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DEL.ICIO.USExit notes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Getting ready to shut down for a long (as possible) Thanksgiving weekend. Friends will fill in as needed, so don’t stop checking in.
But before I go:
— Looking ahead, Public Policy Polling of North Carolina says U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson may have some shoring up to do before he runs for re-election in 2010.
The survey firm found:
…a high level of ambivalence toward first term Senator Johnny Isakson from Georgia voters. Only 30% of voters approve of his job performance but there isn’t a large mass that disapproves either- a plurality have no opinion of him one way or the other.
Isakson has not done much to appeal across party lines during his first term. His approval among Democrats is just 8%. The problems with the economy may be hurting his appeal as well. Among voters who name it as their top issue just 27% approve of him with 29% disapproving.
The firm conducted two hypothetical match-ups with two Democrats: Isakson (45 percent) vs. state Attorney General Thurbert Baker (39 percent); and Isakson (47 percent) vs. U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon (38 percent).
Stats are from the same PPP survey that showed, earlier this week, a widening of Saxby Chambliss’ lead in the U.S. Senate runoff.
Says PPP:
The question of course is whether Democrats will strongly contest the seat. They don’t have the deepest bench in Georgia, but Jim Martin’s success has shown that even a relative obscure candidate can compete in the state under the right circumstances.
— As of Tuesday, after a full week of advance voting in all counties, 236,992 Georgia voters have cast early ballots for the Dec. 2 runoff. Of those, 53,374 have been African-American.
That’s 22.5 percent of the total vote, which lags about 14 points behind advance voting in the general election. Not great for Democrat Jim Martin in the U.S. Senate race. White males, who form a huge bloc of support for Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss, have cast nearly 38 percent of advance ballots.
— Republican interests have poured millions into direct mail for this runoff — a sign of how important they consider a 41st seat in the U.S. Senate. Proof was in the mailbox on Tuesday evening. Five multi-color mailers, all from the GOP or their surrogates.
It’s all anti-Martin. None of the pieces emphasize Chambliss’ positives:
— The Georgia Republican Party, which places Martin’s mug next to a screaming Howard Dean;
— Something called the Employee Freedom Action Committee, which accuses the Democrat of supporting “big labor boss legislation that will throw more Georgians out of work.”
— The National Republican Senate Committee, which (incorrectly) accuses Martin of opposing making solicitation of child prostitution a felony;
— Another NRSC piece that says Martin “supports tax hikes on those making less than $75,000 a year”;
— and Americans for Job Security, whose mailer includes a cigar-smoking fellow (the stogie is presumably a short-hand reference to a labor boss) noting Martin’s willingness to let President Bush’s tax cuts expire.
Comments
By Sissy Saxby
November 26, 2008 9:46 AM | Link to this
God forbid that we would not continue the great economic policies of George W. Bush. You can be sure that SISSY SAXBY will vote to continue Bush economics.
By NO GREED LEFT BEHIND
November 26, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this
MOTHERS AGAINST SAXBY CHAMBLISS
By Atrick
November 26, 2008 11:05 AM | Link to this
It is not political. It is survival! Georgia’s people will need help from Obama’s Administration in these terrible economic times! Saxby can’t do it. Martin can! Simple as that. Saxby did well with Bush, but he won’t get a plug nickel from Obama. South Carolina did send a democrat senator this time. Who do you think will get more money from Washington? Georgians have to think of themselves first! Party BS is simply BS!
By jacksmith
November 26, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this
WE HAVE MORE TO DO:
Democrat Jim Martin is in a runoff against Bush Republican Saxby Chambliss for the Senate seat from Georgia. Bush’s Saxby Chambliss voted against spending a few measly dollars to provide health care coverage for Georgia, and Americas needy children. But he supported wasting hundreds of billions of your dollars, and the life BLOOD of Americas finest on an unnecessary war in Iraq.
At a time when 47 million of you have no health insurance coverage, and over 100 million of you with insurance are just one major illness away from complete financial destruction. Bush and Saxby Chambliss voted to make the heart break of bankruptcy relief even harder for all of you to use.
You see, Bush and Saxby Chambliss, and his family don’t have to worry about their health care coverage. They have the finest health care coverage your tax money can buy for them. Courtesy of you. The American Tax payer. In fact, no one but the super rich can afford the health care coverage you the tax payer provide for Saxby Chambliss, and his family for FREE! with your tax dollars.
He supposedly works for you. But he doesn’t think you and your family should have access to the type of taxpayer supported FREE health care that you provide for him, and his loved ones for FREE!. Doesn’t that just make you BURRING MAD!
Vote for JIM MARTIN for US senator from Georgia. Vote for JIM Martin who will be on your side. Vote for JIM MARTIN who will work with President Obama and a majority congress for you. Vote for JIM MARTIN most of all for your-self, your family’s, friends, and loved ones. Vote for JIM MARTIN for a better America, and a better World.
Don’t let Saxby Chambliss make a chump out of you by tricking you into voting against your own best interest. Saxby chambliss is NOT! on your side. He’s not one of you. He is on George Bush’s side. And we all know what a catastrophe the Bush Chambliss administration has been the past 8 years.
Contact all your family and friends and do every thing you can to see to it that JIM MARTIN and GEORGIANS! take that senate seat back for Georgia, and America. No matter where you live in America. This is important to you. President Obama will need all the help, and power you can give him to try and fix this catastrophic mess that the Corrupt Bush Chambliss administration has created.
As I said before you will have to vote in overwhelming numbers to overcome the Bush Chambliss “Let Them Eat Cake” vote fraud machine. Vote early if you can. Then help everyone you can get to the polls and vote for JIM MARTIN. You and your loved ones don’t have to be Saxby Chambliss’s victims anymore.
I know you will get it done. Just like you did for President Obama.
God bless all of you
jacksmith - WORKING CLASS… :-)
By chris
November 26, 2008 12:43 PM | Link to this
Atrick-
A) Congress, not the President, appropriates federal money. Saxby will do more to get a few “plug nickels” for Georgia than Obama will.
B)South Carolina is still represented by 2 GOP senators, Graham and Demint.
C) If party doesn’t matter, as you say, why would you think that a freshman Senator with no experience outside of the GA Gen. Assembly will do more for Georgia than the 2 term ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee?
By Bill Shipp
November 26, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this
As long as I have covered politics, I never realized until now that one of the most powerful people working the government scam right under my nose was a seemingly meek, bleeding-heart Democrat named Jim Martin.
Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss and his sidekick consultant Tom Perdue (no kin to Gov. Sonny) have set me straight. Their TV ads tell me Martin is responsible for the state’s highest tax increase. As a state legislator, Martin raised his own expense account by 27 percent, they inform me. He has been the villainous manipulator of so many irresponsible and greedy power grabs that I cannot possibly list them here, Saxby’s folks say.
Wow! How could I have missed Martin? There I was wasting my time trying to fathom what Zell Miller or Tom Murphy might do next. I worried over Sen. Paul Coverdell and Gov. Jimmy Carter. In my rush to splash ink on these notables, I barely noticed Martin. I never thought of him as a behind-the-scenes power. I thought he was just another back-bench lawmaker and later a bureaucrat whose moderate politics were much too soft to compete with Georgia’s killer Republicans. Now I know differently. Martin misled me. He apparently was, in reality, the ever-devious Boss Jim, wearing a disguise worthy of Lon Chaney.
When Martin finally decided to reveal his true identity and run for the U.S. Senate, Saxby and his corporate buds wasted no time in exposing Martin for who he is - a ruthless, care-not Democrat with untold powers over taxes and expense vouchers. They also tell us Martin is a big buddy of Barack Hussein Obama, just elected president of most of the United States.
I should have known that Sax would let the cat out of the bag. Remember the first time Chambliss ran for the Senate and ordered up a series of informational ads?
In those remarkable spots, Chambliss ran photos of incumbent Sen. Max Cleland with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. He let Georgians know that Max sort of hung out with those bad guys. Never mind that Cleland left three limbs on the battlefield of Vietnam when he was an American infantry captain. Sax, of course, whipped Max good at the polls.
Now Chambliss makes campaign appearances with a triple-amputee (not Max) seated on the platform just to show he has no hard feelings. Of course, Sen. Chambliss somehow missed the Vietnam mess. He said he couldn’t go because he had a hurt knee. I certainly understand how he felt. I have bad knees, and nothing hurts worse. I think I injured them while I was guarding the Rhine River against Chinese Communists during the Korean War.
Sorry, folks. An old man’s mind wanders. Back to Sax and Boss Jim. Since (as some of you know) I am a betting man, I have just wagered $50 on Chambliss to win the Dec. 2 runoff election. I had to give to the bookie 1,000 votes and Martin. I feel pretty good about my wager. Saxby has outspent Martin on TV commercials by a wide margin. Georgia still is a deep-red state. Despite all, Saxby is a decent-looking candidate with just enough gravitas to be a senator but not a windbag.
Still, I worry about Sax when he gets back to D.C. for his next term. He may get a bit lonesome on the Hill. W. won’t be there to cheer him up and advise him on how to vote. His little buddy, Johnny Isakson, the other Cracker senator, is in the same boat. He has an “R” by his name, too. Lucky for Johnny, however, he has not quite earned the kind of reputation Saxby has. The ruling Democrats will be on the lookout for Saxby just so they can slam the door in his face when he approaches or hang up on him when he calls. Johnny hasn’t made enough of a mark for the Obama organization to be laying for him.
When you look at Saxby and Johnny, you have to wonder how Georgia could have ended up with these two guys in Washington to represent them in these dire times. They’ll be lucky to get appointments to the window-washing and elevator-maintenance committees.
You also ought to keep in mind that what Saxby does in Washington in his second term will stay in Washington. It sure as heck won’t make it back home to help Georgians - not after he beats Boss Jim, who is indeed a pal of the Barack bunch.
By Everyday Republicans shifting to Democrat Jim Martin
November 26, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this
GEORGIA REPUBLICANS FOR MARTIN
By SELFISH SAXBY
November 26, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this
Have you ever noticed how Saxby is always clapping for himself at these rallys with other rejects.-Saxby just loves Saxby.-The old coot actually thinks people admire him for being a Bush rubber stamp.Saxby is a legend in his own greedy mind. Does he have the capability to fool the people a second time around?-Let’s hope not.
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico
November 29, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this
The way to destroy the republican filibustering is to take ALL of the federal money allocated to Republican southern states and BUY the western republicans with it.
Georgia shouldn’t get ONE DIME of federal funding for anything, because it only elects people with an R next to their name.
Well, Atlanta should, but not the parts of the state that are 30%.
By Will Jones
November 29, 2008 2:39 PM | Link to this
Please take a look at this YouTube replay of Saxby Chambliss’ revealing his true self to the People of Georgia.
While it’s been clear Chambliss dodged the Vietnam draft - so his sympathies with fellow Vietnam draft-dodger George W. Bush were understandable on the level of false patriot/physical coward - he didn’t appear, as being nominally from Georgia, to be one necessarily allied with Bush’s affinity for homosexual prostitute James Guckert/Jeff Gannon’s Secret Service social entrance logbook proof of the Closet-Queen-in-Chief’s sexual perversion and hypocrisy.
However Chambliss’ “Thanksgiving” ad on TV has pointed out the proclivity and/or ignorance from which Georgia’s senior senator suffers, beyond his vain attempt to hide his baldness: he is either a pervert/pedophile or as dumb as dirt, denying his granddaughter’s sexuality (notably missing in his artificial wife) and/or thinking he can put one over on the rest of us with daughters who understand the need to respect their bodies in order to teach them to respect and appreciate themselves.
The time for tolerance of liars, perverts, traitors and murderers in our government is past.
As Georgians who helped start this greatest of all Nations, it is time to jump on the Obama Bandwagon and boot out of the Senate one so comfortable with Bush’s crimes and perversion as Saxby Chambliss.
Jim Martin is an Honorable Veteran and righteous family man with a history of proven integrity in and out of elected office.
Let’s join with Virginia, North Carolina and the majority of our Enlightened fellow citizens across America and work to remove the Bush/Cheney cancer from our leadership by removing Saxby Chambliss from our seat in the Senate.
Martin will make us proud we did.
Vote Tuesday for Jim Martin that Georgia return to the front rank of American States where we belong.