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DEL.ICIO.USNotes from the race for the U.S. Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you had to score the first day of the general election campaign for the U.S. Senate, there would be no question: Republican Saxby Chambliss, one. Democrat Jim Martin, zip.
Today was the day for the Republican and Democratic nominees to establish the lines of attack and defense they intend to employ in the next 12 or so weeks.
Chambliss, the GOP incumbent, laid claim the morning shift with a 10 a.m. press conference at his Cobb County headquarters.
Chambliss dismissed Martin as a liberal, and put air between himself and President Bush. Fielding questions from reporters, the incumbent spent a great deal of time discussing the draft energy proposal put forward by his bipartisan “Gang of Ten.” And not a single person asked him about exploding sugar refineries.
Most candidates are happy, the day after a victory, to bask in front of TV cameras. Not Martin. Possibly he feels the pressure of starting a million-dollar campaign — again — from scratch. Celebration was not on his mind.
The former state lawmaker summoned reporters to a mid-afternoon press conference in a courtyard outside his building. Martin walked up to the lectern, and read a prepared three-minute statement at reporters that began thusly:
“Welcome to the general election campaign for the United States Senate. Saxby Chambliss had a press conference this morning and attacked me, and I have something to say about Saxby.”
Then he walked away. His remarks could have been delivered by e-mail, and later were.
Said Martin:
”Saxby Chambliss has supported the economic and energy policies that have gotten us into this mess. We have to get America back on track and the way to do that is make the economy work for the middle class again.
“That means that we can’t keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while they sell us oil at $120 per barrel and they have a surplus of $79 billion in oil money. But Saxby Chambliss refuses to change course in Iraq. It means we have to control spending in Washington.
“In 2002, Saxby Chambliss voted to return our country to deficit spending for the first time since 1998. And it’s been downhill ever since. The 2009 budget has a $482 billion deficit.”
But back to Chambliss, who had the advantage — at least on Wednesday — of being more interesting. The Republican incumbent began with a justification for the artillery he was about to send Martin’s way.
“We know that, now that their nominee has been determined, that we can expect the full force of the Democratic senatorial committee as well as 527s. The liberal groups around the country are anticipated to be in here blasting us.… Martin is the hand-picked guy of the Washington Democratic group and obviously they’re not going to pick someone who’s a conservative, so we know where he stands from a philosophical standpoint.
Now, you’ll remember that Chambliss has invited Martin (and Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley) to debate him. But the incumbent also let it be known that he won’t get carried away with letting rivals share his limelight:
”There will be a number of debates. I have no idea how many, because you have to remember I’m a senator first. I’ve got a job to do…That means spending, unfortunately, more time in Washington than I would like to spend.”
Chambliss has placed himself at the center of the national energy debate, and was aided last week by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee:
“I think it’s very interesting that within three hours of our news conference, Barack Obama does a 180 on his position. He now says that, as part of an overall package, that he certainly would consider it. Jim Martin is opposed to offshore drilling. It’ll be interesting to see what position he now takes.”
When asked about his close association to President Bush, Chambliss hauled out his votes on Medicare, the farm bill, and immigration:
”The president and I had a very strong disagreement on immigration reform. At the end of the day, what Senator [Johnny] Isakson and I supported and what we told the president — face-to-face, twice — was that we need to get away from this overall immigration reform package and talk about border security, border security, border security.”
And what, a reporter asked, about getting booed at the 2007 GOP convention for his initial support of the immigration reform bill?
“That’s been magnified. There may have been five people that booed me out of about 2,000. But in any event, immigration reform is a very sensitive issue.”
One of the last questions aimed at Chambliss raised the question of that TV ad he ran against Max Cleland in 2002, which paired the Democratic incumbent with Osama bin Laden. Martin — in an earlier, more conversational mood — called the ad “cowardly.”
Chambliss said:
“What we did in the 2002 campaign was question my opponent’s voting record. I’m going to question my opponent’s voting record in this campaign. We did it in a fair and legitimate manner. We won. If we hadn’t won, you wouldn’t have heard word one about any ad we ran.”
Comments
By Saxby Shameless
August 6, 2008 6:36 PM | Link to this
Saxby is a chicken hawk. Martin is a war hero. Saxby talks tough and rides in pick up trucks and pretends to be a salt of the earth kind of guy, but when he had the opportunity to serve his country he got a very shady deferment for bad knees. Jim Martin served with honor in Vietnam and he has dedicated his career to improving the quality of life of middle class people in this state. Saxby has dedicated his life to big oil, big drug companies and the well being of Billionaires.
Saxby talks tough and he claims to stand up for regualar people, but in reality he’s coward and an elitist.
By DCS
August 6, 2008 7:02 PM | Link to this
Why doesn’t Martin investigate the USDA “doings” of Saxby’s friends in south GA? My wife’s cousin, a south GA county-level pol, hit up the USDA for $1.287M over an 11-year period. And she found that info on the Internet.
By RJ
August 6, 2008 8:18 PM | Link to this
Saxby…Your US Senate voting record will will be examined this time around and there is plenty for you to defend.
You will not be successful in using your millions to focusing attention only on Martin’s voting record as a state elected official. Neither will you be successful in painting him as a liberal. That tired old strategy is based upon the wrong assumption about where Georgia’s electorate is this time around.
You had your chance and you blew it!
By Jack McMillan
August 6, 2008 11:18 PM | Link to this
For over 2 years I have been begging every elected representative from Georgia that serves in Washington to do something about our energy policy. I would write to all and call some(except Lewis and Barrow because they are useless) and only Congressman David Scott ever made feedback and followed up. While I am afraid that Saxby shameless is the less of two evils here, I dang sure wish he would have gotten off his lazy duff and done something constructive about the energy policy long ago. Georgia should be like Brazil when it comes to ethanol. There should be thousands of acres of sugar cane planted in south Georgia and we should have an ethanol plant also.
By Dave
August 7, 2008 1:03 AM | Link to this
The Dems need to dictate this campaign and expose Chambliss and his GOP buddies as the corrupt, corporate fat cats that they are. Nothing else would do a better job of firing up the base and gaining the political middle ground in these tough economic times. But the Dems let the GOP’s sideshow gimmicks steal the media spotlight every election, and I doubt this year will be any different.
By Ga Values
August 7, 2008 5:47 AM | Link to this
Saxby & his lobbist son Bo, are owned by the Mid west Ethanol producers driving up the price of food & gas. Chambliss has refused the GEORGIA chicken industry’s request to end the %.51 per gallon duty on imported ethanol which is causing lay offs in GEORGIA.
By Taxpayer
August 7, 2008 8:19 AM | Link to this
We know from Saxby’s own words that he’s an arrogant a*. Do we really need to know anything else — other than he now claims to be against Bush because Bush is wrong unless Bush agrees with him in which case Bush is right, and that OSHA’s report on the sugar refinery must be written by a bunch of first graders since they did not reach the Saxby conclusion that the fault at the sugar plant all lies at the feet of the one person that had nothing to do with the problem. Saxby has no shame. Saxby is bound to serve his lord and master, the almighty dollar. He’s even spent 5.3 million on future ads for his re-election. Can you just stop and imagine how many lives that much money could have saved just in one little sugar plant. Can you imagine spending that money to help people with no health insurance or people who have lost their homes to foreclosures. Yet, Saxby can only imagine the “good” that he’s doing by spending millions on his re-election. When are we expected to bow down and praise Saxby.
By Oz
August 7, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
Saxby Chambliss is a cardboard, rubber stamp senator who is the living embodiment of a GOP clone without depth of character or an original thought.
Check out his website. Click on any of his issue headlines, and you get “sorry, this page doesn’t exist”.
He has nothing behind his homepage. He’s a hollow elephant turd. (and he stinks).
By Tom Ga Hunter
August 7, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this
Saxby is a true American Hero!
He has consistently stood up for our troops, our veterans, our teachers, our national security interests, our family farms, our borders and our children.
I am saddened the Mr. Martin decided to set the tone for his campaign today - Negative, Negative, Negative. Georgian’s are tired of these personal attacks and distortions.
By Wackolibhack
August 7, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this
It is Bush’s fault that Saxby will win in a landslide. I hate Bush!!!
By gttim
August 7, 2008 9:50 AM | Link to this
That had to be one of the most confusing, jumbled up posts I have ever read. That being said for anybody to complain about a negative campaign against Chambliss after what he did in the campaign against Cleland is just laughable. Chambliss has a history. He attacks soldiers and war veterans. He certainly does nothing to help them.
By Jay
August 7, 2008 10:01 AM | Link to this
Allen Buckley appears to be the only fiscal conservative running in this race. He’s got my vote.
By tom ga hunter
August 7, 2008 10:17 AM | Link to this
Churchill has skipped school today & stole my name..As we all know Saxby voted to cut spending on VA hospitals at a time of war. He did not remember troops get wounded in war.. Most of us thought that was why he dodged the draft. That back problem was a YELLOW STREAK. Saxby is for a family farm if they send him a big check otherwise they are dead meat..
Churchill you will never pass the 9th grade if you don’t go to class, remember what happened in those 3 years in the 8th grade.
By Tom ga hunter
August 7, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this
I know that Churchill
By Unlike Iraq Saxby had a plan to get out of Vietnam
August 7, 2008 12:11 PM | Link to this
http://www.saxbyshameless.com/
What cracks me up about Saxby is that he is trying to distance himself from the President. He often brings up the immigration bill as an example, but he didn’t turn on that until the Republican base in Georgia went ape s** about it. The fact is Saxby has had his head so far up W’s a* the past six years that you could barely see his feet. Saxby nothing more than W’s little do boy.
Somebody on this blog called Saxby an American hero. Give me a break! He’s only a hero to the ethanol industry, big Oil, big drug companies and billionaires.
Jim Martin and Max Cleland are the real American heroes.
www.martinforsenate.com
By Wacko's Momma
August 7, 2008 2:22 PM | Link to this
Sorry my boy got out the cage again..
By lucky
August 7, 2008 4:55 PM | Link to this
As a conservative populist, I would vote for Martin if only, and probably even work for his campaign, and this is not negotiable, he would forget amnesty for the criminal aliens. To say that they can stay if they have not committed a crime is laughable - who knows? They run away after an accident, and even if caught they give false ID. They are probably serial criminals but no way to track. Here illegally - caught and you are back in your country of origin. We do not need to import any more poverty or people too stupid to stop having kids they cannot afford. We have enough American citizens who do that already.
By The Thin Guy
August 7, 2008 6:58 PM | Link to this
Jim Martin will be an invaluable asset in the US Senate if an amendment to the Constitution is required to regulate the preparation of sweet tea. I am disappointed in Saxby. He supported amnesty for wetbacks. But there is no way I’d ever vote for a liberal. The only democrat I’d ever vote for is Zell Miller. Neither Saxby, Jim Martin, or Tax Cleland are heroes. A hero is someone who does something heroic. Cleland did not receive his injuries on the battlefield which is why he does not have a Purple Heart. He was drunk and fooling around with a grenade when he lost 3 limbs. I felt sorry for him and voted for him as Secretary of State for GA. Taught me a lesson. Don’t ever base a vote on sentiment. Vote for someone who will get the job done. Martin is a lackey of left wing whackos and labor unions. Saxby ain’t much better. But at least he won’t be a hand puppet for the under wear model the dims are running for POTUS.
By GodHatesTrash
August 7, 2008 7:09 PM | Link to this
Only moronic trash would find anything Saxby the Chickenhawk Chambliss says interesting.
By RJ
August 7, 2008 7:57 PM | Link to this
By The Thin Guy, Whether you know it or not you make a very good case for not voting for Chambliss, yet you say “Saxby ain’t much better. But at least he won’t be a hand puppet for the under wear model the dims are running for POTUS.”
Free your mind from party thinking and do a little research you will learn that based upon performance, Saxby Chambliss has been a lap dong for Bush policies, which have not served Georgia well. Based upon facts you know what you have in Chambliss.
By your own admission you only know Jim Martin by associations and and assertions. Do let others define him for you. Be smart and examine Jim Martin based upon his training, experience, vision, and commitment to policies that will help make Georgia better now and in the future.
If you are a closed minded voter, please disregard this post.
By Democratic Debutante
August 8, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this
Jim Martin, a liberal? I wish he were a liberal but he is a centrist if there ever was one. He helped make cuts required by Sonny Purdue in a humane way, proved he could work with both sides both in and out of the Georgia Legislature.
Jim doesn’t just wrap himself in a flag he never carried — that’s Saxby. Jim would not turn against the veterans by voting against the Vets Bill of Rights. It is OK for Saxby “Utterly Shameless” to send your sons and grandsons, your husbands and fathers to get shop up in Iraq; but providing for their care and needed assistance when they return might mean that Saxby’s rich cronies have to help pay the cost. Heaven forbid!
Honestly, Saxby Chambless has not got a leg to stand on. He has lied and it’s time the people of Georgia called him on it. Look where he gets that huge warchest stuffed with money — from the energy lobbists, from the big insurance companies. Saxby and his son, Bo, have found a way deep into your pockets by supporting these huge lobbies to the detriment of the people of Georgia. Ultimately, his big warchest comes out of your pocket in higher gas and other energy costs, higher prices in the supermarket, higher costs in healthcare and medicines. Wake up — Jim Martin is not a liberal but Saxby Chambless is a greedy liar.
Democratic Deb
By Terry
August 28, 2008 12:11 PM | Link to this
Saxby is a do nothing Washington politician. We only see him when it is time to get elected.
He votes against tax breaks for regular people, and pushes for tax breaks for the rich folks. Just look at this link to see what he voted against on tax breaks. http://www.dscc.org/newsitem?pressrelease_KEY=694
His energy record: Saxby voted against raising mileage standards on our cars. Source: Congressional Record, 06/07
Saxby voted against reducing America’s oil use by 40% by 2025. Source: Congressional Record, 06/05
Saxby voted against developing 100,000 new hydrogen cars by 2010. Source: Congressional Record, 06/03
Saxby voted against incentives for alternative fuels. Source: Congressional Record, 06/07
Saxby voted against increasing taxes on profits, rescinding certain tax deductions and increasing tax incentives for alternative energy programs for oil companies. Source: Congressional Record, 06/08
I’m not real pleased with our choices this year, but given what I have seen, it is time to give the boot to Saxby.
By antellaleld
March 3, 2009 3:45 AM | Link to this
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