by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]
August 18, 2026
In much of “The Iliad” – the ancient Greek “prequel” to “The Odyssey” now dominating the summer movie box office – the hero Achilles can be found sulking in his tent outside the walls of Troy. He is bitterly angry at his fellow Greeks, feeling that he has been cheated and disrespected, and thus refuses to fight any longer on their behalf.
“You don’t need me? Fine.”
Even when the great King Agamemnon begs him to rejoin the battle, telling him that the Greeks are likely to lose without his help, the sulking, prideful Achilles refuses.
Achilles, in other words, is exactly like Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, or would be if Jones were the son of a sea nymph and not the heir to the Jones Petroleum Company, and if Jones were the greatest warrior in the ancient world instead of a former walk-on football player at the University of Georgia.
Otherwise, though, pretty much the same.
In the weeks since being outbid for the GOP nomination for governor by Rick Jackson, Jones has been sitting on the sidelines, nursing his anger at being cheated of what he thought what was rightfully his. He has refused to reach out to Jackson, to appear with Jackson, to endorse Jackson or perhaps even to vote for Jackson.
That’s trouble for Georgia Republicans, who already face the likely prospect of losing the U.S. Senate race to Jon Ossoff. Humiliating as that would be, losing the governor’s race would be considerably more consequential. The governor’s office controls jobs, appointments, contracts. The governor signs or vetoes legislation; the governor has a lot to say about redistricting and campaign fundraising. It’s the governor, not some U.S. senator way up in Washington, who pulls the strings here at home. And in this difficult political environment, Republicans recognize that a divided party could cost them all that and more.
Like Achilles, though, Jones has cause to feel resentful and to stay out of the fray. He feels as though he was stabbed in the back by Jackson, whose surprise campaign “spent $150 million trashing me and my family,” as Jones has put it. Early on, Jones was so unaware of the threat posed by Jackson that he even recorded a testimonial to Jackson, at Jackson’s request, which Jackson then used against him in the campaign.
That leaves a mark. At one point a few weeks ago, Georgia Republicans even recruited Donald Trump to play the part of King Agamemnon to try to intercede with Jones. But like Agamemnon, Trump failed, which is surely his only point of resemblance to a king renowned for his greed, his thirst for power and his willingness to drag his reluctant people into a war that nobody really wanted.
Nobody should be surprised though.
If someone is acting like a sore loser, if someone is refusing to get over a narrow election defeat and instead spends most of his time nursing his resentment to the point that his soul curdles, is Donald Trump the person that you send to tell him to stop being selfish, grow the hell up and behave?
I would love to have been a fly on the wall to hear that particular conversation.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.