ELECTION 2008: Sparks fly during final Senate debate

Georgia’s U.S. Senate candidates took off the gloves for their final debate Sunday night, taking bare-knuckled shots at each other over the economy, the so-called “fair tax” and their links to national politics.

Republican incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss tried to tie Democrat Jim Martin to national Democrats. Martin tried to tie Chambliss to President Bush and the recent financial chaos.

Libertarian Allen Buckley attacked Martin and Chambliss for failing to propose anything substantive to reduce federal spending.

The growing acrimony of the race spilled over into the studios of GPTV, which carried the 8 p.m. Atlanta Press Club-sponsored debate live. The one-hour exchange at times ignited into some the most pointed attacks of the campaign.

The high-profile race has tightened in recent weeks, and if neither candidate gets a majority of votes on Tuesday, it will be thrown into a four-week runoff with national implications.

Most polls show Chambliss, of Moultrie, and Martin, of Atlanta, running neck-and-neck.

The stakes were sky-high Sunday, and the candidates turned up the rhetoric.

“You should have taken your pill tonight, Allen,” Chambliss said at one point to an animated Buckley after a heated exchange over spending cuts.

To which Buckley shot back: “You are a spendaholic. You are not fiscally fit to be in the United States Senate.”

The race has drawn national attention as the once-solid Republican Senate seat has moved into the toss-up category. The Washington-based Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has pumped millions into the state for attack ads against Chambliss, who has a substantial fund-raising advantage over Martin.

Chambliss and Martin, who 40 years ago were Sigma Chi fraternity brothers at the University of Georgia, turned and pointed accusingly at each other over the $700 billion financial rescue package.

Chambliss voted for the package.

Martin said he would not have supported it because it did not contain enough safeguards. He alleged some U.S. banks will use the money to pay dividends to shareholders.

“They are not using it for dividends,” Chambliss said.

“They are using it to buy other banks,” Martin said. “You need to start reading the newspaper.”

“You need to get your facts straight, as usual,” Chambliss said.

Martin repeated his claims that Chambliss has backed the economic policies of the Bush Administration. Chambliss repeated his assertion that Martin has become a tool of Democrats in Washington.

Martin said he would support a $300 billion economic stimulus plan proposed by national Democrats. Chambliss said he would oppose it until the current $700 billion rescue plan is given a chance to work.

A veteran former state lawmaker, Martin dodged a question about the avalanche of Democratic Party-funded attack ads that blast Chambliss for backing the $700 billion bailout. Most of the Democrats on the committee sponsoring the ads also voted for the financial package.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) “is dictating to Jim what he is to say and when he is to say it,” Chambliss said. Schumer chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has funded the anti-Chambliss ads.

Buckley, a Smyrna lawyer and CPA, alleged that both Chambliss and Martin back federal spending programs that will eventually lead to financial “doom.”

“You put me in the U.S. Senate, and you will see change like there has never been before,” Buckley said.