"Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats"
-Carrie Underwood
It's certain now. Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss did not get a majority for re-election.
If he wants to hold on to his Senate seat, he will have to defeat challenger Jim Martin in a run off election on December 2.
It will be a day for patriotic Americans to even the score. Chambliss does not deserve to sit in the United States Senate.
The Senate seat previously belonged to Max Cleland. Six years ago, Chambliss got in the gutter to steal it from him.
I'm stunned to see that John McCain is planning to campaign for Chambliss.Cleland,
(ironically, like John McCain) is a bona fide American hero. His valor during the Vietnam war resulted in his becoming a triple amputee. After a life in public service, he was elected a United States Senator from Georgia.
In the Senate, Cleland served honorably and well. And in 2002, Max was the victim one of the most disgusting smear campaigns in American history.
When the country was recovering from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center,
Saxby Chambliss ran a campaign that claimed that Max Cleland was somehow helping Osama Bin Laden. He based his convoluted "evidence" on some Senate procedural vote that wasn't the slightest bit relevant.
In the 2002 climate of fear, Chambliss's lies and distortion worked. Now it is 2008, it is time for Chambliss to face the music.
I want to hear Chambliss's explanation now. What he did in 2002 doesn't work six years later.
It is time for Chambliss to atone for his sins.
One of the biblical 10 commandants is not to bear false witness. Chambliss will have to answer to God someday but on December 2nd, he needs to answer to the people of Georgia.
I'm hoping the rest of the country pitches in to defeat Chambliss. I also hope that John McCain starts to act like the John McCain of 2000 instead of the one we saw this year and puts patriotism over party.
Having a Vietnam War hero like McCain campaign for the man who smeared Max Cleland is an outrage.
I don't know much about the challenger Martin. I really don't need to. I would vote for Larry the Cable Guy or Homer Simpson if they were running against Saxby Chambliss.
Chambliss got in the Senate with a dirty trick and he needs to go home.
Cleland's loss was a low point in American politics. How you can question the patriotism of a man who left several body parts in Southeast Asia? Why did voters go for it?
It inspired candidates in other states to pick out phony charges and run negative ads. If you can get away with smearing Max Cleland's patriotism, you could get away with anything.
2008 is the time to make it stop. Once and for all.
Cleland is a real hero, with real accomplishments, who dedicated his life to serving his country. He was brought down by a guy who smudged the truth.
Actually he wasn't brought down, he just had to leave the Senate. It takes more than Saxby Chambliss to bring Max Cleland down. I met Cleland after his Senate career, when he was traveling the country, helping like minded candidates. It can't be easy for a triple amputee to be barnstorming the country. It would be simple for Max Cleland to sit home and let others lead the charge.
That is not Max Cleland's style.
Chambliss cheated to get his Senate seat.
I want Chambliss, and every other politician, to think before the next time they cheat.
Don McNay is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky. He is the author of the Unbridled World of Ernie Fletcher. You can read his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com or write to him at don@mcnay.com. He is Treasurer of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
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I can't imagine any HuffPo liberals or progressives finding any redeeming value in Cleland's words at all. Bearing that in mind, why would you support Cleland today? In retrospect, with Cleland having said that, he'd be no different than John McCain. He'd be the antithesis to Barack Obama.
Clearly, the implication in this story is to tie Martin to Cleland but they could not be more different. The call here is to avenge Cleland, someone whose positions are clearly averse to today's Democratic ideals, by electing Martin -- Martin, who espouses almost the opposite of what Cleland stood for.
If Cleland was a hero then, then he's still a hero today (and I know he is). If Cleland's stand and stance in 2002 was honorable and praiseworthy then, it's praiseworthy now. If Cleland's lockstep with George Bush was a good thing then, why would it not be a good thing today? No, Cleland and Martin are as different as night and day. Cleland was and is a hero. Martin's just some guy who blew in off the street. To use their names in the same column is just wrong. Politically, Cleland and Chambliss are more alike than they are different.
Cleland lost because he became too extreme. He didn't get a pass on his radical liberal politics just because he lost his limbs in Vietnam no more than John McCain got a pass on HIS politics just because he was mercilessly tortured for several years.
Martin will lose. The only reason he made it this far is because Obama GOTV on Nov. 4. Well, Obama's not running on Dec. 2, therefore his draw, his pull will not be a factor this time.
The bottom line? Martin's no Barack Obama. He's no Max Cleland. Cleland had hard-earned life credentials and hard-earned political credentials. To compare Martin to Cleland is to do disservice to Cleland's many, many years of public service and Cleland's earning the right to represent Georgia in the Senate. The only thing Jim Martin and Max Cleland share is their membership in the same political party and their residency in Georgia. I seriously doubt Jim Martin could tell you ten bills Max Cleland sponsored and why he sponsored them in the Senate.
McCain speaks with a forked tongue. While chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, he helped write and pass the McCain-Feingold bill - all the while taking campaign money from the very companies under his purview in the Commerce Committee! His role in the Keating 5 Bribery Scandal was no fluke; it was the real McCain. In both instances, his status as a revered POW gave him a free pass to continue with his career while the careers of others involved went down in flames.
Yes, McCain exemplified extraordinary valor during his time as a POW. But his experiences there have left him an angry man who believes that the world owes him ; he's been collecting on that debt ever since.
He was investigated thoroughly for two years and the Senate ethics committee found that John McCain had not violated any Senate rules or any laws.
So yes, that IS the real John McCain. On that we agree.
Or maybe I misunderstood the meaning of "saying anything to get elected." There's no reason to believe that Chambliss' comments and actions differ from the direction he'd like to take America.
To liberals and progressives, that must be the most damning comment I could make. To conservatives and people who take another man or woman at his or her word, that's the highest compliment I could pay.
Nothing Chambliss said in 2002 was directed at Cleland's military service. It was directed at his politics. John McCain can see that, as can anyone else with two eyes and an open mind. John McCain was swift-boated by Bush in 2000 and stood BY John Kerry in 2004 when Bush swift-boated Kerry. Hard to believe that Cleland supported a man (Bush) who swift-boated his fellow veteran John McCain two years prior in 2000. Think about that. And you're here to avenge Max Cleland, the Bush supporter "at every turn?"
I smell hypocrisy in some of you.
As one of the most conservative Senators in Congress, Chambliss believes that the nation should move even further to the right, and sees the failure of achieving that goal as the cause for the Republican Party's demise. The man is either functioning in a parallel universe, or is wholly delusional.
The time to act approaches, Georgia...
As a Georgian I will make sure to vote against him (again) in the runoff and make sure that everyone I know is sure to vote. It is nearly as important as the recent historical presidential selection.
Ousting Saxby will remove one less irrational roadblock to progressive change in America. Change that will benefit all -- regardless of their political persuasion or their unfounded fears.
I voted for Jim Martin on Nov. 4 and I will do it again on Dec. 2. I am just so glad to see something about it from a source well outside of Georgia. Because honestly, even here in Georgia, there doesn't seem to be much attention being paid to this very important issue.
McCain is NOT A HERO! McCain NEVER SAVED ANYONE.
And he killed and damaged many people throughout his rich life.