Attorney Wilson Smith Interviews Saxby Chambliss

Attorney Wilson Smith, our fave trial lawyerin’ south Georgia podcaster, talks with Senator Saxby Chambliss in the days running up to the Martin/Chambliss Senate runoff on Dec. 2. Wilson seems baffled that Senator Chambliss has “no consistent philosophy of government.” But if Chambliss did, he’d then be saddled with the label of “leader” instead of par-for-the course “country club politician.” From the pre-podcast editorial:

What is amazing about Saxby (and many politicians, for that matter) is that he has no consistent philosophy of government that guides his votes. Hence, he makes fiscal conservatives angry when he votes in favor of Medicare Drug D, in favor of the farm bill and other such big expense items that garner votes from large constituencies. And yet, he will vote against healthcare for kids (SCHIP) because it is “big government.” I just don’t get it!

Full podcast, downloadable interview with Saxby is here.

Republican Party In Georgia Counting On Blacks To Frankly Not Give A Damn

Unless you’re living under a rock, or watching only all the negative campaign ads that don’t present any info about when the Georgia US Senate race runoff election really is (Dec. 2), there is a runoff election on December 2nd, a Tuesday. All day. In December. See your precinct. Between Republican incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.

The main strategy behind this absolutely critical runoff election seems to be chiefly that black Dems won’t bother to return to the polls on Dec. 2 for the white guy Martin. Says Tom Baxter today in Southern Political Report:

Just as he did when he was the president-elect in 1992 and former Sen. Wyche Fowler was the Democrat in a runoff, (Former President Bill) Clinton came to Georgia Wednesday to campaign for Jim Martin in his race against US Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Martin has an uphill fight in this runoff, with African-American Democrats unlikely to return in numbers rivaling election day and Republicans eager to get over Nov. 4.

Full article here. More on the utterly patronizing tone in this matter is on display in this randomly-generated blog post from a brother:

The good news, for Saxby, is that you have to light a really big fire underneath a Democrat to get a Democrat to actually exercise enough personal responsibility to go vote in a run off election.  And I don’t think Bill Clinton has enough matches to light that kind of fire.  lol

Remember folks, the Obama victory supposedly showed us that a highly-informed electorate no longer pays much attention to the drively, whiny, obsolete, pricey, ad-buys on Big TV anymore. They pay attention to the community and the networks to which they are now deeply e-connected.

What I wonder is what black Georgia voters really think about Republicans and pundits and pollsters being oh-so-hip to their their current electoral habits and feelings, especially since Georgia Republicans couldn’t see a new political “habit” or trend or tea leaf brewing if one came flaming out of their cell phones and bitch-slapped ’em sideways into Sundays.

Take the survey and tell the world what you do plan to do come December 2. Write-ins are welcome. Even encouraged:

Yankees In Georgia?!! How Did They Ever Get In?!

From Palmetto Scoop:

So perhaps now is as good a time as any to lend our expertise to our neighbors in Georgia, who The Palmetto Scoop has learned will be receiving a massive influx of Buckeyes over the next few weeks. That’s because president-elect Barack Obama has reportedly dispatched all of his Ohio staffers to the Peach State to help Democrat Jim Martin knock off incumbent GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

“We’re setting up our entire field team again,” said one emboldened Obama staffer in Ohio. “I’m coming to Georgia and bringing several hundred of my friends with me.”

More here.

The Smell of GA Republicans At Panic

In the digital era, putting good journalism behind a firewall is about as useful as a closet full of hoop skirts, so I’m just going to copy and paste Dick Pettys’ of InsiderAdvantage’s piece from yesterday about the Saxby Chambliss campaign, or lack thereof, here in full. It deserves to be set free. Sniff the glove!

What Went Wrong For Chambliss That Race Now Is So Close?

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(10/30/08) What went wrong with Saxby Chambliss’ campaign that his lead in a race he was expected to win handily now is within the margin of error in polling? Some Republicans already are blaming strategist Tom Perdue for an effort they claim lacked luster, organization and vision. Perdue, who acknowledged Wednesday that a runoff is “a possibility,” said the forces at play in this election were beyond anyone’s control.

“It has nothing to do with (Democrat) Jim Martin,” said Perdue. “Anybody who was on the ballot would be where he is right now.”

When the year began, no one took Chambliss’ re-election task very seriously, and, indeed, Democrats had a hard time coming up with a “name” candidate to put forward against him. One of them had such a tough time gaining traction that he hauled himself up a tower in the dead of winter to attract attention.

But this has been anything but a conventional year in national politics, and the battle for Chambliss’ seat has been exactly the same.

Unexpectedly, Martin emerged as the Democratic nominee, overpowering in a runoff the black CEO of DeKalb County, Vernon Jones, who had expected that an electorate energized over the candidacy of Barack Obama would help propel him into the berth against Chambliss.

And then, after a rather uneventful summer, the course of the campaign changed this fall with the nation’s economic meltdown and Chambliss’ vote, along with Senate colleague Johnny Isakson, in support of the “bailout” or “rescue” bill. The state’s seven Republican congressman steadfastly voted against the measure twice.

“Up until the recovery bill, I think Martin’s name ID was at 24 percent, and he had done literally nothing in the campaign,” Perdue contends. “To say the recovery bill was controversial is an understatement. I have never seen the numbers and forcefulness of the calls, even to the campaign office.

“Nobody knew that within 36 hours banks were going to start failing around the world, and that’s what happened. And for roughly 10 days, not only our country, but most of the countries in the world, were in free fall. And our campaign momentum came to almost a stop. And that’s when the national Democrats capitalized on it, and that’s when they took control of the Martin campaign,” the strategist said.

But other Republicans look at the picture quite differently.

“He (Perdue) has just run a really bad campaign,” said one GOP insider. “Chambliss gets told all the time, ‘Where are your ads” and, ‘Your ads suck.’”

That source said the National Republican Senatorial Committee offered to send a full crew of workers to help the campaign but was told by Perdue the help wasn’t needed.

Live Blogging Tonight’s Senate Race Dems Runoff Debate

Most excellent reporter/blogger from OnlineAthens, Blake Aued, will be live-blogging the U.S. Senate Dems runoff debate tonight at 7pm here. Aued promises snark with his blogging sandwich. I am there.