Why the Disenfranchised Conservative Should Still Vote for Saxby
Originally published on ControlCongress.com
Nov 21, 2008
The fight for balance in the United States Senate has reached its zenith in Georgia. For many Conservatives, Saxby Chambliss is a hard pill to swallow. The feelings of betrayal run deep. Saxby engineered a farm bill that President Bush called “bloated and expensive” and then led the assault against the Executive veto to push through subsidies that many voters still see as unnecessary. The Senator’s support of the $700 billion dollar bailout plan ran against the will of the majority of taxpayers. At the time, Rasmussen reported 45% of the country siding against the “recovery” plan while 30% cautiously lent their support. Those opposed to the plan included the overwhelming majority of Saxby’s Georgia constituents.
In the weeks after the Senate vote that closed the gap further between Wall Street and K Street, Saxby watched his 20-percentage point lead in the Georgia polls narrow to a dead heat. In the current runoff, his lead is down to 4-percentage points. The original intent of the bailout feels more and more like a bait and switch as companies like The Big Three automakers line up for corporate welfare from what was sold as a resource strictly relegated to the purchase of bad mortgages and liquidity for the financial sector.
I agree that Senator Chambliss has vacillated on several key issues that raised the ire of Georgia voters. Puritanical zeal aside, a lot of politics, for better or worse, is political safeguarding of the most crucial issues. True, there are no guarantees that Saxby will say no to additional bailouts for a future Democrat "recovery" package (a “Stimulus Sequel” that feels a lot like a Freudian fight after the Chinese gave us one bigger with $600 million dollars of their own). There’s no way to say that he will stand against credit default swaps or provide taxpayer-funded liquidity for entrenched Washington interests. Sure, the popular Fair Tax mantra may just be a turn-out-the-vote ruse for true believers, essentially irrelevant as a practical platform issue because it won't see the light of day under a Democratically-controlled Congress. And what of Congressional Democrats that are teeing up efforts to institute the Fairness Doctrine to reduce talk radio to schizophrenic programmers and frustrated talent? What of the rising tide of Democratic support for the elimination of secret ballots; an effort to put the screws to employees until they vote for union interests in virtually every industry in the country? If that were to happen the current headline - "UAW-Holds-Big-3-Auto-by-the-Gonads - starts to look like a mere requiem to a nightmare. A unionized labor sector would soon follow and touch countless industries. Democrats would be handed a fundraising machine that would make Tony Rezko wet himself! And the American entrepreneurial dreamers would be applying for business licenses on the Emerald Isle (not a bad idea). Sure, Saxby has said he would vote it down. And sure, he could change his mind. But the rules of the Senate can be funny things.
The filibuster is a little gem of a rule that allows a Senator to bloviate for hours on end until he runs out of things to talk about and essentially stall a vote from ever making it out of the Chamber. It gained a lot of legitimacy as a tool of the Senate when C-SPAN first brought cameras into the room and it lost a lot of clout when Senator Byrd relinquished his role as Chair of the Appropriations Committee to Hawaii-Five O War Hero Daniel Inouye earlier this month. Despite the awe-inspiring power of the filibuster, it is neutralized by the power of the Cloture Rule where a 2/3 supermajority of 60 seats in the Senate may halt the rhetorical stalemating and force a vote.
When it comes to the technical power of the Senate, Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss may well be the last man standing against a Leftist Democratic Blitzkrieg Agenda in the First 100 Days. He may prove disagreeable to many Conservative tastes. But in the hardscrabble world of D.C. political expediency, there's one way to guarantee the Leftist Agenda gets its full and final nod of approval (replete with a powdered bottom on the way out of the nursery and into the light of public policy). In light of Mark Begich the Brave and Comedian Al Franken (who may find his first success since leaving SNL in the recount of the Minnesota election), the only way for Conservatives to insure their losses would be a ballot cast for Jim Martin. Faced with this reality, Conservatives have two choices. Join my Facebook group, “Coalition to Unearth More Franken Back Taxes” just in case we need dirt for that run-off race. Or vote Saxby Chambliss for United States Senate on December 2nd.
Nov 21, 2008
The fight for balance in the United States Senate has reached its zenith in Georgia. For many Conservatives, Saxby Chambliss is a hard pill to swallow. The feelings of betrayal run deep. Saxby engineered a farm bill that President Bush called “bloated and expensive” and then led the assault against the Executive veto to push through subsidies that many voters still see as unnecessary. The Senator’s support of the $700 billion dollar bailout plan ran against the will of the majority of taxpayers. At the time, Rasmussen reported 45% of the country siding against the “recovery” plan while 30% cautiously lent their support. Those opposed to the plan included the overwhelming majority of Saxby’s Georgia constituents.
In the weeks after the Senate vote that closed the gap further between Wall Street and K Street, Saxby watched his 20-percentage point lead in the Georgia polls narrow to a dead heat. In the current runoff, his lead is down to 4-percentage points. The original intent of the bailout feels more and more like a bait and switch as companies like The Big Three automakers line up for corporate welfare from what was sold as a resource strictly relegated to the purchase of bad mortgages and liquidity for the financial sector.
I agree that Senator Chambliss has vacillated on several key issues that raised the ire of Georgia voters. Puritanical zeal aside, a lot of politics, for better or worse, is political safeguarding of the most crucial issues. True, there are no guarantees that Saxby will say no to additional bailouts for a future Democrat "recovery" package (a “Stimulus Sequel” that feels a lot like a Freudian fight after the Chinese gave us one bigger with $600 million dollars of their own). There’s no way to say that he will stand against credit default swaps or provide taxpayer-funded liquidity for entrenched Washington interests. Sure, the popular Fair Tax mantra may just be a turn-out-the-vote ruse for true believers, essentially irrelevant as a practical platform issue because it won't see the light of day under a Democratically-controlled Congress. And what of Congressional Democrats that are teeing up efforts to institute the Fairness Doctrine to reduce talk radio to schizophrenic programmers and frustrated talent? What of the rising tide of Democratic support for the elimination of secret ballots; an effort to put the screws to employees until they vote for union interests in virtually every industry in the country? If that were to happen the current headline - "UAW-Holds-Big-3-Auto-by-the-Gonads - starts to look like a mere requiem to a nightmare. A unionized labor sector would soon follow and touch countless industries. Democrats would be handed a fundraising machine that would make Tony Rezko wet himself! And the American entrepreneurial dreamers would be applying for business licenses on the Emerald Isle (not a bad idea). Sure, Saxby has said he would vote it down. And sure, he could change his mind. But the rules of the Senate can be funny things.
The filibuster is a little gem of a rule that allows a Senator to bloviate for hours on end until he runs out of things to talk about and essentially stall a vote from ever making it out of the Chamber. It gained a lot of legitimacy as a tool of the Senate when C-SPAN first brought cameras into the room and it lost a lot of clout when Senator Byrd relinquished his role as Chair of the Appropriations Committee to Hawaii-Five O War Hero Daniel Inouye earlier this month. Despite the awe-inspiring power of the filibuster, it is neutralized by the power of the Cloture Rule where a 2/3 supermajority of 60 seats in the Senate may halt the rhetorical stalemating and force a vote.
When it comes to the technical power of the Senate, Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss may well be the last man standing against a Leftist Democratic Blitzkrieg Agenda in the First 100 Days. He may prove disagreeable to many Conservative tastes. But in the hardscrabble world of D.C. political expediency, there's one way to guarantee the Leftist Agenda gets its full and final nod of approval (replete with a powdered bottom on the way out of the nursery and into the light of public policy). In light of Mark Begich the Brave and Comedian Al Franken (who may find his first success since leaving SNL in the recount of the Minnesota election), the only way for Conservatives to insure their losses would be a ballot cast for Jim Martin. Faced with this reality, Conservatives have two choices. Join my Facebook group, “Coalition to Unearth More Franken Back Taxes” just in case we need dirt for that run-off race. Or vote Saxby Chambliss for United States Senate on December 2nd.
posted by Joel Aaron at 11:50 AM
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