Alabama, Geogia Governors Wager Dirt, Water Respectively

Normally these Friendly Political Wagers are all fun. The participants are surely rooting for their home teams, but for the most part, the wagers are used as an opportunity to mug in front of the local television cameras on an issue that no one can argue against. Win or lose, the Mayor or Governor or Senator usually enjoys either paying up or taking the spoils. That's not the case down in the south where Alabama Governor Bob Riley and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue (both pictured here) are lashing out at each other through a wager. Seems as if there is a rift between the two states about who has rights to releasing water from Lake Allatoona. Alabama needs the water, Georgia says it can't give it up.

This all came to a head over a Little League Regional Championship Game this past week. Perdue had offered a gallon of "North Georgia's finest, 100 percent locally mountain-grown headwaters" to Riley if the Alabama team won.

Perdue, who played catcher for the Warner Robins team nearly 50 years ago, had started the wager Wednesday with a statement: "I am pulling for our home team just as strongly as I am pulling for our right to protect Georgia's water resources," surely a reference to the ongoing court fights the two states have had over water from north Georgia.

There doesn't seem to be anything offered at first in return. In fact, it appears that the Alabama Governor didn't even know that there was a wager at stake. That didn't stop him from holding up his end of the bargain. His team lost. So, he sent Perdue a bottle of dirt. That's right. Dirt.

Riley said in a letter to Perdue on Friday that he wasn't aware of the bet before the game.

"But since your team won, I am presenting you something in the spirit in which you offered the gallon of water," Riley wrote. "So, I am happy to send you a box of dry, parched Alabama soil. Due to the lack of water in Alabama, this soil can no longer be used for farming, so the farmer I got it from no longer needs it."

Wow. For as long as we here at Our Civic Pride can remember, we've never seen a Friendly Political Wager be used as a way to go after a political opponent - they've always used to hamm it up for the local media. Maybe this is the wave of the future? We'll see Barack Obama send Rudy Giuliani a bushel of Illinois corn when Rudy takes money from the bean lobbyist? Who knows?!?