My Sunday column

Saxby's challenge

The night of his relatively easy win over Democrat challenger Jim Martin. Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss sent out a “thank you” press release.
He offered his appreciation to voters for supporting him and to the alphabet soup of organizations — the RNC and the NRSC — who told him how to run his campaign. He also thanked the volunteers who worked for his re-election. Fair enough.
Then he got out the ladle and started dumping manure.
“Our victory tonight sends a strong message to Washington, D.C. that Georgia still cares about conservative values — but this win is only the beginning. We have a lot of work to do over the next six years and I’m proud to have the opportunity to ensure Georgia has a strong voice in the Senate.”
Where to start?
Chambliss is right when he says that Georgians (at least many of them) want a conservative voice in Washington. But the idea that he is an exemplar of a principled conservative — at least on economic matters — is absurd.
There’s not a spending bill in sight you can’t get Chambliss to sign off on if it includes an extra buck or two for peanut farmers. Chambliss is Santa Claus to the South Georgia farm interests, as proven by his “leadership” in teaming with equally rapacious Democrats to put together a $300 billion farm bill.
Archer Daniels Midland loved it I’m sure. They benefited from it enormously.
American consumers — not so much.
Chambliss was also a “leader” in efforts to milk billions from the federal treasury to pay for research and development of highly suspect biodiesel projects, the primary beneficiaries again being big money agricultural interests.
The last straw for me was the bailout bill. Chambliss soiled his armor like the rest of the Washington crowd and joined the panic.
Chambliss is Chambliss, clawing at the federal teat as desperately as any liberal Democrat in Washington. His mainstream opponent, Martin, campaigned primarily on an “I’m not Saxby Chambliss” strategy. Fair enough, but who the heck are you? Mostly he looked like the kind of hack politician that in a just world wouldn’t rise above serving on a local tree board.
Forget ‘em both.
I voted Libertarian in November. No apologies.
On Tuesday — with no one even close to my liking on the ballot — I slept late, went to work and then waited on the results to roll in.
Chambliss won easily.
Can’t say it was a surprise.
Barack Obama was too lily-livered to come to Georgia — a nasty slap in the face to the state’s Democrats, who worked hard for him this year.
The Martin campaign desperately needed a jolt of Obama’s energy, as it seemed to run out of steam in the final days before the vote. But Obama, smelling a defeat, steered clear. (I suspect it won’t be the last time the new president avoids a fight.)
Back to Chambliss, who in his brief victory remarks vowed to give Georgians “a strong voice in the Senate.”
Strong voices are a fine thing, but only if they deliver the right message. And now more than ever Georgians — all Americans in fact — need a strong voice for real free market-oriented fiscal conservatism, not the phony conservatism Chambliss has hawked the last six years.
Get off the teat and go to work.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen. He is what is popularly known as The Angry White Male.