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Thursday, November 6, 2008
Killing rumors: Cleland says appointment talk is news to him
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Politico.com reported this afternoon that former Georgia senator Max Cleland was “in the running” to be the next secretary of the Army in the Obama administration.
If that’s the case, Cleland is as surprised as anyone, says my Washington colleague Julia Malone. “I don’t know anything about anything,” he told her. Cleland referred Malone to his assistant, who in turn dismissed the report as “speculation.” The assistant added that there had been no contacts with the Obama transition team.
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TV ads in Senate race start again tomorrow
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve picked up word that the U.S. Senate contest will be back on television starting tomorrow. Because you haven’t suffered enough.
Freedom’s Watch, a conservative 527 that has served as an ally for Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss, has purchased time on at least one Atlanta TV station.
The Chambliss campaign has purchased air-time for Friday as well — as has Democrat Jim Martin, who finished second.
Martin opens the second round of the campaign on a positive note. The ad below pitches the Democrat as a helpmate to President-Elect Barack Obama. The theme is “America is back.” See the script on the jump.
Chambliss goes on the attack from the get-go, with the ad below. We’ve seen it before. It attempts to reclaim the phrase “Saxby economics” and accuses Martin of wanting to help Obama raise taxes on small businesses.
SCRIPT FOR JIM MARTIN AD “AMERICA IS BACK”
OBAMA: In this country, we rise or fall as one nation. There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
MALE NARRATOR: Jim Martin has worked to do what’s right for our country. He served his country in Vietnam. He helped pass the biggest middle-class tax cut in Georgia history. Now Jim Martin will work with Barack Obama to get our economy moving again.
Jim Martin for Senate. America is back.
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Barney snaps under pressure, bites White House reporter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Politico is reporting that Barney the Scottie, President Bush’s canine companion, finally snapped and bit a White House reporter today.
Reporters haven’t decided whether Barney was fed up with liberal media bias, depressed by how history is likely to rate his tenure, or was simply enjoying the sense of freedom that comes to any short-timer.
The victim was Reuters TV correspondent Jon Decker, who’d bent down to pet the dog. Damage was limited to a broken skin on a finger.
Politico quotes Decker:
“As a result of the bleeding, I was treated by White House physician Dr. Richard Tubb,” Decker tells us. And, “Am now on antibiotics and will be getting a tetanus shot administered by Dr. Tubb tomorrow,” he says.
Rumors that Barney has contacted Scooter Libby for the name of a good attorney are totally unfounded.
Libertarian country in Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So where is Libertarian country in Georgia? As a percentage of Tuesday’s vote in the U.S. Senate race, clearly north and western Georgia — old “impeach Earl Warren” territory — is the most fertile ground for the third party.
Statewide, Buckley received 126,003 votes, or 3.4 percent. His top counties were Lumpkin (6.4 percent), White, Haralson, Gilmer, Dawson, Hall, Barrow, Pickens and Cherokee (5.2 percent). As one knowledgeable Republican pointed out, Buckley’s 4,700 votes from Cherokee, assuming they were all taken from GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss, guaranteed a runoff.
But Cobb County provided more votes (13,022) for Buckley than any other, followed by Gwinnett (11,434) and Fulton (10,755). Which means Chambliss has some ground to make up not just in exurbia, but suburbia as well.
Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr received 28,414 votes, or .7 percent.
Clearly, in the down-ballot Public Service Commission races, voters were more willing to take a chance on a third-party candidate. In the northern district, three-man race for Public Service Commission, Libertarian Brandon Givens received 174,761 votes, or 4.9 percent.
And in the southern district PSC race — in which Republican Doug Everett was the only other candidate — Libertarian John Monds cracked the 1 million-vote mark, with 33 percent of the vote.
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Karl Rove: Barack Obama won by peeling away churchgoers, white men
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Karl Rove’s take on Barack Obama’s victory, on the Wall Street Journal web site today:
….For the third election in a row the exit polls were trash. The raw numbers forecast an 18-point Obama win, news organizations who underwrote the poll arbitrarily dialed it down to a 10-point Obama edge, and the actual margin was six.
But we do know President-elect Obama ran better among frequent churchgoers (perhaps getting 10 points more than John Kerry did), independents (perhaps five points more than Kerry and eight points more than Al Gore), Hispanics and white men. He even made special appeals to gun owners and sent his wife to cultivate military families. This allowed him to carry previously red states like Florida, New Mexico and Iowa.
This combination helped Senator Obama run four points better nationally than John Kerry did in 2004 and 2.5 points better than Al Gore did in 2000. These small changes on the margin meant all the difference between winning and losing.
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Newsweek: On hackers, John Lewis, and Sarah Palin’s appearance — in a towel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s a preliminary, post-campaign Newsweek piece now online, which says:
— Hackers, possibly from a foreign country, penetrated the computers of both the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns.
— McCain “was dumbfounded” by U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ comparison of him to George Wallace, the Alabama governor and segregationist. McCain “had so admired Lewis that he had once taken his children to meet him.”
— “[Sarah] Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported….According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill.”
— Then there was the “towel” incident: One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. “I’ll be just a minute,” she said.
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Sometimes, you may not want the military vote from Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. Doug Collins was one of those Republicans punished by House Speaker Glenn Richardson earlier this year after that nasty fight over chairmanship of the state transportation board.
But Collins is also a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve, and is currently serving in Iraq. And he wants to vote in next week’s meeting of the House Republican Caucus — which will determine whether Richardson continues as speaker.
Richardson’s being challenged by David Ralston of Blue Ridge.
Caucus rules say you must be present to vote. No proxies are permitted. Not even if you’re in uniform in Iraq.
Collins said he’s tried for months to lobby for an exception, to no avail. He tried for a meeting with Richardson, but that didn’t work either, Collins said in a letter sent to all 105 GOP members. Here are a few paragraphs:
It was disappointing for me to think that in light of all that I was getting ready to do my own party’s leadership did not want to talk with me even if only to say - I am sorry we did all we could. Instead all I got was an email from the Chief of Staff saying someone else would call me.
I understand politics but I also understand leadership and not contacting me after I had a letter hand delivered to him shows that all members do not mean the same to this Speaker. This action was made even harder to understand and to swallow after all of the talk by the Speaker about his changing and being available to all the caucus members.
Read the entire letter on the jump.
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5 November 2008
Dear Fellow Caucus Members,
I had hoped that I would not have to write this email but due to the circumstances I cannot stay quiet about what has happened to me over the last 6 months. I am now taking what little free time I have over here in Iraq to write this letter so you can understand what has happened.
When my wife forwarded the Caucus election note to me several days ago it was a reminder of a lot that I am missing but at the same time it brought back a lot of frustration. I will try to be brief but I need to tell you the story of what happened to me. It started back in May when I contacted Jay Roberts about the possibility of me voting by proxy in the Caucus election. I knew that the Whip’s job would be open and I wanted to make sure that I could vote. The immediate response from Jay was No.
I was told the rules did not allow it and they wanted to make sure everyone showed up for the meeting and vote. After a few minutes explaining that I would not be on a pleasure trip but that I would be deployed to the war zone in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was told that he would work on it. I want to be very clear at this point. I believe Jay to be an honorable man and a friend; however I do not believe that leadership was unaware of the situation and at the time I thought something would be done.
I waited until the middle of July and contacted Jay again and was told that he had talked to an attorney and that I could not vote unless the rules were changed and that the caucus would have to change them. I still did not worry because he said he would do everything he could and I thought that with the Caucus meeting coming up in Atlanta in a few weeks it would be worked out there. I was wrong.
After the Caucus meeting I heard nothing so I assumed that I was not going to be allowed to vote. I could think of a number of reasons why but at this point I still believed that politics would be put aside and I would be allowed to vote. It stood to reason that since I would be able to vote by absentee ballot from Iraq in the General Election surely I could vote in the Caucus election.
Hearing nothing I decided to make one last attempt 10 days before I was to ship out to Iraq. I had my secretary Julie Jordan hand deliver a letter to Speaker Richardson’s office. In the letter I explained briefly the situation and asked for a response and help. I asked that he get back to me within a week because after that I was on standby and could be called to leave at any time. I waited a week and no reply.
Not even a note saying someone was looking into this. Nothing. Finally after having Julie confirm the receipt of the letter by the Speaker’s staff, I emailed asking for an answer. I was emailed back by the Chief of Staff and told Jay Roberts would call me.
On the night before I was to fly to Iraq Jay called me and told me that there was nothing he could do. He tried to explain that the August Caucus meeting really wasn’t a business meeting so the issue could not be addressed during that meeting.
I flew out the next morning having had no resolution to an issue that I started asking about 4 months earlier. As I have said earlier I believe Jay tried but was undoubtedly not supported by the current leadership.
However, the thing that disturbed me the most in this whole process was that as a Member of the Georgia House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House did not respond to my letter with either a phone call or email before I left.
It was disappointing for me to think that in light of all that I was getting ready to do my own party’s leadership did not want to talk with me even if only to say - I am sorry we did all we could. Instead all I got was an email from the Chief of Staff saying someone else would call me.
I understand politics but I also understand leadership and not contacting me after I had a letter hand delivered to him shows that all members do not mean the same to this Speaker. This action was made even harder to understand and to swallow after all of the talk by the Speaker about his changing and being available to all the caucus members.
I wish each of you well. I am sorry to have taken a few minutes of your time but I felt that each of you had the right to know my situation and the way the current leadership viewed my vote. I look forward to seeing you all again in January.
Douglas Collins - District 27
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On the Senate runoff: Watching paint dry, and the Ox says he won’t graze while Chambliss needs the cash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The gap between U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and his goal of 50-percent-plus-one grew by five votes overnight. We don’t know how, and we don’t know why.
But at the end of office hours on Wednesday, the Republican needed 8,193 more votes to stay out of a runoff with Democrat Jim Martin. This morning, he needs 8,198.
Here’s the link to results on the secretary of state’s web site.
Also, so as not to compete with Chambliss, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has directed his Republican campaign to “cease all Georgia-based fund-raising of new campaign dollars” in his 2010 race for governor until after the Dec. 2 runoff for U.S. Senate.
And he invited Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, another Republican candidate for governor, to do the same.
“Additionally, I will reach out to all of my maxed out contributors and urge them to contribute to Saxby’s campaign,” Oxendine said. “I know that suspending fund-raising on new Georgia dollars is the appropriate and moral position to take and I do so with humility, confidence, and pride.”
Possibly, this comes in response to a notation in this space on Wednesday.
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