Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue cut about $1 million in local projects for Augusta from next year's budget, and it's clear he has nothing to fear from it.

Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and arguably the area's most powerful legislator, has disappeared since his recent DUI arrest in Atlanta. And the post-legislative breakfast by the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce provided more evidence that the area lacks clout.

The most senior of the delegation and its chairman, Rep. Quincy Murphy, is coming off his fifth session. Sen. Ed Tarver admitted he's part of one of the youngest delegations up there, having just seen two sessions himself. The rest of those gathered at the chamber breakfast - Reps. Henry "Wayne" Howard, Gloria Frazier and Hardie Davis - are all freshmen. And they're all Democrats and not part of the ruling Republican majority.

And, Mr. Tarver pointed out, Augusta does not have a local representative on the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, which will soon be studying whether to place a satellite campus of the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine in Athens in conjunction with the University of Georgia. That move is vehemently opposed by many of those gathered. Whether they can do anything about it is another matter.

"We're going to work a lot harder to make positive things happen for our community," Mr. Tarver assured the crowd.

They'll have to.

HARDIE DOES NOT FOLLOW THE HERD: Mr. Davis acquitted himself well at the chamber breakfast, quickly rattling off bill numbers, recalling subcommittee testimony and even citing water rights law to back up his arguments, all in a succinct and concise manner. When he started talking, he sounded as if he actually knew where he was going with it, a rare commodity in a politician. Most follow the Cow Pie theory of public speaking - if I keep wandering around out here in this field, eventually I will stumble across it.

OK, OK. I'M SORRY. Imagine my dismay when Helen Blocker-Adams e-mailed (me and others here at The Chronicle) last week to say that in last week's column I had left 10th Congressional District candidate Erik Underwood's name off the list of candidates who appeared on her "People and Issues with Helen" radio forum the week before. She said she'd received feedback that it was "blatant and done intentionally." She said she couldn't even fathom believing that was true, and if it was, what would be the reason?

"Certainly, I would like an explanation," she wrote. "How could and how did this grave omission happen?"

I e-mailed her back and said I couldn't fathom why I would intentionally do that either, especially since some of his campaign literature said a vote for Erik was a vote for Helen Blocker-Adams.

I apologized then and now for my mental lapse, spelled s-t-u-p-i-d-i-t-y.

But the more I think about it, I'd tend to say, "Lighten up, Helen. It's not like I killed anybody or anything. I just forgot to mention his name."

IS ANOTHER COMMISSION INTERRUPTUS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER?: Tuesday's Augusta Commission meeting bodes to be another stemwinder. A few agenda items include Commissioner Marion Williams' request to revisit the censure of Commissioner Calvin Holland and the county attorney's breach of the confidentiality of a city employee's EEO complaint. I don't know which county attorney he's referring to, but a motion to terminate General Counsel Eugene Jessup is already on the agenda.

Commissioner Andy Cheek wants to discuss the unauthorized release of "intellectual property," which makes you wonder what that could be. Could it possibly have anything to do with the city?

There's also a motion to terminate the interest-rate swap on the $160 million utility bond issue and refund $351 million in utility bonds dating back to the mid-1990s.

The May cash-flow results on the interest-rate swap show the city lost $27,404 on top of the $16,473 April loss.

Tell me those big-boy bankers and brokers don't know a chicken ready to be plucked when they see one.

THE GIRLS OF '57: The last graduating class of Mount St. Joseph Academy held its 50th reunion a few weeks ago. Eight members of that 1957 class attended, including Rose Marie Jennings Bell, who came from Gilbert, Ariz. Others closer to home were Ellen Whaley Burroughs, Dale Damico, Anne Marie Wiegel Fair, Mary Mura Gill, Patsy Roberts May, Anne Schweers Proctor and Wanda Weatherford Roper. Classmates Patricia Christian Clayton and Virginia Harris Ross also attended.

Ashlyn Wyman and Constance Deas have passed away.

"And the others we can't find," said Mrs. Burroughs, the class clown.

Back then, the academy's nuns allowed the girls to have ribbons and nosegays of their own choosing, but all the dresses were made with one pattern, and the white gloves had to be elbow length.

"I can remember it like it was yesterday," she said.

And just like the graduating class, the reunion was girls only.

"Some of the husbands are dead," she said. "Only three of us are still married to the same person. Two of the husbands have Alzheimer's, and one is blind."

The girls attended a special 5:30 p.m. Mass at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church and went to the Partridge Inn afterward.

"We were in a special area on the verandah," she said. "We had a display of old photos. We had a delightful evening."

Sadly, Mrs. Burroughs said, "There won't ever be another 50th reunion from that school."

Mount St. Joseph Academy was founded in Washington, Ga., in 1876. In 1913, it burned and was moved to Augusta. In the fall of 1957, the high school moved to the "beautiful new Aquinas High School on Highland Avenue."

THE GOAT MAN WHO WON'T DIE: More calls and letters last week about the Goat Man. Thomas Chafin, of North Augusta, sent a 1964 postcard with the goat man's picture on it and a yellowed clipping of an article about him that ran in The Chronicle in 1984. Mr. Chafin ran across the items while cleaning out his father's country grocery store, W.T. Chafin's Store, at the crossroads of Lincolnton Highway and Metasville Road in Washington, Ga., and said he thought I'd enjoy them.

And Julian "Butch" Adams says there was more than one goat man. He had his picture taken with one on the "old road" to Troy, Ala., when he was a boy. The goats didn't pull the wagon, though. Donkeys did, and the goats rode on their backs.

WHAT ELSE CAN A PATRIOT DO? Ernie spent Memorial Day writing and calling the White House and Georgia's two senators, telling them how absolutely disgusted he is with how they're turning our country over to illegal immigrants while our finest young men are dying in Iraq trying to make that region into something like Wisconsin.

And I feel he's more than earned the right to try to save this country the way his father did in the Pacific for four years during World War II and the way he did himself during the Vietnam War. He joined the Air Force when he was 18 and gave up his unpaid-for candy-apple-red Barracuda and his route selling savings stamps to country grocery stores.

After being trained as a weatherman, they sent him to Argentina, where he and the other boys sat in the bars and watched the officers woo the seoritas with the old poison pill trick. They would tell them they were on a highly dangerous top-secret mission that would most likely lead to their capture, torture and death, which is why they carried poison pills (actually aspirin) with which to escape. Ernie said it worked every time.

One night he and this other guy got into a bar fight with some of the locals because they objected to being cheated on the tab. Ernie held the crowd off with a broken beer bottle until his buddy escaped, unfortunately carrying some important local's coat which he threw on top of a house as they stumbled back to their quarters. A few hours later, they were rousted out of bed by angry MPs.

"You want to fight," the officer shouted. "We'll send you somewhere you can fight all you want to."

And they did, to Hill 63, otherwise known as LZ Baldy on the side of a mountain in Vietnam, where they were under attack for a year while the Washington crowd played political football. They were more or less abandoned to die, and nobody but their parents gave a hoot. They survived because they built a bunker out of barrels filled with sand. Ernie said they could always tell when an attack was coming because all the officers, except for one lieutenant, flew out to Chu Lai.

He came home at the end of 1969 no longer believing in Santa Claus. Only his happy childhood, loving parents, beautiful wife, Amira, and his son Jonathan finally saved him.

City Ink thanks Staff Writer Tom Corwin for his contribution to this week's column.

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylvia.cooper@augustachronicle.com.