Peach Pits

'Big Daddy' Saxby and clan

Georgia reaffirms it's position as a rebel state... sends 'Big Daddy' Saxby Chambliss back to Congress to single-handedly keep the LIBERALS in line.

You will remember this fair minded Southern Gentleman from 2002 senate race where he smeared Vietnam war vet Max Cleland to win the election.
Note: Saxby was unable to participate in the valiant war against the scourge of communism on the other side of the planet due to a "bad knee."

"COUNTRY FIRST" Yeah, right. Guns and Ignorance First, is more like it.

In case you're interested you can peruse is his voting record at ontheissues.org
some unsurprising highlights include:

• Voted FOR the bailout.
• Voted FOR the farm bill (which favors corporate controlled agribusiness and profit over all else.)
• Raised taxes after taking the “no tax pledge”.
• Voted FOR the FISA bill.
• Voted FOR subsidies for “clean” (wink, wink) energy.
• Not present to vote to honor fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan (but was able to vote on other bills the same day).
• Voted TO allow telecoms to keep immunity for spying.
• Only Senator NOT TO VOTE on habeas corpus for those held at Guantanamo Bay.
• Voted TO re-authorize the Patriot Act.

While most progressives are viewing this as a defeat, I found this great comment that suggests otherwise on a forum at Crooks and Liars post on Saxby's win.

"I don't think it's a shame at all. In the short term it would have been great for the Democrats to have a filibuster-proof majority. But in the long run it actually fits into the long term strategy to marginalize the Republican party. In Paul Waldman's book Being Right is not Enough and Thomas Schaller's book Whistling Past Dixie they both argue that the Republicans have embraced right wing extremists in order to win the last two presidential election cycles, and it's now possible to marginalize them by chaining them to that base. For a variety of reasons, most of the extremists, segregationalists, etc. are located in Dixie. Now that the Democrats have captured the moderates, and the southern extremists are pretty much all that's left of the Republican base, it's time to lock them up in that region, making them less and less acceptable to moderates in the rest of the country.

To this end, it helps to have all of the high profile Republican leaders be extremists from the south. (Yes, obviously there are lots of moderates in the south, too. But if the Republican party can be chained to the extremists, all the better.) Furthermore, they should be the most extreme social conservatives and right wing populists. This means Democrats should TARGET moderate Republicans for election defeat, while leaving the most extreme ones intact, unchallenged, and highly visible. So, here we have the best possible scenario. Both Chambliss and the base are now claiming that he won because he was faithful to the conservative principles, and that the other Republicans lost because they were not conservative ENOUGH. At the moment the two biggest heros in the Republican party are Sarah Palin and Saxby Chambliss, both of whom are popular with the extremist Republican base, but unpalatable to moderates and independents. As long as the Republicans are going apeshit over the idea of winning by making the party MORE southern, and taking it FARTHER to the right, the Democrats will be in good shape to capture the center. The more they think this really IS a center-right nation, and the secret to winning is moving farther and farther to the right, the less chance they'll have of regaining power." — Pericles