Fire Saxby Chambliss

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Dear Saxby,

Thanks for nothing.

Sincerely,
Betrayed Georgians

I’m not a big fan of blogs that “me too” content from other related blogs, and I try not to do that here.  However, I saw a post on Peach Pundit that was too applicable to the discussions here to not mention.  The post (here) quotes Jim Martin on the real reason he would have opposed the bailout rescue bill:

“Obviously something needed to be done,” the former state representative said. “… My concern is that we didn’t go far enough, not that we didn’t need to do something, but that the job wasn’t completed.”

Yikes.  If you’re voting against Saxby because of his lack of conservatism, don’t vote Martin.

(Also, Peach Pundit is a great site, and if you don’t visit it multiple times daily, you really should.)

This page came through my Google Reader earlier today, and it shows a very interesting trend.  Look at Saxby’s numbers in September.  Once he showed a 19 point lead over Jim Martin in the polls.

Since September, you can see a definite slide in those who would vote (or, rather, would have voted) for Saxby in November.  A recent Associated Press article says:

The senator downplayed suggestions that the bailout vote would make or break him.

“I’ve cast hundreds and hundreds of votes over the last 14 years,” Chambliss, a former House member, told reporters before the GOP Victory dinner in Atlanta. “To say any one is going to cost me the election, that’s just not the case.”

Saxby is deceiving himself here.  If his cowardly support of the bailout bill didn’t cause this sudden change in the polls, what did?  Certainly conservatives haven’t just decided to fall in love with the liberal Jim Martin.  No typical Saxby Chambliss supporter would ever just decide to vote for Jim Martin unless there was some big issue that prompted a change of opinion.

(The logical thing for a Chambliss supporter to do is to take a good look at Allen Buckley.  No, I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but those of us who favor small government and fiscal responsibility would be happy to have Allen Buckley representing us.)

If you are one of these former Saxby supporters who have changed your mind about this election since early September, and if the reason was something other than Saxby’s support of the bailout bill, share your concerns.

Saxby doesn’t think he’s wrong on this.  Let’s show him that he is wrong.  Again.

Polls from Strategic Vision show some interesting data.  While I’m generally cautious about accepting poll results as a good sampling of public opinion, two questions in this poll caught my eye:

12. Do you think the nation is headed in the right or wrong direction?
Right 15%
Wrong 74%
Undecided 11%

17. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is performing its job?
Approve 10%
Disapprove 79%
Undecided 11%

Three out of four Georgians believe our nation is headed in the wrong direction, and four out of five disapprove of the way Congress is performing its job.

These polls are right.  Our nation is headed in the wrong direction.  Congress is failing us.  President Bush is failing us.  It’s time for Georgia voters to stand up and shout “Enough already!”

Polls mean nothing.  Sure, they can sometimes be a decent gauge of public opinion, but they don’t bring about any real change from politicians.  If public opinion mattered to Senators Chambliss and Isakson, they would have voted against the recent bailout rescue bill.

The numbers that do mean something are the numbers collected on November 4.  If you’re in the 80% of Georgians that are unhappy with Congress, you need to speak up.  Reelecting Saxby Chambliss won’t bring any change.  Vote for somebody else - anybody else.

Let’s send a real message to Saxby Chambliss, our new Senator, and Johnny Isakson and let them know that we won’t allow them to continually misrepresent the best interests of Georgia.

We need their attention.  We’ll have it on November 4.

When Congressman Phil Gingrey voted against the bailout rescue bill in congress, I wrote him to express my appreciation for him standing up against a bad idea, even though it meant going against his party’s leadership.

Earlier today, Congressman Gingrey replied to me.  In his email was this quote (emphasis his):

I could not support a bill that aimed to save our free-market economy by sacrificing the very free-market principles that sustain it.

See that?  He gets it.  He understands why this was bad legislation.  Saxby voted for this bill - he voted to sacrifice the free-market principles of our economy.  He doesn’t get it.  Saxby Chambliss followed his party in this issue and insists that this bill is what our economy needed.

With an election on the horizon, Saxby Chambliss followed his party and voted against the best interests of Georgians.  Phil Gingrey, on the other hand, did what was right.  This voter appreciates Gingrey’s stand for what was right and will be voting for Gingrey (and against Chambliss) on Election Day.

When I wrote Saxby Chambliss the evening after he betrayed the best long-term interests of Georgians by voting for the Bailout Bill, I got a response from him the next morning.  One line I found particularly amusing:

The bill that I voted for is not a bailout. H.R. 1424, “The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act,” is crafted to address the crisis; restore security for the American taxpayer; and return our nation to the strongest economic power in the world. And in the process this bill enables us to root out and punish those who cheated us all.  (emphasis added)

It’s not a bailout.  Oh good, because I was concerned there for a minute that it was.  Since I now know the real name of the legislation, I can clearly see how it’s not a bailout.

That’s political jargon, and every one of us can see through that.  Nice try though.

We all know that the media ran with this and slapped “Bailout” on it before our Senators could find a more palatable name for us to use for this bill.  (Did the media finally get something right?)

Today I found this post by Jason Voiovich, which gives a fun look at how phraseology might have been chosen so that we would support what our Senators are doing.

As I sit here wondering what impact this whole $700 Billion “emergency economic stabilization” will have on the value of the dollars I earn (or how many more of them will be sent to the government in the coming years), I’m more than ready to have a little fun.

Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about Jason Voiovich, other than the fact that he wrote that blog post.  Any opinions or views he has are his own.  He doesn’t endorse us; we don’t endorse him.  This is just a link to something amusing we found online.

We said Saxby wasn’t fit for his job, but we never said he wasn’t in the majority in the Senate on this vote.

Take a look at this page, which gives a nice color-coded map of the nation to show which way Senators voted on this “let’s pass this along to the taxpayers” bill.  As you might suspect, the red states are the good ones.

Congrats, Saxby, on being able to go along with your party, even when they come up with an idea as asinine as this one.

Thanks to reader Chris for the link.

From Allen Buckley’s “Other Issues” page:

The federal government should not grant relief. Intervention by the federal government in the Bear Stearns and AIG financial problems should not have happened.

We here at FireSaxby.com offer up a rather hearty “Amen” to that statement.

This week, Senator Chambliss gave us 700 billion reasons to choose another man to represent us.  Chambliss sided with the Republican Party and chose not to listen to reason.  In doing so, he opted to pass the burden of failing companies on you, your family, your children.

We must not tolerate such a betrayal of Georgia voters.  Spread the word; tell your friends, let your voice be heard.  We demand accurate representation in Washington.  If Saxby won’t represent us, somebody else will.