As the legacy of Johnny Isakson was being assessed this week by statewide media, and in Washington, D.C., news outlets, the view from home isn’t all that different, but with a few parochial twists.
Even before he became Georgia’s senior senator, a key leader in an emerging Republican majority in the state and a political elder statesman, Isakson was known simply as “Johnny.”
A personable, eager, hardworking real estate agent, he moved to what was to become East Cobb under the auspices of Northside Realty, founded by his father. This was in the mid-to-late-1960s.
He got involved in many business and civic activities, including the Marietta-Cobb Jaycees, the younger division of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
That’s how my father became acquainted with Isakson during that time, as Cobb County was going through its first boom period. The Jaycees also included George Lankford, later to become the first Republican elected to the Cobb County commission.
The Jaycees attracted many aspiring and ambitious types, some drawn to seeking political office. Isakson ran for the commission but lost in his first stab at elected office. My dad volunteered in the Lankford campaign but didn’t get involved in politics after that, as he built his own successful career as a home contractor.
Isakson continued taking an active role in community leadership as Northside Realty became a cornerstone of an East Cobb residential market that was just beginning to lay the foundation for the desirable homebuying market that it is today.
He took to politics like he took to selling real estate, utterly determined to succeed. That doggedness would serve Isakson well as a Republican because of the Democratic stranglehold on state, local and federal politics.
As a young legislator, he benefitted from Democrats who weren’t afraid to work across the aisle. When Republicans became the majority party, Isakson returned the favor without hesitation.
After losing a nasty battle for governor to Zell Miller, Isakson was called upon by Miller to head up a state board of education in disarray. Isakson took on the job.
Bipartisanship was never a dirty word to Isakson, a rarity given the increasingly polarized times that paralleled his ascent.
He would succeed combative Speaker Newt Gingrich in the East Cobb-based 6th U.S. House District.
After losing a U.S. Senate GOP primary, Isakson in 2004 won the first of three elections to that body, becoming the first Georgia Republican to ever do so.
That he won’t be able to finish out that third term due to health reasons has saddened many, including those who don’t agree with him politically.
That’s because for Isakson, a person’s politics aren’t a reflection of who they are as a human being. He’s unlike too many of his Congressional colleagues in both parties, as well as the current commander-in-chief, who exploit those differences for the purpose of intentional division.
Isakson is a committed conservative, to be sure, and he has fought hard for those positions and has been a loyal member of his political party. Some observers, especially those with a more liberal perspective, think he could have done more to publicly decry the tenor of the Tweets and other outbursts coming from the White House, among other things.
Earlier this year, Isakson did give Trump a tongue-lashing for comments about the late Sen. John McCain, one of Isakson’s closest colleagues and friends. That the president didn’t Tweet something in return, or respond in any other way, is noteworthy.
In an age of political showhorses, Isakson has always been a workhorse.
Treating people with respect has been a hallmark of his service as an elected official, something he cultivated as a young real estate agent in East Cobb many decades ago.
Eight years ago this month, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Isakson stood in the pulpit at East Cobb’s Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, where he has taught Sunday School for many years.
He delivered remarks during an ecumenical service there that summed up so much of what Isakson has embodied in public life. He was resolute about U.S. objectives in cracking down on terrorism, but in doing so reached out to the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faithful in attendance.
That was one set of remarks among the many thousands of speeches he has given in more than four decades on the public stage, but it’s one I heard as so thoroughly decent and devoid of an agenda.
It was refreshing, as was Isakson’s example in so many other ways. He spoke out against an anti-gay resolution adopted by the Cobb commission in the early 1990s that prompted Atlanta Olympic organizers to cancel related events in the county.
The county has come a long way since Isakson stepped into the spotlight, and that’s not a coincidence.
Whether you agreed with his votes and politics or not, his humble leadership style and the personal values he put into practice every day will certainly be missed, especially in these fractious times.
More on Isakson from the AJC‘s Jim Galloway and with MDJ editors. Isakson also spoke this week to longtime Atlanta newsman Denis O’Hayer at WABE-FM.
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The senator is not the man you think he is and his legacy is tarnished by impropriety and insider dealing.