financial district of New York. He couldn’t reach him on the phone and later found out he had a meeting in the World Trade Towers at 8:30 am that morning. It was cancelled and he was walking out as the first plane was hitting.

There are a few people in politics I can’t be objective about. One of them is Senator Johnny Isakson. On Wednesday, he announced to the state that he was retiring at the end of the year.

All methods of communication start out as this breakthrough way to communicate and then deteriorate into name-calling and eventually we lose it.

I’ll get back to issues next week, but this is on my heart today.

I’ve experienced great loss in the last 10 years. My mother and sister died of cancer in 2010 within 2 months of each other and my brother died suddenly five years ago. I don’t like to grieve but we all have to do it and we have to move on. I think that is why the story of the Anchondo family resonates with those who hear it.

After the Democrat Debates this week and talking to Tharon Johnson, a Democratic strategist, and Susie Turnbull, the former Vice Chair of the DNC, I had to ask the question, “Is this the new normal?”