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CHAMBLISS: One other component of this that we haven't given enough talk to, I think, is the civilian side. You have to remember that the Afghan people have a literacy rate of somewhere in the high teens or low 20s. That is -- there's no way for those people to develop any kind of economy. The economy in Iraq this year is going to be about $900 billion. The economy in Afghanistan, $900 million.
We've got to stop the violence, work towards influencing the -- the Afghan people to make sure they take their government back and develop an economy for the long term. That's going to take a while...
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: It's going to take a while. It's going to take a lot of money.
I've been hearing this talking point a lot from Republican leaders in Congress. They want more time in Afghanistan and right now that means an Iraq like surge and more nation building. But spending money on Afghani infrastructure doesn't make sense since these same Senators just voted against investing in US infrastructure. Maybe the Senator is positioning himself to challenge Karzai in a re-election?
I just got home from a local political event. I was concerned when the event was scheduled that I would miss some of the excitement of the runoff election results. However, I became disenchanted with the lack of national interest in the race and some of the most recent polling numbers. I knew that we would have a very disappointing night.
Let me preface this analysis by saying that I have not read any accounts of the results. I've just seen that Saxby has a 58-42% lead with well over 90% of the boxes reporting.
Here's what went wrong for the Dems
1. The Republicans used their upcoming stars to come to the rescue for Chambliss. We saw Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee come to Georgia. Granted each of these folks have their own self interests. However, I do feel that the Republicans did a fantastic job of setting up the firewall argument and rallying the base.
2. The Democrats really seemed to define this runoff as Black versus White. Well we kept being told that this was an election that would break based on the African American turnout. When we learned that the early voting numbers were down for African American voters we just focused on turnout of those voters. I think that may have been a fatal mistake. The campaign at that point should have changed its emphasis on persuasion of all voters.
3. More pressure should have been put on Barack to come in and help Martin. We spent too much time trying to figure out if it would be good or bad. Barack became more popular the minute he got elected and his presence would have encouraged all Democratic voters and perhaps some Saxby voters to change sides.
4. The Dems got complacent and essentially sat this one out. I never got any emails from the DSCC or sitting Senators or popular dems. I think I may have gotten an email from Bill Clinton. I'm not a superstar by any means but in the general and runoff combined I think we raised 7k. I think we should have at least gotten a call or a more personal email asking for help.
Anyone can be an armchair quarterback after the game so please do not put too much stock in my comments. I appreciate all of your hard work and that includes phone banking and knocking on doors and raising money. I only offer this analysis so that we understand where not to go wrong in future situations.
I hope you have recovered from being lazy, eating a lot of turkey and finishing all your holiday shopping.
Seriously, we have a number of items of interest to watch this week.
1. The Georgia Senate runoff election on Tuesday. The anticipated results from the Jim Martin -Saxby Chambliss (David V. Goliath) matchup will start coming in on Tuesday night around 7 p.m. Look for Chambliss to amass leads in the rural areas while Martin will need strong turnout in the major cities. I have an event to attend but plan on being back in time to cover the race later in the evening. In case you missed this story, Sarah Palin rode into Georgia on Todd's snowmobile/snowmachine/snowshovel and campaigned in her best Saks Fifth Avenue Suit for Saxby Chambliss today . Or maybe she was wearing her best North Face jacket.
2. Bill Clinton will likely be name the husband to the Secretary of State this week. Oh and also Hillary Clinton will be named the Secretary of State quite possibly as early as tomorrow. Bill Clinton will be given his own secret foreign missions. Oh to be the Secret Service on those trips.
3. I think there are still some holiday shopping bargains to be had. I've been hearing about this Cyber Monday event going on tomorrow. You should check it out.
Watch Saxby's hand at the end. Surely they could have done another shoot. I'm not sure I would call him a perv as the person that sent this to me, but it's kind of inappropriate touching of his granddaughter I think.
To be free from blogging today. Spent some time with the wife. Ate some good meals. Watched a little football and just enjoyed relaxing. I'll be back at it hard tomorrow.
I heard SNL had a skit on the Georgia Senate Runoff. I have not been able to find it but when I do it will be up and running.
Here is what I did find: A video of Saxby blowing off a reporter asking him about the subpoena issue in the Imperial Sugar Case:
Vernon Jones, Dekalb CEO, took a pot shot at Jim Martin supporting John Edwards (Martin beat Vernon Jones in the Primary senate runoff). Of course Vernon Jones voted for George W. Not once but twice. And not in a primary but in the general election against two Democrats. Jones received the most amount of votes in Georgia primary and was forced into a runoff against Martin. Martin ultimately won.
Here is what Jones said
As for Jim Martin, I know the AJC endorsed Martin over me and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). Although Martin is a nice man, it is a fact that he did not want to vote for a Caucasian woman or an African-American man for president in the primary. Instead, he voted for someone who was not even running for president -- John Edwards, a white male. If it were left up to Martin there would be no President--elect Barack Obama.
I find this as another example of Vernon Jones having absolutely not an ounce of class. Jim Martin supported Obama in the General while Vernon Jones pulled a double Zell Miller/ Joe Lieberman in 2000 and 2004.
Imperial Sugar Co. CEO John Sheptor defended the conduct of Saxby Chambliss on Wednesday, saying the U.S. senator from Georgia has "behaved appropriately with character and integrity at all times."
The comments came after Imperial Sugar executives and workers broke ground on a new packaging warehouse at the Port Wentworth plant, damaged in the Feb. 7 explosions and fire that killed 14 workers and injured scores more.
Chambliss, a Republican in the midst of a re-election campaign against Democrat Jim Martin, is resisting an order to give evidence in a lawsuit by families of victims killed or hurt in the refinery disaster.
Savannah attorney Mark Tate, who issued the subpoena, has said Chambliss tried to talk some of Tate's clients out of suing Imperial Sugar in the months that followed the tragedy.
Chambliss has said he is not only immune from such demands to testify, he is prohibited - a contention that Tate and others have challenged.
Chambliss supporters say the demand for the senator's testimony is politically driven. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has made an issue of Chambliss' treatment of a whistle-blower at a July hearing that examined the causes of the refinery explosion.I
First of all this immunity is crap and does not apply to non-legislative activities.
While this news is not a deal breaker for our chances in Georgia, it means we've got to work harder. We have just had two days of early voting in Georgia and those numbers are not promising as reported by the AJC .
This should not be a damper but rather a wake up call that we need to volunteer in person if we are close by, help with phone calls if you are far away and donate donate donate if you can.
Please help me reach my goal of turning Georgia Peach to Blue.
"I was determined not to be physically fit," he explained during a debate in August 2002. "I had a bum knee. I had an old football knee that unfortunately they wouldn't take me."
Well that hasn't kept him from taking junkets to play golf with lobbyists (or Tiger Woods apparently). And by the way he carries a more than a casual golfers handicap according to the story.
I just got a question from an avid reader as the best way to help (from way out of state) in the Minnesota recount and/or the Georgia Senate runoff. I would first say that I am committed to the Georgia Senate runoff and have not paid as much attention to the Minnesota Senate recount.
I did get an email from Democratic Gain with suggestions of how to help in either of these or the Louisiana runoffs. I would suggest that you send them an email if you can phone bank from out of state. I think they mostly need folks on the ground for the Minnesota Runoff recount.
Donations (if you can afford to) are another good way to help even if it is just a couple of dollars.
Interested in helping Democrat Jim Martin beat Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia run-off election on December 2nd? There are travel stipends and supporter housing available. Interested people should email volunteer@martinvictory.com.
The Minnesota Democratic Party is looking for volunteers to make sure every Minnesota vote is counted between Democrat Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman. The recount is scheduled to begin on November 19th. Gas stipend and supporter housing is available. Interested folks should email efought@dfl.org for more information and should also list out availability from start to end, full contact information, whether you have a car, and whether you need housing.
And, because Hurricane Gustav messed up the election calendar, there is a special general election in the Louisiana 4th (Shreveport area) between Democrat Paul Carmouche and Republican John Flemming. The election is December 6th and they need some boots on the ground to help turn this red district blue. Interested folks should email the campaign directly at info@carmoucheforcongress.com or call (318) 703-3711.
I wrote about this speech in my diary on Friday. Well here is the footage of Zell Miller's remarks:
Jim needs any help he can get. I just got a call from the Jim Martin campaign asking if I could give a little more. I told them I'm going to reach my goal of $3,500 (higher with your help). Can you help me with $5, $10 or whatever you can afford?
Yesterday you answered my call and challenge to help Jim Martin in his Senate Race. We raised $1,023 from 43 different donors. We came together. And I'm sure others gave on other pages as a result. I'm now about $1,000 from my initial goal of $3,500 on my Peach to Blue .
Okay so I'm getting moving again on my state diaries. That takes me to Georgia. McCain won the State of Georgia by a 52-47 margin and just over 200k votes.
The Dems gained Six points from their 2004 showing.
Obama won a handful of more counties than Kerry in 2004. He increased margins in Democratic counties and came closer in Atlanta republican counties like Gwinnett county. Obama also had a modest increase in Clarke County (University of Georgia). I would like to do a diary on how much better Obama did across the country in college towns.
I think the next four weeks are going to be highly interesting and highly competitive," Chambliss said from his Cobb County office.
Democrat Jim Martin, who now has 46.7 percent, was holding his own press conference miles away in downtown Atlanta. Libertarian Allen Buckley won a crucial 3.4 percent of Tuesday's vote.
"We're in a runoff," Martin said. "The runoff race begins right now."
I believe we have a shot at picking up this seat if we band together and take full aim.
We still have absentee votes to come in from Fulton County. This should benefit Martin and possibly lower Chambliss from his 49.9 perch.
Karen Handel grandstanded to say that the Dems were Grandstanding on asking for some concessions in early voting. Handel is the Georgia Secretary of State that has been very dogmatic in her role as the chief election official.
I believe that I accurately described Handel earlier in the week as a political hack.
Secretary Handel is extremely pleased with early voting turnout and how the overwhelming majority of Georgia's county election offices prepared for and managed the early voting process. Two million Georgians voted early, nearly 90 percent in person with photo ID. This historic turnout will ease pressures on the state's 3,000 precincts on Election Day. County election officials will now spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday making critical final preparations for Election Day, and the Secretary of State's office will deploy election monitors and technicians to assist them.
At the same time, Secretary Handel is disappointed that a handful of elected officials, political party organizations, activist groups and media outlets used this occasion to politicize the early voting process. Their failed attempts to find fault with the Secretary of State's role in election oversight through grandstanding, patently false allegations and biased reporting revealed their desire to create confusion and chaos among voters to further their political agendas.
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