Before dropping out, Chambliss had mixed feelings about running again
The first serious indication I got from Sen. Saxby Chambliss that he wasn’t planning to run for re-election next year came two weeks ago, during an interview at his local office in Cobb County. I put some of it in my write-up of the meeting, and I could have written a whole column about his mixed feelings about running for a third term in the Senate. But I had to balance space considerations (that piece was for the print edition of the AJC) and interest in what the “Gang of Six” member had to say about the fiscal cliff, debt ceiling, etc., so I kept the re-election talk in my column limited and placed at the end. Plus, he gave me no reason to believe he’d announce his intentions for 2014 so soon.
Looking back, and in light of his statement today that he’s leaving due in largest part to “frustration, both at a lack of leadership from the White House and at the dearth of meaningful action from Congress,” I thought I’d publish his entire remarks about whether he’d run and how he’d arrive at the decision:
ON WHETHER HE’S GOING TO RUN FOR RE-ELECTION:
What I’m doing right now, what I do at the end or beginning of every election cycle, we’re evaluating where we are and what our goals are. And the difference … this is an eight-year decision for me. It’s two years plus six years. That’s a lot different form a two-year decision. And if I thought the next eight years were going to be filled with contentious debates and the wrong way to govern that we have just gone through in the last two months, it would have a significant impact on my decision. But yeah, right now my plans are to run.
We’re in good shape financially from a campaign standpoint. Got a lot more money to raise, but we’ll do that. …
First of all, I’ve never backed off from a fight. And I’ve never backed off from my principles of trying to solve problems. Anytime you do that, then you’re going to create controversy. You can’t govern in the way you have to govern under our Constitution without antagonizing or making folks unhappy with you. I don’t worry about that. Obviously I’d love to have everybody happy with me, but I could go up and vote no on everything and you wouldn’t see the opposition activity that is stirring around out there now. But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do what I think’s right for the country. When I voted for TARP in ‘08, it was the right thing to do. And people are still upset about that. But what they fail to realize is what both Johnny [Isakson] and I said when we voted for it: In the long run, this will not only settle down the financial community, but we’ll [the government] make money. And we’ve made money on TARP. It was kind of a no-brainer back then. And as things have gone forward from that on the other issues that folks have gotten upset about, it was the right thing to do.
So I don’t worry about that — well, I say I don’t worry about that: Obviously you always worry about your political future. But the thing that’s really been encouraging to me, with all the activity stirring around, I have people now instead of stopping me in the grocery store and saying, ‘Let me tell you about my problem,’ they stop me wherever I am and say, ‘Look, we’re reading all this stuff, just know we’ve got your back — those of us who are by far the majority are behind you and appreciate what you’re doing, we just don’t talk to the press or pick up the phone and call you.’
And on the fiscal cliff issue, it’s pretty easy to tell when somebody calls your office whether it’s been generated by an email or something because they’ll reading a script. And by far, the negative comments we got, folks were reading a script.
So, when you take it all into account — I mean, I’m flying back to D.C., I [went] back last week, I had six people stop me in the airport who just, I didn’t know any one of ‘em. But they just came over and said, ‘Look, we just want you to know we appreciate your vote the other day, we appreciate what you’re doing.’ You know, that just doesn’t happen regularly. [Earlier that week] at Lillian Lewis’s funeral, I had five or six people come up and say the same thing. And I’ve had offers of fund raisers from around the country, as well as around the state, from folks, some of whom had never supported me before, because they appreciate doing the right thing. So at the end of the day, we’ll be fine. But we’re going to think things through like we always do, but I think I know what the answer is.
ON WHETHER GRIDLOCK IN WASHINGTON WOULD BE ENOUGH TO MAKE HIM LEAVE:
This’ll be, what, I just concluded 18 years. And when I first got elected to Congress, we were in that wave of Republicans that took over the House, took over the Senate, those were fun times. [Newt] Gingrich was our leader, he had good ideas, we really passed good positive legislation. Sometimes it got done, sometimes it didn’t, although out of the Contract with America, I think we got seven out of the 10 provisions passed. Those were fun times. The time we went through at the end of the year, and really leading up to that — I’ve been working on this fiscal crisis now for two and a half years. And the bumps in the road we’ve run into … in the past couple of months wasn’t as much fun as what it was in ‘95, ‘96 and going forward.
You want to look forward to getting up and going to work in the morning. I really looked forward, in those early years, to getting up and going to work. Sometimes now I think, gosh, we got to get up, we got to face this fiscal battle again tomorrow.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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358 comments Add your comment
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 27th, 2013
5:21 pm
Considering I am not even close to being a neo-con, AmVet, you’re wrong as usual.
But don’t let reality get in the way of a good rant, sonny!
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
5:24 pm
Yeah old Webster’s sure does get in the way of socialist liberals, especially when you read all parts of the definition…
3
: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
Dusty
January 27th, 2013
5:27 pm
Hillbilly,
Nice song there. I’m” not much” on some of these players but they do sound like they mean what they sing. An” honest” song in many ways.
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
5:28 pm
The diff, MHS is that you that if you could make $10,000 by making an even remotely intelligent case that BHO is a Marxist, you……….
Will be eating McDonalds tonight like every other night!
But please do!
Expound, oh enlightened master!
Edify us with your words of wisdom on the evils of Barry’s “Marxism”!
Quote for us other masters and show us the sources that you use that are unimpeachable!
Demonstrate for us this vast persuasive intellect that you think you have!
LOL!
Jindal has YOU pegged…
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
5:29 pm
From old Webster’s one more time….
2
: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism?show=0&t=1359325555
How that dictionary thing working out for you now?
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
5:30 pm
brucie an intelligent case has been made far too many times already, even from a dictionary and you are just dumb enough to argue with Websters.
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
5:33 pm
Time to eat. I let you fascist socialist democrats to fume and call Webster a Neo-Con too.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
January 27th, 2013
5:36 pm
I think the Dems are so into the dictionary definition as it is all they have. People don’t like socialism, fascism, marxism, or much else the Dems tout, so they resort to Webster to say, that is not who we are, when in actuality it is who they are. Their first black president survived by disputing the meaning of “is”, so definition is their thing.
JamVet
Maher has you pegged..
@@
January 27th, 2013
5:37 pm
Communism is progressive by way of capitalism through socialism to communism.
In the Marxist theory of history, changes in methods of production lie behind mankind’s progression through certain predictable stages. In the recent past there has been feudalism, which has now given way to the 19th-century triumph of the bourgeoisie. In the future there is the imminent Dictatorship of the Proletariat, after which an interim period of Socialism will give way to the final achievement of Communism.
This progression is not, as liberals would wish, a gradual evolution. It is a series of violent upheavals in the struggle between the classes. One such occasion has been seen in France, where the bourgeoisie has overthrown the remains of feudalism in the revolution of 1789.
Once the new production methods of the Industrial Revolution have reached a critical point, crowding together a sufficient number of exploited workers in slum conditions in the cities, the stage will be set for the next revolution. The proletariat (a word used by Marx for the industrial working class) will smash the bourgeoisie and will appropriate their accumulated wealth for the common cause.
In the subsequent Dictatorship of the Proletariat all other considerations will be subordinated to safeguarding the revolution. This stage ends once everybody is a member of the proletariat. With only one class left, the class war is over. The next and penultimate stage is Socialism.
In the classless society of Socialism it is anticipated that mankind will live in harmony (class exploitation being the root of all evil). Now it will be possible for the apparatus of state gradually to wither away. The final Marxist paradise of Communism will operate on a simple and just distribution of work and wealth – in Marx’s words, ‘from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs’.
And we all live happily ever after.
THE END!
schnirt
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
5:39 pm
THAT is you enlightenment?
Do you even know what comprises and argument?
HUGE LOL!!!
In logic and philosophy, an argument is an attempt to persuade someone of something, by giving reasons for accepting a particular conclusion as evident.
Or as some of the more sophisticated readers here will recognize – “An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.”
Forget getting laughed out of the ninth grade, mikey.
You wouldn’t make it through the fifth grade!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
5:40 pm
Mikey, doing the surrender monkey thing THAT quickly?
Niiiice…
@@
January 27th, 2013
5:41 pm
Hillbilly:
“God Will, I won’t”
Forgiveness has always been easy for me. Forgetting…..?
That’s a whole different ballgame.
Bruno
January 27th, 2013
5:46 pm
Forget getting laughed out of the ninth grade, mikey.
You wouldn’t make it through the fifth grade!
Jam–Most people move past childish taunting by the end of kindergarten. It’s sad that you still keep it in your arsenal. You do have a lot of company over on the Lib side right now, however.
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
5:46 pm
Go ahead Rafe.
YOU tell me how Obama is a Marxist!
Certainly YOU can make a compelling case!
And PLEASE come up with something more than that ridiculous 5:37 which is anything but an intellectual contribution to mikey’s absurd claptrap.
Jindal has YOU pegged.
Dusty
January 27th, 2013
5:49 pm
Well, no guessing about the Presidient’s title. He is President of the USA. President Obama, that is.
Now if you want to go beyond that into characteristics, one must look carefully.. Altogether I’d say he is a vehement liberal, fed & led by politics, bad business, cronyism, fiscal oblivion but one who can brainwash millions of people. All that takes talent and he is talented.
Not many can do that. At least, we hope so.
Hillbilly D
January 27th, 2013
5:52 pm
Forgiveness has always been easy for me. Forgetting…..?
That’s a whole different ballgame.
One of my adversaries once told me I should “forgive and forget”. I said, “You’ll need to ask Jesus to forgive you……but I’ve done forgot you”. (IWH)
MarkV
January 27th, 2013
5:53 pm
Sometimes it is difficult to know if people on this blog just try to make others laugh, or suffer temporary insanity or some other affliction that prevents them to put together a rational thought. Let’s look at some examples:
Michael H. Smith @ 5:01 pm
Rafe: “Your opinion MarkV, which is what you have asserted to be accurate is not an definition of Marxism and its’ various stages.”
Michael H. Smith @ 5:04 pm “Oops… MarkV, is technically and factually incorrect, Rafe …”
Considering that my only comment today regarding Marxism was a rather sarcastic comparison of the use of the term “Marxist ideologue” with the use of bogeyman to frighten people, it is at least mildly difficult to call it my “definition of Marxism,” whether correct or incorrect, technically or factually.
Michael H. Smith @5:24 pm: Socialism: “ a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.”
Considering that no single known country in the world can boast an “equal distribution of goods and pay according to work done,” MHS’ use of this as a definition of socialism effectively calls every country in the world socialistic.
fair and balanced
January 27th, 2013
5:57 pm
“”"”"”"”"”"”"”" The Republicans know they are in trouble. The vast majority of the countries do not like much of what the Republicans in control stand for. Even cultural Republicans have all but given up. The only thing keeping them together with a modicum of homogeneity is their irrational hate for President Obama and what he represents, so far someone that has governed like a moderate Republican but, seem to be remembering that progress comes from those that aspire its namesake, Progressives, Liberals.
The RNC re-elected Reince Priebus as their chairman after a failure to win anything of substance in the 2012 election. It is interesting that Michael Steele was summarily dismissed after a rather successful 2010 election that brought this current intransigent regime to power. It makes one wonder out loud what all believed about the reasons for Steele’s initial ascendency. “We’ve done that. Now, pigmentation continues to trump merit.”"”"”"”"”"”"”"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/26/1182304/-Republican-Party-From-Stupid-Party-To-Election-Stealing-Party-America-Won-t-Have-It-VIDEO
No wonder Saxby is jumping ship
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
5:57 pm
B, your highly selective, completely one sided observation/condemnation is noted!
Hillbilly D
January 27th, 2013
5:59 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2KoIWEAdaM
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
6:00 pm
brucie, listen real close, I’ll type it slow for you.
Your Prezdent lil’ barry obama has said on tapped interviews no less than three times which I seen him nearly quoting Karl Marx mantra nearly verbatim in content. Obama believes in wealth and income redistribution and he believes that even government should have a structure in place to redistribute wealth and income.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need
Who said those words bruce wilcox or MarkV?
Obama believes in those words heart and soul, he is undeniably a follower of Karl Marx.
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
6:10 pm
MarkV
I used even Webster’s definition’s and it really makes no differences how many nations are semi-Capitalist or purely Capitalist. That does not clear you one iota from the factual fascist socialist direction this country has been headed in since Wilson to the present. You just don’t like have the your social democracy exposed for what it is a fascist-socialist form of Marxism.
It’s easy to understand why you are ashamed of it, considering the results in the majority of case where such form of governance has been tried and ended very badly.
Attacking me for the failures of Marxism in its’ various forms won’t redeem or others opinion of it or your futile beliefs in it.
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
6:16 pm
…which I seen (the correct word is saw) him nearly quoting Karl Marx mantra nearly verbatim in content.
And I nearly saw Notre Dame nearly beat Alabama earlier this month.
But just like you, I’m going to have one heckuva time finding the proof!
Another veracity free claim…
Bruno
January 27th, 2013
6:21 pm
B, your highly selective, completely one sided observation/condemnation is noted!
If I hold you to a higher standard than some others here, it is only because I have more respect for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj-4t9drUlM
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
6:22 pm
Nice try brucie but your childish bs attempt to misrepresent what was said does not change redistribution one word from obama’s Marxist mouth and that is not hard to find or proof.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Obama+wealth+redistribution&oq=Obama+wealth+redistribution&gs_l=youtube.3..0.2888.12915.0.13243.28.13.0.15.15.0.340.1074.7j2j0j1.10.0…0.0…1ac.1.GcLkhZ_Z62k
Enjoy the videos brucie
MarkV
January 27th, 2013
6:27 pm
Michael H. Smith @ 6:10 pm
MHS,
I will ask you politely: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Have you ate least read my comments? I have not even started to debate you about Marxism, because I know it would be useless to discuss that subject with a total ignorant.
“That does not clear you one iota ..”
Why would I need to be “cleared?”
“You just don’t like have the your social democracy…”
Where is that “my social democracy?”
“It’s easy to understand why you are ashamed of it…”
Where did I show to be ashamed of anything?
“Attacking me for the failures of Marxism…”
I have attacked YOU for the failures of Marxism?
I think I need to rephrase my first question:
ARE YOU NUTS?
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
6:28 pm
Calling the President a Marxist only exposes MHS’s ignorance of Marxism, the history of capitalist countries, American capitalism and President Obama.
It is the squawking of the irrational and desperate.
And outside of Limbaughland and Faux News it is the fodder of comedians and the butt of jokes.
Go back to 1953, MHS.
McCarthyism is dead.
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
6:32 pm
The link to the proof is on the blog brucie. To late for screaming McCarthyism, tapes don’t have to hide behind bushes or under beds. Now you can’t hide behind ranting and raving.
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
6:37 pm
Just curious, MHS.
Was there some kid name Bruce who kicked your ___ when you were a kid?
You sure seem hung up on him…
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
6:41 pm
Proof??? As in evidence sufficient to establish a thing as true, or to produce belief in its truth.
A list of youtube pages???
Hysterical.
There is no proof there at all.
You want proof, that I’m right?
http://www.britannica.com/
Bwa!
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 27th, 2013
6:41 pm
“Do you even know what comprises and argument?”
Never ask a question of others that does not apply to you.
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
6:42 pm
ARE YOU NUTS?
No I’m not nuts, but I do believe you are, MarkV. I’ve read too much of the things you have written. What you done was attempt to use some propaganda to dismiss what I said earlier. I never said anything about a debate. There isn’t any need for that to occur, enough information has been published already for debate to serve no purpose other than to belabor the point.
You have to defend Marxism by denying it exist in this country at any exposure of it, on the other hand I make no such rush to defend Capitalism, when ever it can be exposed in America.
For I have no need to cry boogiemen when your ilk attacks Capitalism.
@@
January 27th, 2013
6:42 pm
Bruno:
In my opinion, your respect has been misplaced.
You can hold him to the higher standard, but history has proven he’ll never reach the summit.
He is what he is. All the cajoling in the world won’t change him.
Michael H. Smith
January 27th, 2013
6:46 pm
brucie vet are you having trouble clicking on the youtube link to the page of all th video tapes of your dear leader obama spouting his Marxist views? Evidence is all over the place in those tapes. just click the link brucie take the ear plugs out of your ears and listen to your master’s voice.
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
6:49 pm
B, sorry i missed your 6:21.
I’m glad to count you as a good friend and a decent man.
Time for me to try and find “the better angels of our nature”.
Thanks, bud.
I retire now, having been rightfully put in my sorry place…
I want to change the world
I want to make it well
How can I change the world
When I can’t change myself
Try again tomorrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–lQIqVM1cM
@@
January 27th, 2013
6:53 pm
I retire now, having been rightfully put in my sorry place…
I want to change the world
I want to make it well
How can I change the world
When I can’t change myself
Try again tomorrow
Yeah……right.
I won’t be holding my breath in anticipation.
Bruno
January 27th, 2013
6:54 pm
You can hold him to the higher standard, but history has proven he’ll never reach the summit.
I’m a pretty good judge of character, @@. Jam is not a malicious person.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVnMFYZok-Q
@@
January 27th, 2013
6:55 pm
It’s the difference between free-market capitalism and state capitalism. What we have now is state capitalism.
Free market’s cheaper.
@@
January 27th, 2013
6:58 pm
Bruno:
I never said he was malicious….just incapable. He likes the bar low.
Bruno
January 27th, 2013
7:01 pm
Here’s for you, @@.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYi7uEvEEmk
CC
January 27th, 2013
7:03 pm
Michael H. Smith:
You will get nowhere with JamVet and MarkV. They are the sum and substance of the disease now afflicting America. Both are owned, body and soul, by the Progressive Dimocrat Communist Party.
MarkV
January 27th, 2013
7:07 pm
Michael H. Smith @ 6:42 pm
Yes, I believe you are insane. One might cite such statement as “You have to defend Marxism by denying it exist in this country at any exposure of it” for evidence of that.
If you had any brain, which I doubt, you would do the only way that can prove your points: Quote something I have written accurately, and provide evidence that it was wrong. You have never done that, and apparently are unable to do it.
JamVet
January 27th, 2013
7:09 pm
B, it’s been a long time coming, but the time is here.
Your wise prodding has forced me to admit publicly what I have known privately for some many months; that I am not the real me when I am here.
I am a much smaller version of me. A version of me that I do not much care for. Apparently this venue served some strange purpose that allowed me to strike out at strangers and vilify them. It is time for me to take my fight with my demons elsewhere.
And with that, I now take my leave of these forums for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps I will show up next door for FNM occasionally. And should you and PB contact me sometime soon, I would be very happy, Bruno.
To those of you who shared a laugh or two with me, I wish you the best!
And to those of you, who I angered and belittled, often needlessly, I offer my sincere and useless apologies.
And in those rare moments when we actually stopped yelling at each other and learned from each other, I ask that you do more of that and learn from my mistakes.
So fond adieu and thank you to Kyle Wingfield and Jay Bookman and those of you here who put up with me and my BS!
Best wishes to all!
And what better way to sign off than with a final toast to the “blog band”?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a_8F6gflxQ
Bruno
January 27th, 2013
7:13 pm
You will get nowhere with JamVet and MarkV
I have to disagree, CC. Jam may come across as being partisan, as I probably do as well, but ultimately he is a truth-seeker, as am I. As for MarkV, his fragile ego can’t ever allow him to admit that he’s wrong, so he would rather split meaningless hairs than to attempt to see things from another’s perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlOzRPWeRRk
@@
January 27th, 2013
7:15 pm
Lovely Day, Bruno?
Neither you nor BW have seen me in the morning. I’m plagued with cowlicks.
Dusty
January 27th, 2013
7:18 pm
Hey what is this? I”m an expert on communism. Yes indeed I have read Dr. Zhvago, Anna Karenin, three books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and one by Dr. Seuss.
Now beat those credentials if you can. (and smile!). It’s getting “heavy” around here.
Bruno
January 27th, 2013
7:20 pm
And with that, I now take my leave of these forums for the foreseeable future.
We all need a little space now and again to get back to our true roots, Brother J. Your friends will be right here waiting for you when the time is right to return.
P.S. Drop by Kyle’s on Friday night sometime. Maybe we can start a new tradition here without some of the lowlifes who populate Bookman’s blog. At least Kyle doesn’t allow attacks on the women bloggers without taking recourse.
Hillbilly D
January 27th, 2013
7:22 pm
@@
That ain’t a cowlick. (ISH) This is a cowlick.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/suwarnaadi/hair/th_cowlick_zps667fadbe.jpg
I got one like it, except mine goes in the opposite direction (maybe that kid is from the Southern Hemisphere of something). Got mine from my Grandpa.
Bruno
January 27th, 2013
7:23 pm
It’s getting “heavy” around here.
Matters of the heart often turn out that way, Dusty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KtScrqtbc
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 27th, 2013
7:24 pm
Well, how touching.