RNC Chair: GOP's Victory In Georgia Senate Race Proves Obama Doesn't Have Mandate
Fun times -- the chairman of the Republican National Committee is trying to argue that GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss' victory in the hard-fought Georgia runoff is proof that Barack Obama doesn't have a national mandate.
Not making this up. RNC chair Mike Duncan writes...
Georgians refuted any notion that the ideology of the country has shifted to the left...Notably, Chambliss won in spite of strong support by President-elect Obama and Democrat organizations for Jim Martin. Georgians clearly sent a message that any rhetoric about a liberal mandate is nothing but hot air.
This is great news for Democrats! Repubs actually are citing what happened in Georgia, a McCain state that is much more conservative and Republican than the country as a whole -- and where a runoff was nonetheless forced by an initially close vote -- to make the claim that the country overall hasn't granted Obama a mandate.
That seems like a pretty clear sign that they've got absolutely zippo to use as an actual foundation for this argument.
Late Update: It turns out that it gets even sillier than this. I'd forgotten this, but as Steve Benen points out, the RNC chair even used the Georgia race to claim that Repubs have the "momentum" now. Benen:
Republicans have the smallest House minority in nearly two decades, and the smallest Senate minority in nearly three decades. They got trounced in the presidential race, and are now easily outnumbered in the nation's governorships. But they managed, with surprising difficulty, to hold on to a Senate seat in Georgia. Can't you just feel the momentum?
Let's see...without Obama on the ballot the dem gets his rear handed to him in deep red GA...sounds like coattails to me
December 4, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holy God Almighty! The Republicans won a Senate seat in Georgia of all places! Georgia!
Well color me shocked!
December 4, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Would that be the Fruit Juicy Red or the Bodacious Berry color?????
December 4, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
lipstick
December 4, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait! Pigs are involved??
:->
December 4, 2008 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like nothing more than the usual Republican whistling past the graveyard. Obama got a solid, strong mandate. Better than Reagan in fact. But of course, when have any Repubs ever dealt with facts? How sad they are built on lies.
December 4, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is precisely why Obama was correct in not coming down here to campaign. I don't think it would've made enough of a difference to turn the election and would've just handed the Repubs more ammunition.
December 4, 2008 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
We all knew it would happen. This is why Obama didn't get anywhere near Georgia, because if it had been elevated in the media and Obama had put some stake in it the Republicans would have had that much more ammo to work with (yet still so little). Since Obama was smart enough to stay away, this pathetic stretch of the imagination just looks ridiculous.
December 4, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Christmas shopping...
- New puppy for kids, along with all grooming/toy supplies: $300
- Christmas dinner for 15: $500
- Gifts for family: $1500
- Haivng Mike Duncan remain as RNC chair: priceless
December 4, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
How long until somehow Sarah Palin becomes the reason for Chambliss' victory?
December 4, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yesterday.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
December 4, 2008 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Already happened, I'm afraid.
Many in the 49th aren't pleased with the Drilla from Wasilla for it.
December 4, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Geez, dude, that was so yesterday.
December 4, 2008 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, Chambliss said she caused them "to peak"....I don't know if that's similar to Lowry's "starbursts" or not...
December 4, 2008 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
*blows whistle*
Excessively gross imagery...fifteen yards and loss of down.
December 4, 2008 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha! This line is even better. Chambliss commented about Palin, “When She Walks in a Room, Folks Just Explode”.
That, of course, is due to Conservative's penchant for sexual repression.
Anyway, Chambliss is all praise only because he is jostling for her VP pick in 2012. Imagine that ticket, would ya? Talk about courting the "base" . . .
December 4, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, you totally beat me for gross-out innuendo of the day.
December 4, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
When he said that, I just said "ewwwwwwww".
First he mentioned all the other Republicans who had visited Georgia, and then brought up Palin, and, well, you know the rest. Ick.
December 4, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
OT, has anyone seen Tena? I've been wanting to share this all day!
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-laura_04nat.State.Edition1.129bae9.html
December 4, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I haven't seen her today. This shouldn't be too much of a shock....it's been rumored for awhile now that they would be moving to Dallas. I guess he wants to be near his library and (ironically-named)think tank.
December 4, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd call this folie a deux, but there's a lot more than two involved in this madness.
If this is how Republicans want to frame reality, let 'em. It will prevent them from making real, substantive changes in their approach.
December 4, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's why I'm all for Mike Duncan returning for another term as RNC chair. Especially since he's done such a bang-up job the last two cycles.
Re-elect Duncan, I say. I've already called up the PA GOP offices and voiced strong support for the idea. :-D
December 4, 2008 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
If he's re-elected, we'll understand how delusional they are. Please, please, please....
December 4, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Chambliss is also saying that his campaign was the first of "2010" and that his should be a "model" for Republicans across the country. For the first time, I have to say I agree with him.....go for it, guys. Pretty please?
December 4, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please have him forward tips to Arlen Specter, stat. :-D
December 4, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mike Duncan is still getting off on Bush's supposed mandate in 2000 when the Supreme Court elected him not to mention the self-subscribed Bush mandate in 2004 when Bush barely won. In either case it never stopped Bush and his band of evil idiots from destroying our country
December 4, 2008 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mike Duncan ws recently noted as stating that this is the new Republican talking point, "Unless the Dems have every single seat in the House and the Senate, they will NOT have a mandate, and they need all judges on the SUpreme Court too! No, no, no! This is not happening...SOB!!! Is this mike still on. WAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
[Yes, I made that up, but the very idea Georgia represents the national psyche in any category is ludicrous on its face.]
December 4, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're not aware that the Heartbeat of America™ is taken in southern Georgia? I think that's the "real America" Palin referred to during the election. She just got her speeches mixed up in Virginia. ;-)
December 4, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
"How can Obama and the Democrats have a mandate when somewhere, in the mountains of Georgia, a Republican still stands elected? They'll get our Contract with America when they pry it from our cold dead hands!"
December 4, 2008 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
A member from a regional party has won a state senate seat from his region. So what?
December 4, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rephrase: A member of the republican (regional) party has won a senate seat from a state included in the regional party's geographic region. So what?
December 4, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Today we are all Georgians..
December 4, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speak for yourself. I spent a couple of months there about 20 years ago at the "Federal Law Enforcement Training Center" near Brunswick. As a New Yorker, I felt like Margaret Mead in New Guinea. It was a hellhole, and I was comforted only by the realization that I'll NEVER be a Georgian.
December 4, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center? Well, boo hoo. It's better than the Federal Penetentiary in Atlanta. That's where I trained. I was so good, I made trustee!
December 4, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha ha...I have a friend who works there as one of y'alls "tackling dummies," he loves it. It's also not as bad as Ft. Stewart (which was the post Beetle Bailey's Camp Swampy was based on).
December 4, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention Benning. Jump school.
December 4, 2008 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
...but at least Ft. Benning comes with Victory Drive and Phenix City.
December 4, 2008 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Never got off-post while I was there, but I'll ask the husband (infantry basic/AIT and then later Ranger School) what he remembers. If he gets a smirky grin should I slap him? :-)
December 4, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
...double slap, front and back handed.
December 4, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
As Georgia goes, so goes Oklahoma.
December 4, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and Idaho.
December 4, 2008 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Next up, Sarah Palin takes all the credit.
December 4, 2008 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Georgia a bellweather? Sure. "As Georgia goes, so goes the Confereacy," maybe.
December 4, 2008 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
The original seven states of it, anyway.
Hmmm, well not exactly that, either, because Florida was one of those seven. We'll just call the McCain states in the South the Confederate rump, how about that?
December 4, 2008 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
So... if I can find one example of something, that's proof.
Hmmmmm... in that case it should be really easy to impeach bush today!
December 4, 2008 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Michael Barone writes about the same thing here:
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/rnc_chair_gops_victory_in_geor.php
His line "...you can only elect the first black President once..." is his reasoning for why Obamamania 08 is not replicable.
December 4, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry...here:
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/2008/12/03/chamblisss-win-in-georgia-shows-obamas-diminishing-coattails.html
December 4, 2008 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I haven't smelled such momentum since a certain Senator from the Nutmeg State ran for president. Call it JoeThePlumentum.
December 4, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Plumentum -- I like that! It looks like "plummet," which is exactly what the GOP is doing at present. I'm happy to give them all the momentum they want in that direction.
December 4, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let them keep pushing this meme. No mandate, Repubs have momentum - great. Keep talking. Then when Obama gets his policies passed it will seem like a much bigger deal because he had to go up against Republican "momentum" and without a super majority. How did he do it?! - wink, wink.
December 4, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
"This is great news for Democrats!"
I couldn't read this without thinking of Idiotic. Fun times...
December 4, 2008 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Slave State re-elects red-nosed boozer white Senator. Media alerted.
December 4, 2008 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget "groper" or "fondler"
Yup..... they're really on a roll here!
December 4, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
This just proves the conservative philosophy does not need modification, it does not need change, they need to forge ahead with bold and decisive action to continue the conservative policies of the last 8 years, to campaign on the glory of the Bush mandate, and remind everyone that what they were doing was, is, and always will be the right way to run for office and govern! May the Grand Old Party never change its ways!
December 4, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...forge ahead with bold and decisive action to continue the conservative policies of the last 8 years."
Uh...hello...that was the problem with the last 8 years...nothing conservative about them.
December 4, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
"the chairman of the Republican National Committee is trying to argue that GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss' victory in the hard-fought Georgia runoff is proof that Barack Obama doesn't have a national mandate."
Sounds like a whole lotta' whistling past the graveyard.
May they rest in peace.
December 4, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
The same BS that lost them this election. Will they ever learn?
December 4, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well the only thing it proves is there are enough bigots, racists and category 5 morons in GA for GOP to seal a win. Had they ever had any other strategy in the South?
December 4, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude...I thought we'd gotten past the "if you're a Republican you're a racist" schtick. Are we backsliding already?
December 4, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
...besides...Saxby was the first Republican to represent GA's 8th district when he was elected in 94...ever. So did GA become a racist hot bed in 94? Didn't all those racist Dixiecrats switch over back in the 70's?
December 4, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now, that's not fair. Kash didn't say ALL Republicans are racists...he just said that there are SOME Republicans who are racists. And, based on this, I'd say he's right:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/derek-and-white-power-dominoes
December 4, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, since Palm Beach County's Republican Executive Committee is fighting to keep him out because he's a racist, I think it speaks more to my claim than y'all's.
December 4, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're trying to keep him off of the committee...that doesn't mean he's not a member of the party.
December 4, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you for making my point. There are sufficient smart and rational republicans who saw a moron like Palin and crossed party lines in key swing states. But there are also sufficient xenaphobes in that party who make a difference as well.
I'm not saying all republicans are racists, I'm saying there are enough to make a difference- especially in the south- who vote purely on the basis of xenophobia and ignorance.
Only in GA and couple of other states anyone can run a campaign like the one against Cleland and win in the first place.
December 4, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can accuse those who voted for Chambliss over Clelland of alot of things...since they were both white I'm not sure racism is one of them.
December 4, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cleland is an example for pure ignorance prevalent among sufficient voters in Georgia. I don't think it's racism but I do think GA is a breeding ground for identity and culture war politics.
December 4, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
If someone can conduct a poll, I'm sure even now 20-30% in a state like Georgia think Obama is a Muslim (Ignornace)and being a muslim makes him dangerous(xenophobia.)
December 4, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
...back to the generalization about racist Republicans. In 2004 62,040,610 people voted against John Kerry in 2008 59,607,259 people voted against Obama (even though, as he loved to remind us "he's black"). So, where is the dreaded "Bubba Vote?"
December 4, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I call bullshit. The fact that two candidates are white doesn't negate that racism could be a determining factor in an election.
December 4, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
If that's the case then I have to fall back on history, there have only been 5 Republican Senators from GA. Saxby is the only Republican ever reelected to the Senate from GA. Sonny is the first Republican Governor. With all those racist Republicans running around how did Democrats have such a strangle hold on the state?
December 4, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um... there was this thing called the Civil War.
And Abe Lincoln was a Republican.
You do the math.
-- ARG
December 4, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
In other words, the racists in the South were all Democrats for 100 years. Until President Johnson and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Duh.
-- ARG
December 4, 2008 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I keep hearing that B.S. It is clear GOP has been the party against civil rights, gay rights, women's rights in the last forty years. Democratic party also has racists and xenophobes, but the party is progressing in the right direction and the impact of bigotry on the democratic party is farless.
December 4, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Then why did more Republicans vote against John Kerry than Obama? Again, where's the "Bubba Vote?"
December 4, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frankly, you're an idiot if you measure this by the skin of a candidate alone. What do you think of Gay Marraige?
December 4, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Personally, I think gay men and women have the same rights as straight men and women. Straight men can't legally marry eachother, nor can straigt women. Once you change the legal definition of marraige to include same sex marriage then I don't see the legal justification for outlawing polygamy.
December 4, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I rest my case.
December 4, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
So because I disagree with the legal justification for gay marriage I'm a racist and xenophobe?
December 4, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
...I guess I could be dumber than I realize but doesn't most racism stem from racial differences?
December 4, 2008 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
One can invoke a racist theme (implicitly, not explicitly) and energize one's base. See Reagan, R., Philadelphia, MS, 1980 and his discussion of "state's rights".
I don't think you need skin color differences between two candidates for racism to be utilized, any more than I think sexism against women is something demonstrated only by men.
The number of people saying "I'm not sexist. I'm a woman" on these boards in discussions about Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton was surprising.
December 4, 2008 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like Ferraro did ... just about the time Clinton needed a game changer.
December 4, 2008 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
There were 30 years between the 60's and the 90's...duh...what happened then?
December 4, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Once again, Kash never said ALL Repubs were racists. You are making a false argument.
Repubs in this state include evangelicals, libertarians, financial conservatives, and states-righters. It's not impossible for the RIGHT Dem to get elected in this state ON occassion by peeling some of these constituencies away, but it has gotten harder as the national GOP has relied more and more on the culture wars to paint Dems as "un-American" and "dangerous".
Surely you would admit that there are some racists in GA....who do you think they voted for? My guess is the guy up in Marietta who was selling the Obama as Curious George shirts voted for Chambliss. Just a hunch, though.
December 4, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just like Dems nash their teeth at the "un-American" tag I (and most Republicans) get the same reaction from the racist tag. There are racists everywhere, including all those racist Democrats y'all were beating up on in the West Virginia primary...
December 4, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
The racists and bigots make a lot more impact on the republican party than the democratic party. Palin is your rising symbol of ignorance and xenophobia- it's not a accident she's a rockstar in GA.
December 4, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know why y'all consider her ignorant...where's the xenophobia come from?
December 4, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Xenaphobes? People who are afraid of Lucy Lawless?
December 4, 2008 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well that's not me...Lucy's hot!
December 4, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shhhhh ... Do NOT show outrage at the RNC over this statement! This is EXACTLY what we want them to think!
The more the GOP remains as a party serving the small communities of radical religious right and social conservatives, the more that they will remain fenced in to the Appalachian mts, deep south and mid west.
BTW, in case you did not notice, that accounts for exactly 41 senators and only a handful of House repubs.
What a GREAT strategy! I hope the RNC does keep up the good work ...
December 4, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
What ever happened to Ken Mehlmann?
-- ARG
December 4, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
It reinforces the notion that the South is full of ignorant fools. We should have let them go back in the 1860's.
December 4, 2008 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
First words out of Shambliss' mouth is how willing he is to work with Obama as long as Obama doesn't do anything he disagrees with...like everything Obama will attempt to do. "Unless he tries to raise taxes...", he forgot to say "on the wealthy". Good ole boy republican wants it to seem like tax increase would be on the poor and middle class by lumping them in with those who make over $250,000/yr. You can't have 'bipartisanship' with liars who refuse to compromise on anything.
The RNC should just start wearing their clown make-up all the time. How ridiculous to suggest Georgia is a mandate for the country.
December 4, 2008 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink