Gov. Nathan Deal might take a few minutes during his taxpayer-funded trip to England, Germany and Austria - domains of present and past monarchies - to contemplate the fact that he was inaugurated governor last January, not anointed king.

His fellow Republicans delivered that message in no uncertain terms Saturday at their state convention in Macon shortly before Deal's scheduled takeoff for Europe to "seek opportunities for job expansion and investment."

Although Deal won his party's gubernatorial nomination last year by less than 2,500 votes over Karen Handel, he apparently thought he had a mandate to throw his weight around and decided to impose his choice of state party chairwoman on the convention. He got roundly booed instead and his candidate, Tricia Pridemore, lost to incumbent Sue Everhart by a 12 percent margin. Everhart got 56 percent to Pridemore's 44 percent. Both women are from Cobb County.

It was a comeuppance for the new governor, and it showed again that most Georgia Republicans are not rubber stamps or potted plants. It also showed that elected officials at the state and local level, the same as the ones holding federal offices, had better face up to the reality of today's politics if they want to stay in office. People are not going to be dictated to by the politicians who are supposed to be servants of the people.

Talk about irony. Deal claimed that Pridemore, 39, would broaden the GOP base and do a better job with the news media than has Everhart, 65. The governor needs to take that idea to heart after he barred FOX 5 News reporters and a cameraman from the Friday signing of the new immigration reform bill - because he didn't like the Atlanta TV station's report about his campaign paying $90,000 to a fundraising operation linked to his daughter-in-law, Denise Deal.

The video shows king-sized state troopers blocking the Fox news team from the event. Deal's press spokesman Brian Robinson stuck his head out the door long enough to declare that the TV station "knowingly aired a false, sensational story" and would be allowed into the presence of His Highness after an apology had been made. That was the governor's response to the story - as opposed to a point-by-point refutation before the story was aired.

The TV station vice president and news director, Mike McClain, said the barring of the cameras was "unacceptable and obviously an emotional reaction to our I-Team investigation." He's right about the unacceptable part. What's needed now is some heavy firepower from the media, starting with the Georgia Press Association, the Atlanta Press Club and journalism society Phi Beta Kappa, to stop this governor from using his office to punish news media for stories he doesn't like or disagrees with. This cannot stand.

Clearly, the governor needs educating on our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press. He might want to take a few pointers from Sue Everhart on how to work with the news media.

dmckee9613@aol.com