OK, first of all, cheers to Saxby Chambliss for having a fucking awesome name. Is there a name that says "Senator from the south" more than "Saxby Chambliss?" If you name your kid Saxby, you're either guaranteeing him a lifetime of high-profile success, or getting a wedgie pretty much every day. I digress.

Much though I love his name, however, I can't tell you how much I would love to see this jackass lose his seat. He's the same guy that bounced triple-amputee Vietnam Vet Max Cleland from his seat 6 years ago on charges that he wasn't patriotic enough. You gotta have quite a set to pull something like that off with a straight face. Probably won't happen, but I view this election as a whole as a bit of a rejection of cutthroat politics, and while there was nothing particularly vile about this race as far as I'm aware, seeing Captain Cutthroat himself go down would really warm the cockles of my heart.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

wow, your just fishing for shit to talk about huh.

lets talk about how obama went from "lobbyists will not have influence" to him having a majority of his team being lobbyists.

GO.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[QUOTE=thesightless;677958]wow, your just fishing for shit to talk about huh. [/QUOTE]

Kinda, but it is the only active race out there as far as I'm aware, and it potentially holds the balance of the Senate depending upon what happens in AK and MN, so it's certainly significant. I'm actually not pulling for him because it would give the Dems 60, though -- if anything, I would prefer that they not have 60 -- but if it gets his ass out of office, I'm all for it.

[QUOTE=thesightless;677958] lets talk about how obama went from "lobbyists will not have influence" to him having a majority of his team being lobbyists. [/QUOTE]

pardon? seriously, point me to a source on this, and I'll discuss it.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

its the times from this weekend(15th or 16th) . i dont have my online subscription anymore, but here is another reference to it.

[URL]http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/17/campbell.brown.lobbyists/index.html#cnnSTCText[/URL]

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

lol, and i just killed toasty's productivity for the next few hours.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[QUOTE=thesightless;677965]lol, and i just killed toasty's productivity for the next few hours.[/QUOTE]

don't flatter yourself. :lol:

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

you were sweating, admit it. u may have even knocked over the picture of barak you keep on your desk, in front of the one of your wife.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[quote=toasty;677955]...and while there was nothing particularly vile about this race as far as I'm aware, ...[/quote]

There was Senator Chambliss' comment made to an Atlanta suburban, mostly white crowd the weekend before the election warning them to get out and vote for him because "[I]the other folks[/I]" are voting in this election in large numbers. I (also CNN & other news outlets) took this supposition as an implicit reference to the African-American community responding to vote in large numbers presumably in part due to the popularity of Barack Obama.

(see:
[URL]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/chambliss-the-other-folks_n_139725.html[/URL] )

I was particularly happy to see that enough of "the other folks" (no matter who they were) showed up to vote for someone other than a man who would refer to [I]anyone [/I]or[I] any group he represents[/I] as "the other folks."

[B][I]Saxby Chambliss - you are a racist fuck & an ass, and you will lose in the runoff.[/I][/B] :x

[quote=toasty;677955]...seeing Captain Cutthroat himself go down would really warm the cockles of my heart.[/quote] So on this, I couldn't agree with you more toasty. :)

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[QUOTE=CactusBeats;678069]There was Senator Chambliss' comment made to an Atlanta suburban, mostly white crowd the weekend before the election warning them to get out and vote for him because "[I]the other folks[/I]" are voting in this election in large numbers. [/QUOTE]

ah, had heard about that, didn't realize it was Chambliss...

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

yeah that was a pretty stupid promise by Obama...not sure why he went there. you can't throw a rock in Washington without hitting someone who is a lobbyist or has close ties to lobbyists. If you want to work with anyone in Washington on anything, you can't avoid them.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

no way martin is the better man. they guy is just a push over or better yet, Harry Ried's puppet. the guy looks like a weasel.

go Saxby!

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[QUOTE=thesightless;677963]its the times from this weekend(15th or 16th) . i dont have my online subscription anymore, but here is another reference to it. [/QUOTE]

Well, having read through the NYT article, it's a bit disappointing, but I am heartened to know that he's at least got some procedural impediments in place to lobbyists exerting the same level of power as in previous administrations. I never really had any illusions about Obama putting lobbyists out of business, because that's just not realistic.

The thing that always bothered me about lobbyists was (1) the fact that a lot of it wasn't done in the most transparent way possible, and (2) the revolving door phenomenon, where a company would lobby a congressman and contribute to his campaign, that congressman would propose legislation that was literally written by lobbyists, it would get passed, and then the congressman would give up his seat for a lucrative job lobbying for -- guess who -- the very company that sought his influence earlier. Who knows, maybe they'd subsequently get appointed to a plum government position. That sort of shit just flunks the smell test, and as long as that goes by the wayside, he'll have done what I expected.

As compared to other administrations, though, I think what he's doing is better than what has been done to reduce lobbyist influence, which is to say something is better than nothing.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[quote=toasty;678325]As compared to other administrations, though, I think what he's doing is better than what has been done to reduce lobbyist influence, which is to say something is better than nothing.[/quote]

Agreed. Progress !! not perfection....

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

Well shucks, perhaps his name [I]did[/I] win it for him..

:|

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[quote=w0e & cri5is;683454]Well shucks, perhaps his name [I]did[/I] win it for him..

:|[/quote]

I dunno.. my person theory is:

On Nov 4 this year, the country was ready. People had been waiting years for this, so the turnout by the left/Dems/sensible people (whatever you want to call them) was unreal, and we got shit done.

Now, afterwards, a good amount of people went back to life as normal.. mission accomplished.

What's a good ol' southern redneck Republican to do? They crawled out of every cave and swamp they could.. just like the rest of the country did on Nov 4.. to fight back however they could.

Timing.. all timing.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[quote=mark1905;683636]I dunno.. my person theory is:

On Nov 4 this year, the country was ready. People had been waiting years for this, so the turnout by the left/Dems/sensible people (whatever you want to call them) was unreal, and we got shit done.

Now, afterwards, a good amount of people went back to life as normal.. mission accomplished.

What's a good ol' southern redneck Republican to do? They crawled out of every cave and swamp they could.. just like the rest of the country did on Nov 4.. to fight back however they could.

Timing.. all timing.[/quote]

ugh ok? let's see, Chamblis barely lost the win by like. 05%. He was steadily ahead from the get go. Second, factoring that people only gave a shiat about Obama and nothing else (Prop 8 i'm looking at you!), it is no suprise that fewer people came out for the Dems. Third, moving from a 3-point margin of victory on November 4 to a 15-point margin of victory a month later is a significant accomplishment! Chambils brought the bigs guns out and it worked.

You may think southerners live in caves and swamps, but thier votes still count.

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[QUOTE=88Mariner;683716]ugh ok? let's see, Chamblis barely lost the win by like. 05%. He was steadily ahead from the get go. Second, factoring that people only gave a shiat about Obama and nothing else (Prop 8 i'm looking at you!), it is no suprise that fewer people came out for the Dems. Third, moving from a 3-point margin of victory on November 4 to a 15-point margin of victory a month later is a significant accomplishment! Chambils brought the bigs guns out and it worked.

You may think southerners live in caves and swamps, but thier votes still count.[/QUOTE]

Obama driving the turnout in November certainly played a large part in explaining the increase in the margin. The other thing to keep in mind is that the guy that stole a few percentage points from Chamblis the first time around and effectively forced the runoff was a Libertarian candidate, and it would appear that Chamblis picked up that 3%, which isn't horribly surprising.

Also, now that we know the results in the other Senate races around the country, we know that this race could well mean the difference between a filibuster-proof majority or not, depending upon what happens with the recount in MN. I could see moderates who would otherwise vote against Chamblis for any of a host of reasons not being willing to give the democrats the keys to the kingdom, and Chamblis benefited from that.

Finally, I gotta hand it to republicans -- they are much better at getting out the vote on these special elections than democrats...