Georgia governor Sonny Perdue probably thought he was scoring some low-hanging political fruit with Dawg fans by taking the AJC to task over a headline about the Georgia football team. After all, he’s a former Georgia player, a Georgia fan, a reasonably popular governor, and everyone loves to dump on the newspaper guys.

The ploy seems to have fallen flat among the Georgia fans I’ve seen comment. Most recognize it as a cheap attempt to score political points. Many don’t forget the lack of leadership shown by the Governor when it came to the Board of Regents fiasco a few years ago.

Personally, I’m a bit nervous any time a government official sees fit to meddle with the press. Even in a lighthearted (I hope) case like this, it’s not particularly appropriate for the governor to weigh in. He’s entitled to his opinion as a citizen, but a letter sent from the governor’s office about such a trivial matter isn’t a very judicious use of the position.

I write this as a Perdue voter and a Georgia alumnus myself. This is one item that should have been left off the “Sonny do” list.