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Saturday, October 25, 2008
Football Saturday’s not sacred: Martin, Chambliss swap charges on Wall Street, Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The race for the U.S. Senate did not even pause Saturday for a more sacred contest, the UGA-LSU game.
While the game was still under way, Democrat Jim Martin conducted a conference call with a few reporters to again blast his old UGA Sigma Chi frat brother — Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss — for backing the $700 billion financial rescue plan. Martin used the word “bailout” as a pejorative.
Chambliss, the Republican U.S. Senate incumbent, voted for the plan. Martin opposed it, saying it needed more regulatory provisions and safeguards for consumers.
The GOP senator has blasted Martin for not being willing to act while the nation’s financial markets melted down. Martin, meanwhile, has accused Chambliss of helping Wall Street fat cats at the expense of Main Street in what has become a theme of his campaign.
Martin kept up the attacks Saturday, this time highlighting his criticism of the Chambliss-backed rescue plan for insufficient regulation, says my AJC colleague Jim Tharpe, who listened in. Martin cited recent press reports that said some banks plan to use some of the money to purchase smaller, struggling banks.
“It’s an example of, ‘We’ll let the business community do whatever they want to do without oversight,”’ Martin said.
Meanwhile, Chambliss — on his own bus trip across the state — accused Martin of bowing to Democratic leaders and acceding to a Congress-imposed timetable for U.S. troops to leave Iraq.
The Chambliss campaign accused Martin of putting “our national security at risk.”
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