Georgia Finger-Pointing

If you enjoy the spectacle of political in-fighting and finger-pointing, I suggest you check out this piece from the pollster Insider Advantage on the Georgia Senate race. With the race at a dead-lock for the last month, and with the election days away, Republicans have begun finger-pointing at Senator Saxby Chambliss and his campaign, even before the votes have been counted. While you should click on the link, I have to go through most of the article for you, if for no other reason than for my own amusement.

What went wrong with Saxby Chambliss’ campaign that his lead in a race he was expected to win handily now is within the margin of error in polling? Some Republicans already are blaming strategist Tom Perdue for an effort they claim lacked luster, organization and vision. Perdue, who acknowledged Wednesday that a runoff is “a possibility,” said the forces at play in this election were beyond anyone’s control.

“It has nothing to do with (Democrat) Jim Martin,” said Perdue. “Anybody who was on the ballot would be where he is right now.”

When the year began, no one took Chambliss’ re-election task very seriously, and, indeed, Democrats had a hard time coming up with a “name” candidate to put forward against him. One of them had such a tough time gaining traction that he hauled himself up a tower in the dead of winter to attract attention.

I actually agree with most of this. As we have observed here, Democrats had a very hard time recruiting a top-flight challenger for Chambliss this cycle. While the Democratic bench in Georgia is pretty thin these days, the few strong names still around wanted to no part of Chambliss' bankroll in this red state. The Democrats more or less "settled" on Martin as he was the best of the primary lot, and many were pleased when he won his primary runoff against a candidate who would have been a sure loser in this general. Additionally, while Martin has done well for himself, this sentiment right that Chambliss only collapsed into a tie in the aftermath of the Wall Street crisis and his vote for the bailout. Hey, if Martin wins, he will not care: being in the right place at the right time in politics is a big part of the game.

“Up until the recovery bill, I think Martin’s name ID was at 24 percent, and he had done literally nothing in the campaign,” Perdue contends. “To say the recovery bill was controversial is an understatement. I have never seen the numbers and forcefulness of the calls, even to the campaign office.

“Nobody knew that within 36 hours banks were going to start failing around the world, and that’s what happened. And for roughly 10 days, not only our country, but most of the countries in the world, were in free fall. And our campaign momentum came to almost a stop. And that’s when the national Democrats capitalized on it, and that’s when they took control of the Martin campaign,” the strategist said.

Hey, I agree again. This only became a race after the economic crisis, and the Democrats have used the situation against Chambliss after the senior senator voted for the plan. The DSCC had no interest here until it actually became a race. From a political standpoint, Chambliss' vote was a huge mistake, as Chambliss underestimated Georgians' disagreement with the bailout. He also probably thought his race was over as well. Well, he was wrong. Incidentally, Roger Wicker in nearby Mississippi did not make the same mistake, probably because he was already in a tough contest, and his opponent was using the issue against Wicker and the Republicans.

“He (Perdue) has just run a really bad campaign,” said one GOP insider. “Chambliss gets told all the time, ‘Where are your ads” and, ‘Your ads suck.’”

That source said the National Republican Senatorial Committee offered to send a full crew of workers to help the campaign but was told by Perdue the help wasn’t needed.

Said the source: “There’s a lot of vitriol spewing from a lot of places on how the campaign has been run.. Jim Martin hands them gifts every day. They don’t take advantage.”

There we go! That's the good stuff! Finger-pointing before the race is even over. Of course, when in doubt, blame the staff. That's what politicians and boot-lickers alike do with great alacrity when times get tough. What is telling here is how arrogant the Chambliss campaign apparently was: they either did not think they had a race, or were too proud to take national help at the time.

But Chambliss, himself, also gets a share of the criticism.

“Saxby’s reputation is that he’s spent six years in Washington playing golf. He’s gone on lots of trips. He hasn’t done the down-and-dirty constituent work. He hasn’t built up the goodwill that Isakson has built up. Isakson makes a mistake and people say, ‘Yeah, but we love Johnny.’ Saxby doesn’t endear himself to voters in the same way.”

Another source said questions about the campaign aren’t new. “Three or four months ago they started saying, ‘What in the … (expletive deleted) is going on with Saxby. It looks like he’s running a bad state House race. The ads are deplorable, there’s no real strategy. Everybody from his donors in the state to the leadership in Washington was just appalled.” [...]

“At the end of the day, it ain’t Tom’s fault. The buck stops with the guy’s name on the ballot. It can’t be pawned off on Tom Perdue. Has he run a bad campaign? Sure. But had Saxby Chambliss done his job and demanded more, he wouldn’t be in this shape.”

Well, there's some blame for the candidate himself for the senator. "Playing golf" -- how hilarious is that? The knives are really out now with Jim Martin breathing down the GOP's neck.

The source agreed that Chambliss’ reputation also was part of the problem. “Saxby bragged about it his first four years – how much golf he was getting in. It was a real problem and it irked a lot of people.”

Ultimately, the source said, he expects Chambliss to win in a runoff. “But it’s embarrassing it’s gotten this close. It’s Jim Martin, for heaven’s sake!”

I agree here too: Saxby Chambliss is not the best United States Senator, but Jim Martin is not a top-flight challenger who should be tied in Georgia in late October. It's political, and it's harsh, but it is fair and accurate on both points. Anyway, let's end on a high note:

As for Chambliss’ affinity for the links, he said, “Saxby’s not played golf in this campaign – at least to my knowledge, he hasn’t. He’s worked as hard this race as in 2002. Where he’s catching the criticism from is from some who don’t feel he really should work with the Democrats – remember the “Gang of 10” and then the “Gang of 20” – to lower the price of oil.”

It is pretty disconcerting when your top strategist has to dispel criticism and rumors -- from your own party members -- by refuting reports that you are focusing on your golf game more than your job as a member of the U.S. Senate. Then again, he did say "at least to my knowledge," so who knows if Saxby's been too busy using his credentials to get in a quick nine at Augusta or wherever he likes to play.

This story just slays me. And the criticism lodged here is mostly right too.