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Sunday, November 30, 2008
Chris Wallace to Saxby Chambliss: ‘Greenspan said we were headed for recession back in April’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saxby Chambliss, the Republican incumbent in Tuesday’s runoff for U.S. Senate, appeared in a 10-minute segment this morning on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.”
Democrat Jim Martin was invited but declined, Wallace said.
No major news was committed. YouTube segments are available, but we’re waiting on the sanctioned Fox clip before we embed any video.
Wallace noted that the enthusiasm of African-American voters seems to have cooled here, and posited that this could be an advantage for Chambliss, who finished first on Nov. 4.
The senator predicted that “if voters turn out again in the same ratios….then, obviously, we’ll win again.”
But the more interesting exchange came on the topic of economics, in which Wallace took up many of the Democratic arguments. Wallace showed a Martin TV ad in which Chambliss — quoted in July — disputes that the U.S. was in recession:
Wallace: Your opponent, Jim Martin, says that you voted for the Bush policies that got us into this mess and he notes that you voted for the $700 billion bailout in September. He voted against it.
Chambliss: Well, he says he would have voted against it. Of course, the guy that he’s joined at the hip with, President-elect Obama, voted for it. You know, that clip is interesting. That was about four seconds out of a 40-minute speech I gave that morning — and which, incidentally, when I made that statement, I was quoting Alan Greenspan, who I have a lot more confidence in than I do Mr. Martin’s judgment on the economy.
Wallace: Senator, may I just bring you up on that? Because that quote, when you said, “I don’t know if we’re in a recession, I don’t know what that means,” you said that in July of this year. And in fact, in April of this year, several months before, Alan Greenspan had said we’re headed into a recession.
Chambliss: Yes, well, you know, there was a real question about what is the definition of a recession. A recession, Chris, if you’ll remember, it was supposed to be two consecutive months of negative [Gross Domestic Product], and at that point in time we hadn’t seen that.
But you know, economists disagree on the technical definition of recession, and obviously that’s what I was talking about…
Wallace: But Senator Chambliss, the Martin camp says that you have been far too trusting of Treasury Secretary Paulson and the bailout, which you voted for. And they point out to what you said… a couple of weeks ago.
You said, “If the smart people in the financial community think this is the best way to go, I think we have to respect that. I do trust folks who deal with these issues on a daily basis like folks in the financial community.”
Senator, after everything we’ve seen in the last month or so, do you still trust Wall Street and would you still vote for the financial bailout?
Chambliss: Well, I didn’t say I trust Wall Street. I said people in the financial community. And I think Hank Paulson is a smart guy. And I listen to what he says. But he’s not the only one I listen to. Listen, I talk to dozens and dozens of bankers in Georgia, both from small community banks to big banks.
I talk to business people who were seeing their lines of credit pulled and were starting to have to — or having to lay people off. Those are the kinds people that I listen to, to make sure that we put policies in place that are going to free up this credit market, going to ease this crunch that we find ourselves in.
And you know, there comes a point in time from a military standpoint, you trust your military leadership. From a business standpoint, you have to trust business leaders. And, sure, I listen to those folks and, sure, I’ve based my opinions on what they’ve said….
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The reason behind Tuesday’s runoff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Tuesday, it’s highly likely that only a fraction of Georgia voters will trek yet again to the polls. They will refine, and perhaps override, decisions made by a robust majority on Nov. 4.
This strikes some as unfair. “Georgia is a total aberration,” Wyche Fowler, 68, said the other day. “I think it’s unconstitutional. But whether it’s unconstitutional or not, it’s extremely unwise.”
Sixteen years ago, Fowler was a first-term U.S. senator up for re-election — a Democrat facing a Republican challenger, Paul Coverdell. The Libertarian in the race gathered a few crucial votes, and Fowler found himself with only 49.23 percent of 2.25 million ballots cast.
Georgia is the only state that requires the winner of a general election contest to win by 50 percent — plus one vote. Three weeks later, the 635,114 votes that Coverdell earned in a pre-Thanksgiving runoff overruled the 1.1 million votes that Fowler received in the general election.
“That’s disenfranchisement,” Fowler said.
Regardless, Fowler was ousted. Democrats in control of the Legislature changed the state’s 50-percent-plus-one law so that the winner needed to win only a plurality — so long as that plurality exceeded 45 percent.
Shortly after Republicans took over the state Capitol, they restored the 50-percent-plus-one provision, on the theory that any act perpetrated by Democrats was designed to short-change the GOP.
And indeed, this act probably was. White and older voters, who tend to vote Republican, are more likely to show up for a runoff than African-American voters, who tend toward the Democratic ticket.
But tinkering with election laws always seems to backfire.
Four weeks ago, thanks again to a Libertarian candidate in the race, Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss won only 49.8 percent of 3.7 million cast in the U.S. Senate race. Democrat Jim Martin came in second with 46.8 percent.
It was deja vu all over again.
And you won an extra month’s worth of venom spewed through your TV set.
The 50-percent-plus-one trap also snared one of two contests for seats on the Public Service Commission. Democrat Jim Powell came away with a leading 47.9 percent of the vote on the first Tuesday of November. He faces Republican Lauren McDonald in tomorrow’s runoff.
How many voters will show up Tuesday to render final judgments? In 1992, 39 percent of registered voters returned for the U.S. Senate runoff. But in 1998, 2004, and 2006, turnout for statewide runoffs averaged 4 percent.
Local governments, which shoulder most of the cost of runoff elections, are likely to ask the Legislature to take a look at repealing the 50-percent-plus-one provision come January. “In a time of financial stress, these elections are very expensive,” said Jerry Griffin, executive director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.
Don’t look for anything to happen quickly. State Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton) is chairman of the House committee that screens changes to state election law.
He acknowledges a certain mathematical strangeness to runoffs. “There is the question of should 51 percent of 10 percent of the voters trump 49 percent of five times that number,” Scott said.
But with an Obama Administration soon to be in charge of the U.S. Justice Department, and Georgia subject to its oversight on voter issues, the Legislature is likely to move cautiously on changes to election law, Scott said.
The House chairman said he would look at the 50-percent rule — if asked. But he’s more amenable to shortening the 45-day early voting period, off-setting any reduction in that window by allowing counties to open more than one polling station. That’s more likely to result in a financial savings for counties, Scott said.
Victories by Republicans in the U.S. Senate and PSC runoffs on Tuesday are also likely to restore any lost GOP confidence in the state’s 50-percent-plus-one law.
That might be bad news for you and your TV set. But if you’re a Libertarian with ambition, it means you can make a difference in Georgia politics for some time to come.
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An Alaskan, a judge and a general walk into a bar….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin finally agree on something — the importance of women in Tuesday’s runoff for the U.S. Senate.
In the final hours, both candidates are relying heavily on female surrogates who appeal to the most reliable element of the Georgia electorate.
Today, former Fulton County judge Glenda Hatchett, who now dispenses justice on television, is stumping on a wet and dreary afternoon for Democrat Jim Martin down in Clayton County.
On Monday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former GOP nominee for vice president, will make a string of appearances in Georgia on Monday for Chambliss, the Republican incumbent. A list of locations and addresses can be found on the jump, but the final rally is at 4 p.m. in Gwinnett County.
In Savannah, at roughly the same time that Palin holds forth in the same city, the Martin campaign will feature retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, at a pair of rallies, one on Johnson Square in the downtown area.
Women voters are far more important to the fortunes of Martin than of Chambliss. In advance voting, as of Wednesday, women had cast 61 percent of the vote among African-Americans. Among white voters, women had only a slight 50.8 percent edge over men.
Palin appearances on Monday:
8:30 AM AUGUSTA
James Brown Arena
601 Seventh Street
Augusta, GA 30901
11 AM SAVANNAH
Savannah Civic Center
301 West Oglethorpe Avenue
Savannah, GA 31401
1:30 PM PERRY
Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter
Miller-Murphy-Howard Building
401 Larry Walker Parkway
Perry, GA 31069
4 PM METRO ATLANTA
Gwinnett Arena
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097
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