GOP's Chambliss wins GA Senate runoff

[Wretched Excess]

ATLANTA – Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss handed the GOP a firewall against Democrats eager to flex their newfound political muscle in Washington, winning a bruising runoff battle Tuesday night that had captured the national limelight.

Chambliss' victory thwarted Democrats' hopes of winning a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter monthlong runoff against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns elsewhere had ended.

Minnesota — where a recount is under way — now remains the only unresolved Senate contest in the country. But the stakes there are significantly lower now that Georgia has put a 60-seat Democratic supermajority out of reach.

With 92 percent of the precincts reporting, Chambliss captured 58 percent to Martin's 42 percent. Chambliss' win is a rare bright spot for Republicans in a year where they lost the White House as well as seats in the House and the Senate.

Chambliss portrayed his win as an encouraging sign for Republicans looking to regroup as they head into the next election cycle.

More

[jinxmchue]

Mista 41!!!

[DumbAss Tanker]

Excellent news.

 

[md11hydmec]

Good!! waited 2 hours to vote last night.  Wasn't in town for the early voting.....

[Chris_]

Let the leftist bitching and whining begin...

What's Really at Stake in Georgia's Senate Runoff
By Michael Grunwald Tuesday, Dec. 02, 2008

...Like many Republicans in Washington, Chambliss has trumpeted the idea that the GOP's electoral difficulties are the result of insufficient conservatism and can be reversed only with a stronger defense of traditional values and more consistent opposition to government spending. But it's not as if Republicans in Washington have failed to defend traditional values; they got two conservative Justices on the Supreme Court, passed all kinds of laws restricting abortion and stem-cell research and practically shut down the government to try to save Terri Schiavo. And while it is true that Republicans spent taxpayer dollars like drunken sailors when they controlled all three branches of government — Chambliss was not a notable abstainer — there is little evidence that Americans soured on the GOP because of its profligacy. They don't seem to be crying out for austerity and deregulation. McCain is one of the most principled spending hawks in the GOP; how did he and his crusade against earmarks do?

That's one more reason today's runoff is a big deal. A Chambliss victory would not send much of a message to the nation; it would just confirm the obvious fact that Georgia is more conservative than the nation. But it could reinforce the dangerous message that recent electoral results have been sending to Republicans. GOP moderates like Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays and GOP pragmatists like North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory keep losing, while most Republican survivors have been conservatives from conservative districts and conservative states. So the party keeps looking more like Chambliss and moving further in his direction — even more white, even more to the right, even more eager to fight.

It's a defensible electoral strategy — if you're trying to win elections in the Deep South. But the rest of the country isn't likely to embrace Chambliss any more than it has embraced Bush.

LINK

[Lacarnut]

Gov Palin and Bubba campaigned for their respective candidates. Looks like Sarah really has star power. Now if Coleman can win the MN seat, Repubs will be in a better position to block Obama's tax increases and multitudes of social programs.

[Chris_]

Gov Palin and Bubba campaigned for their respective candidates. Looks like Sarah really has star power. Now if Coleman can win the MN seat, Repubs will be in a better position to block Obama's tax increases and multitudes of social programs.

Palin was here in Savannah for Chambliss, and I couldn't go! 

Thank God Georgians were smart enough to see through Martin's BS.