Neither the Dem not the Pub in Georgia's Senate race got a plurality of the vote so, on December 2, there's going to be a run-off. The Pub, Slimy Saxby Chambliss, the guy who stole his seat from Max Cleland, a handicapped Viet Nam war hero, by Swiftboating him and then having Diebold voting machines switching Democratic votes to Republican votes. Even at that, the snake just slunk by. As a Senator, he's proved to be a great golfer. That's what he spent most of his time doing and also, according tothe Atlanta Journal-Constitution, what most of the money his party pumped into Senate campaigns was actually spent on. (Via TMiss)
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The Majority Fund is one of about 300 so-called leadership committees run by members of Congress, used to raise money outside their personal re-election campaigns. Federal law lets each donor give $5,000 a year.
Such committees, said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington, are “a widespread and common practice and are, at their core, a political slush fund.”
The Majority Fund has raised and spent about $1.4 million since 2005. Almost all of the money came from political action committees and their lobbyists: representatives of defense contractors, agricultural interests and financial firms.
Chambliss often uses the Majority Fund to pay for perquisites — golf, meals, private jets — that ethics rules would prevent others from providing. Since 2005, it has paid for Chambliss to take 20 golf trips with lobbyists to elite courses across the country.
He is such an avid golfer, in fact, that -
Two years later, the Senate met in a rare closed-door session to discuss intelligence data the Bush administration used to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Chambliss, a member of the Senate’s Select Intelligence Committee, was absent.
He was in Atlanta, playing golf with Tiger Woods.
Well, yah gotta have priorities and Republicans know what theirs are. To enrich themselves by grabbing whatever $$$ floats by from whatever source and to maintain control, by hook or by crook, of the office that lets them grab all that money by whatever means necessary, fair or foul. Mostly foul. Which in turn leads to bitter campaigns featuring lies, lots of innuendo, unfounded accusations, invented "facts" and slander.
His run-off with Martin is no exception. His tv commercials accuse Martin of voting against making child pornography a felony, among other things, and, of course, that old stand-by, raising taxes. The pictures feature Obama and Martin in the same frame while a voice dripping with ominous portent warns that Martin will help the evil black guy Obama raise your Federal taxes and release dirty pornographers onto our helpless city streets.
You know. The usual folderol.
Martin has the traditional Conservative Alliance answer to this tactic: he's claiming he's just as tough on crime as Chambliss - tougher - and that he won't raise taxes on the rich or middle class. (Who does that leave?) He's been pimping for something he and his cohprts call "the fair tax" which is a tax on consumption - iow, a sales tax. Georgia already has one - the single most regressive tax scheme going, it is well-known to disproportionately hurt the poor and lower-income classes - and he wants that for the country as opposed to corporate taxes and income taxes that primarily affect the rich.
That might be because while the state of Georgia has languished as a backwater in the Bush Economy and is currently undergoing a massive loss of jobs, Slimy Saxby has been representing not the people but the state's defense industry giants and agribusiness.
“I’m very proud of my voting record,” Chambliss told Fox News on Nov. 10. “I’m ranked consistently as one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate.”
So Martin is going toe-to-toe: Chambliss is lying and, dammit, Martin is just as conservative as he is. Thus:
Jim supported middle class tax cuts and the largest tax cut in Georgia history.
Jim has always fought for targeted tax cuts for middle class families and senior citizens. In Jim's 18 years in the state House, he supported some of the largest tax cuts in the history of the state - including the $500 million tax cut eliminating the sales tax on groceries. [HB 265, 1996] He also authored a bill to increase the homestead exemption. [HB 1542, 1992]
Saxby Chambliss and Freedom's Watch are not telling the truth - Jim voted FOR Zell Miller's $100 million tax cut in 1994.
Contrary to the claims in ads by Freedom's Watch - the shadowy front group for a Las Vegas billionaire - and the Chambliss campaign, Jim voted for Zell Miller's $100 million tax cut in 1994. The ads cite an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that concerns funding for services for Georgia seniors. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2/13/94] The truth is that Jim did NOT oppose the tax cut - he voted for it. [Georgia House Journal, p. 1166, HB 596]
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During his years in the legislature, Jim developed a reputation for being a staunch fiscal conservative and a trusted guardian of taxpayer dollars.
When the state faced tough economic times in the early 1990s, state leaders turned to Jim to preserve critical services for seniors, children, and people with disabilities, while making necessary cuts in the budget. Ultimately, he cut millions of dollars, but he never turned our backs on the least among us.
And so on - he's just as tough on crime and he's a fiscal tight-wad, but with a heart. Sound familiar? It's Karl Rove's "Compassionate Conservative" ploy from Bush's 2000 campaign.
Apparently that's what the conservative Blue Dogs have sunk to. They're copying Karl Rove.
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