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Sunday, October 5, 2008
Saxby Chambliss and last week’s vote to save Wall Street
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saxby Chambliss has always said that, despite the vast sums he raised in preparation, his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate would be close.
Now, some of his best friends are sure to make it closer.
Last week’s passage of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout (a.k.a. rescue plan) — and the sudden lurch from regulation-free, neo-conservatism to a yet-to-be-defined Neo Dealism — has split Georgia Republicans in two.
In Washington, Chambliss and senatorial colleague Johnny Isakson voted, however reluctantly, for pouring the oil of taxpayer dollars on roiling fiscal waters. The very real fate of small businesses and millions of 401(k)s was at stake, the two GOP senators said.
On the House side, Georgia’s seven Republican congressmen unanimously disagreed. “We cannot preserve our free-market economy by sacrificing the very principles that underlie it,” this Adam Smithian band of brothers declared.
We have seen the fault line before — on immigration, on farm subsidies, even in this summer’s debate over offshore drilling.
Some of the chasm is institutional. Because 60 votes are required to accomplish anything, the Senate is a deal-making body where practicality overrules philosophy. In the House, the Republican minority is powerless, so ideological purity does no harm, and in fact serves as a useful megaphone.
But while past disagreements between Chambliss and Georgia’s House Republicans have been papered over, last week’s split is impossible to disguise and thus — if you have Republican sentiments — dangerous.
It has created a box in which one cannot defend one’s self without striking an ally.
Chambliss and Isakson were on a defensive, five-city flyaround when the House reversed itself and gave final passage to the bailout plan on Friday. “We commend those members of the U.S. House of Representatives who put their country first to vote for this important legislation,” the two said in a press release.
Seven Republican congressmen from Georgia felt the sting of that statement.
Chambliss’ Democratic opponent, attorney Jim Martin of Atlanta, has come out against the bailout, saying it does too little for homeowner. “So he’s in favor of sticking his head in the sand, allowing the stock market to tank like it did Monday,” Chambliss argued, according to the Macon Telegraph.
Another inadvertant slap at the so-called G-7.
It works the other way, too. U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Macon) was one of four Democrats who voted for the package. His opponent, Republican Rick Goddard, has adopted the G-7 position.
But there’s not a swing Goddard can take at Marshall without also undermining a Republican senator.
Among Republicans on the November ballot, Chambliss is clearly the most vulnerable as a result of the financial crisis — and not just because House seats in Georgia are heavily gerrymandered.
Data out of Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office last week showed the surge of African-American voters driven by the candidacy of Barack Obama to be real. Martin, the Democrat, is certain to benefit.
Libertarian Allen Buckley has begun advertising himself to fiscal conservatives angry at Chambliss, to the point of promising to caucus with Senate Republicans if he’s elected.
Fortunately for Chambliss, while initial reaction in Georgia was against federal intervention in the economy, that sentiment is likely to shift once voters begin assessing the damage already done to their nest eggs.
In the longer term, Chambliss and Isakson may even have preserved the Republican brand in Georgia, said Chuck Clay, a former chairman of the state GOP.
Principle can be carried too far, Clay argued, offering up the Great Depression as an example.
“There are still some people who say Herbert Hoover was correct, and they may well be right. But tell that to history,” he said.
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SNL takes on the vice presidential debate: “Are we not doing the talent portion?”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Finally discovered the flaw in Tina Fey’s impersonation of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The real governor of Alaska winks with her left eye.
This one also takes a shot a moderator Gwen Ifill (Queen Latifah) and her forthcoming Obama book.
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